This report, from EDUPAGE, discusses a drop in attendance as lecture notes are posted on-line. The pop quiz response seems totally wrong. Rather than threatening the students, why not recognize that they can learn much of the material without hearing it live in a classroom. How can the classroom time be used to enhance learning? If the time is valuable, the students will attend, in my opinion.
SOME FACULTY SEE DOWNSIDE OF TECHNOLOGY
Despite the obvious benefits of putting lecture materials online, some faculty have seen a sharp rise in absenteeism that results from students' having access to class content over their computers. Terre Allen, a communication studies scholar at Cal State Long Beach, said that when she posted most of her notes online, attendance in her classes dropped from about 65 percent to only about 35 percent. "Too much online instruction is a bad thing," she said. Faculty at other institutions have reported similar drops in attendance when lecture notes are available on the Web, and many have adjusted their approach to teaching in an attempt to deal with the change. Some, like Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at UCLA, only post selections from lecture notes. Others have resorted to giving more pop quizzes, including test questions that specifically are not covered in the notes posted online, and offering extra credit to students who show up for class.
Los Angeles Times, 17 January 2006
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-noshow17jan17,1,3883942.story
