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Students at Northern Arizona University will have a hard time skipping large classes next fall because of a new attendance monitoring system.
The new system will use sensors to detect students’ university identification cards when they enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will be recorded and available for professors to examine.
I would understand that for elementary, high school, etc. but not at university level.
Is really that hard for the instructor to call attendance 5 mins. at the beginning of every class? What happens if the student is not having the card that day? (At least where I study, we are required student ID or driver's license, and only on special occasions).
In the end, college students are supposed to be adults and they are paying to be there. Shouldn't attendance be at their discretion?
I would understand that for elementary, high school, etc. but not at university level.
Is really that hard for the instructor to call attendance 5 mins. at the beginning of every class? What happens if the student is not having the card that day? (At least where I study, we are required student ID or driver's license, and only on special occasions).
In the end, college students are supposed to be adults and they are paying to be there. Shouldn't attendance be at their discretion?
Ugh. But if the lectures are that terrible that a chunk of students are skipping class. Then maybe they should improve their customer service and topics....just a thought. This new monitoring idea is a little fascist. I'd definitely pick another college. A mix of online and on-campus courses is the best way to learn IMHO. Sheesh.
I had classes with over 800 students. Attendance was taken every class by 3 TA's whole sole job was to monitor that 10 or so sign in sheets were going around smoothly.
I agree that it should be up to you whether or not you come to class. With that said, the professors have a right to deduct your grade if you're not showing up.
The questions I have concerns the students' ID cards. What if a student forgets to bring their ID but shows up to class? What if a student's ID is warped and doesn't work with the sensor system? What if a student brings the ID card of another students who decides to skip class to cover for them?
It is Arizona - the state that not only had the brains to make it illegal to be an illegal immigrant, but has also recently fired bi-lingual English teachers who's native language is Spanish (even though they were deemed perfectly capable when hired), and is currently trying to ban ethnic-studies from its school districts - what do you expect?
Besides, I am sure parents would love to know if their kids are going to class everyday, let alone tracking what times the leave and enter campus.
For starters, I guarantee there will be people sharing cards with friends--you know, take my ID card with you to class and I'll do your homework for this other class. So it won't accurately reflect attendance.
Second, is this an automatic sensor or something the students swipe? If the latter, it sounds like a time-waster. Waiting for an entire lecture hall to swipe their cards past a card reader will take away valuable lecture time. It certainly can't be done in the ten-minute passing period allowed between classes on most campuses.
If its an automatic thing, there's no way for the student to guarantee that their ID has been detected. They could be attending every class but if the ID card has become damaged or is tucked too far into their bag, they may have no idea that their attendance is going unnoticed.
As the article states--other universities have tried this and it doesn't seem to really work as intended.
You're right. But this must not be a new problem, so I'm sure there are systems already to take care of attendance in those cases. (Someone mentioned TA's before lectures). And it's easy to request a classmate to take your card for you one day, etc. I'm still not convinced that's a good idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by miamiman
I agree that it should be up to you whether or not you come to class. With that said, the professors have a right to deduct your grade if you're not showing up.
That's true.
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