Under pressure to prove the value of sky-high tuition fees, many colleges are getting tough on classroom attendance. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a series of new measures colleges are trying, including tagging students electronically, secret filming lecture halls, and—the most draconian of all—rules requiring attendance.
Now researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology have another idea to keep students in line: an app that replaces the dull process of roll-calling. It could make attendance-tracking easier and free up more time for learning.
“It’s too tedious if I use roll-calling,” says Zhaozheng Yin, the assistant professor of computer science who came up with the idea. “My class is about 40 students. It will take a few minutes and the students find it boring. It’s maybe 10% of the total [class] time.”
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Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!