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I teach graduate courses on information systems. This fall, I’m teaching two undergraduate sections of an entry-level computer science course about Microsoft Office.

I’ve been polishing up my syllabus, and writing a very short policy about Internet use in the classroom. Cara Finnegan, an associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, describes student usage of email, the web and mobile phones during class time as a problem of divided attention, and posted this policy in an article on her blog entitled The syllabus it is a-changing:

“If you aren’t using it to perform a task specifically related to what we are doing in class at that very moment, put it away.”

It’s an excellent policy. Classroom time is limited, and students need to pay attention to what is happening. At the same time, instructors should plan an interesting and engaging series of activities for each class meeting. A well-planned session will help reduce the temptation for students to whip out their cell phone or check their email.

In the past, I’ve reminded students that the classroom computers and the wireless networks are monitored by university IT staff. It’s a good point of discussion when the class is studying network security or phishing. But more students are coming to class with mobile data cards in their laptops, or smartphones that use the mobile phone network. An Internet “kill switch” on the instructor’s podium might control the classroom’s connection to the university network, but they won’t disrupt a wireless connection.

It’s a classroom, not a lunchroom

Students often complain about arbitrary rules and inconvenient procedures. These rules have a variety of purposes, but they do help us identify students who can’t or won’t follow instructions.

I continue to include eating in my policy, especially when my courses meet in the Frear Center. My university has posted a strict no eating and drinking policy in that building for the last 6 years, but many instructors and students outside my college choose to ignore the rule.

I’ve heard a wide variety of stories and excuses. Some students have claimed they have never encountered a similar rule at their other schools. That might be true, but I’ve seen “no food and beverage in the classroom” policies at every university that I’ve worked at or attended.

At times, I’ve seen students smuggle in food and then lie about what they had done. Lying to a security guard seems like a poor idea, especially when the guards are supposed to keep homeless people and lost tourists out of the classroom building.

Students who bring in their own food usually don’t consider that their classmates or instructor might be allergic to an ingredient in the food. I’ve often wondered what would happen if a teacher had to cancel an in-class exam because they were allergic to peanuts.

My university has relied upon instructors to remind students about these policies. It boggles my mind when some students fail to understand that these same instructors might be grading their assignments and exams.

I do my best to be courteous when I remind students about these policies. I have less patience for my fellow faculty members who ignore these policies  or encourage students to flaunt the rules.

Other readings

Finnegan cites a New York Times article as an inspiration for her policy. The closest article was published on 23 March 2008 and called The tension builds (It’s almost Monday) - not the 25th as Finnegan claims in her post. That article discusses the digital leash that employees willing wear during the weekend as they cheek their work-related email and messages.

Delaney Kirk briefly discussed Finnegan’s article in a post called Put Your Policy On Texting, Emailing, Or Surfing During Class On Your Syllabus.

Related articles on billso.com

• 14 July 2008: Rising gas prices fuel online course enrollments
• 12 June 2008: Do kids and students need cell phones?
• 6 January 2008: What are we learning?
• 27 May 2007: Cell phones and instructors

I’ve seen only 4 Macs at the 2008 Academy of Management conference. There’s free WiFi in the conference lobbies, and I’ve been using it to check my EMBA course and grade the final assignments.

The vast majority of these management professors and doctoral students use Windows laptops, Outlook and Microsoft Office as they study their papers and PowerPoint slides one last time before their sessions. 

I helped one of these users connect to the conference’s free wireless network. It’s just another day of ad hoc user support for Bill Sodeman, professor and CIO.

If I get more questions, I may set out a tip jar.

In the meantime, it’s fun to watch the parade of growl notifications that Little Snitch displays on my Mac.

“What would be the harm in doing away with the S.A.T.?”

Kim Fassler, who writes the Quarterlife Cafe blog for the Honolulu Advertiser, posted an article on July 10th called Demise of the Evil S.A.T.? in which she asked and answered that question. A few colleges are making the SAT optional for undergraduate applicants, including Wake Forest. See this New York Times blog post called The Growing Backlash Against the SAT. 

Speaking as a faculty member, we need standardized testing in the admissions process. It’s difficult to compare high school GPAs, as they can vary widely or similar students, even within a school district.

