Coming to class naked

Students are not likely to come to class naked—they seem to know that they need to be clothed to avoid the embarrassment of being unprepared. So why don’t they feel the same way about coming to class without reading and studying the assigned course material?

I like to encourage discussion in my classes, and often face the situation in which students come to class unprepared, causing problems with my carefully created plans to discuss, debate, or otherwise use the material in class activities. In such situations, I’ve thought about lecturing (which seems to encourage unpreparedness), cancelling class (which benefits no one), or kicking out those students who are unprepared (which should encourage them to prepare, but often doesn’t seem to).

I was discussing this situation with my brother, an experienced faculty member at York University in Canada. He suggested that I give the students a graded quiz either during class or the night before, asking questions about the material from the last class and the readings that are due.

So here are my questions:

- For those who teach—have you tried something like this? What were the results?
- For students—what do you think about this strategy?

What you say and do online DOES matter

Recruiters and HR professionals are checking online sources to learn about potential candidates. 85% say that positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions. 70% have rejected candidates based on information they found online. See the full story for types of sites used to research applicants and types of online reputational information that influenced decisions.

Types of sites used to research applicants:

• Search engines, video and photo sharing sites, professional and networking sites (>50%)
• Personal websites, blogs, twitter, online forums and communities, virtual world sites, online gaming sites (>25%)

Types of online reputational information that influenced decisions to reject a candidate:

• Concerns about the candidate's lifestyle, inappropriate comments and text written by the candidate, unsuitable photos, videos, and information (>50%)
• Inappropriate comments or text written by friends or relatives, comments criticizing former employers, co-workers, or clients, membership in certain groups or networks, poor communication skills displayed online (>25%)

The full report, commissioned by Microsoft, can be found here.