Comment Problem has been solved. (Score 1) 601
If truancy is your problem, the only thing you can do is make attendance a part of the grade. Now, this isn't high school, and presumably the students are adults, so if they want to skip class, no skin off of your nose. It's their money.
But if you want to make them want to come to class, dump the boring lectures. It doesn't matter how they're delivered, in person or by iPod, it's the same boring lecture. Maybe in some of the sciences, where all you are doing is pushing rote learning that's the only way to do it, especially with those 100 person introductory classes, but otherwise, make the classes smaller, dump the lectures in favor of labs and discussions and symposiums and engage the student in really brain stretching, not brain filling.
But if you want to make them want to come to class, dump the boring lectures. It doesn't matter how they're delivered, in person or by iPod, it's the same boring lecture. Maybe in some of the sciences, where all you are doing is pushing rote learning that's the only way to do it, especially with those 100 person introductory classes, but otherwise, make the classes smaller, dump the lectures in favor of labs and discussions and symposiums and engage the student in really brain stretching, not brain filling.