Standardized tests like the SAT can help students who perform better on an exam than they do in the classroom. The SAT is only one factor in most admissions decisions, after all. 

Kim also mentioned another major reason for standardized testing. It is a sieve in the admissions process. Without standardized tests, university admissions officers might be flooded with applications from marginal students who are willing to pay their application fee and take their chances.   

It’s not supposed to be easy to get into a university.Student should comepte for a spot, because they’ll be competing to enter specific programs and graduate with their degree.

Back in 2000, I wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times about high school graduation requirements, which were very strict 100 years ago. See my published letter called Standardized Students: Protesting a Test.  

We need graduate admissions exams, too

Kim hasn’t delivered on her promised column about the GRE, but most of what I’ve written above applies to graduate and professional school entrance exams, including the GMAT, LSAT and MCAT. It’s interesting that the GMAT will try a biometric identification method in 450 VUE testing centers in South Korea and India. I’m assuming that cheating has been an issue for the GMAT in those countries.

The GMAT exam is used in the MBA admissions process at many universities, and has a more focused approach than the GRE. I took it myself in October 1985. Of course, the exam didn’t cost US$250 back then. 

This Wall Street Journal article by John Hechinger called Business Schools Try Palm Scans To Finger Cheats has more details and a good graphic of palm vein scanning, which captures more data than a fingerprint scan.

The SAT doesn’t use biometrics yet, probably because there are many more test-takers each year than for the graduate exams. ETS claims that the cheating rate on the SAT is 0.1%, which seems like an underestimate to me.

The LSAT uses paper copies of fingerprints, which are discarded after 5 years. 

Images courtesy of jackhynes and sonicbloom through a Creative Commons license.

Related articles on billso.com

• 2 July 2008: ScoreTop.com cheating scandal affects GMAT exam scores and MBA students

Jocelyn Kirsch may be sentenced to 6 years in a Federal prison for her role in a “brazen” identity theft ring. I posted this billso.com article, Philadelphia couple stole neighbors’ identities, on 3 December 2007. She plead guilty yesterday in a Federal courtroom in Philadephia.

She and her ex-boyfriend, Edward K. Anderton, use keys to raid their neighbors’ mailboxes in the Rittenhouse Square building where they lived. 

When investigators searched the couple’s four computers, they found vacation photos, invoices and more evidence that was used against the couple:

The pair deployed an increasingly sophisticated set of schemes to obtain more than $116,000 in goods and services and tried to obtain at least another $122,000 more, prosecutors said.

Anderton had previously plead guilty, and may receive a 5 year sentence on 19 September 2008. Kirsch is scheduled for sentencing on 17 October 2008. Her punishment may be more severe than Anderton’s because she continued to steal identities while she lived in northern California with her mother. Kirsch was waiting for her Philadelphia court dates at the time. 

See this Associated Press article, Student grifter admits $116K fraud in Pa. ID theft, for more information. 

The high cost of gasoline has created a surge in demand for online and hybrid courses. In a fully online course, the student doesn’t have to visit a campus or a classroom. In hybrid courses, students visit the classroom less frequently than in a traditional course. 

This New York Times article called High Cost of Driving Ignites Online Classes Boom offers some striking examples from students and academic administrators. No faculty members were interviewed for the article, even though administrators said they were assigning more faculty to teach online courses. 

I started teaching online courses in 2006, and I was posting web content for my courses back in 2003. I’ve found that an online course takes me about twice as much effort to develop and prepare as a F2F course. I can walk to my university office from my home, so I don’t really save any money by teaching online.

Universities should provide instructional design and technology support staff and resources to help instructors develop and publish successful course materials in an online environment. This doesn’t mean that the staff are teaching the courses. 

I started developing web sites back in 1995, but most faculty members in my generation are ill-equipped to develop their own sites. Most of us learned how to teach in classrooms, not on the web. The first time I ever used a Web browser was in 1994, a year after I earned my doctorate.

They have to rely on whatever resources their university provides for online learning. Newly minted doctoral students and retrained faculty have a better chance of succeeding in an online teaching environment. 

Image courtesy of Cali2Okie through a Creative Commons license.