Thursday
July 29, 2010
Should attending class be optional?
Pop quizzes, a reduction in one’s grade and extra credit: all creative solutions pouring from minds of professors into classroom policies across the nation in an attempt to boost classroom attendance.
Here at Indiana Wesleyan University, our attendance policy is rigid. Professors differ on the levels of grace that are granted to students. Some classes offer no lenience, some let one unexcused absence slide, some three and rarely students come across a professor who does not view attendance as a determining factor of one’s grade at all.
Most of the time, unexcused absences outside of the defined grace area result in a student’s grade being docked.
This is how our school has chosen to handle the issue of the attendance policy, but many universities disagree.
At Case Western Reserve University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, attendance is not required. In fact, along with posting slide shows and notes online, some teachers go as far as to include a video of their lectures as well!
Is there even any reason to go to class?
Case Western sophomore, Nick Seifert, says that there is. Usually there are quizzes or things within the class that prove to be a benefit of actually attending, although he admits to skipping occasionally. Having the lectures at one’s fingertips aids immensely in studying and being sure that you didn’t miss any material in your notes, he said.
So what is the balance here? It seems to me that as we transition into our adult years in college, and are faced with the responsibilities of figuring out our own loans, living situations and futures, we should be capable of handling a decision as simple as whether or not to go to class.
But the debate surrounding attendance policies rages in universities nationwide.
Surveys and studies conducted at both the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at Berkeley have proven that in recent years class attendance has indeed declined. In Los Angeles, it was estimated that in a particular class, an average of 80 percent of enrolled students attended in the 1990s. Now, only an estimated 40 to 50 percent attend.
Many professors take offense when students skip their class, but Patricia Hawley, an assistant professor of psychology at Kansas State University, has adopted a different mindset.
“When I was in college, I had a life,” said Hawley. “I had emergencies and jobs. This isn’t a fun time for all students. They aren’t cutting class because they’re drinking or going to frat parties. They are adults. Sometimes life intervenes.”
Many methods have been adopted throughout the years by professors and universities regarding attendance. The question really comes down to whether it is the institution’s responsibility to enforce students to take advantage of what they are paying for. But that is just it: we are paying for our education and I believe that it should be ours to take advantage of.
I do not support classes being structured in a way that condones absenteeism by enabling students to gain just as much online as they would have gained being present in a class. If a class is run well, there will be an obvious benefit gained by being present for the lecture or presentations. If we skip, it should hurt us as students, but we should have ability to make that decision for ourselves.
It is frustrating to spend a whole semester writing papers, studying for tests and going to almost every class, just to accidently sleep through an alarm and be deducted the points that you have so faithfully fought for.
But perhaps this argument could be taken even a step farther.
John Marlin from the College of St. Elizabeth wrote on www.insidehighered.com, “As one of my colleagues put it, education is the only commodity for which hardly anyone demands his money’s worth.”
But really, what are we paying for? Are we paying for an education or a certification? Is “getting our money’s worth” accomplished by truly learning or simply making it to graduation day?
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