Why go to class? Just go online

Even friends' notes no longer needed

Skipping classes, particularly big lectures where an absence can go undetected, is a tradition among college undergraduates who party late or swap notes with friends.

These days, professors are witnessing a spurt in absenteeism as an unintended consequence of technology.

Last semester, Americ Azevedo's class on Introduction to Computers at the University of California, Berkeley, featured some of the hottest options in educational technology.

By visiting the course's Web sites, the 200 students could download audio recordings or watch digital videos of the lectures, as well as read the instructor's lecture notes and participate in online discussions.

But there was one problem: So many students relied on the technology that, at times, only 20 or so actually showed up for class.

"It was demoralizing," Azevedo said. "Getting students out of their media bubble to be here is getting progressively harder."

Even as many academics embrace electronic innovations, others are pushing back. To deter no-shows, professors are reverting to low-tech tactics such as giving more surprise quizzes or slashing online offerings.

"Too much online instruction is a bad thing," said Terre Allen, a communication studies scholar at California State University, Long Beach.

Last term, Allen posted extensive lecture notes online for her undergraduate course, Language and Behavior. One goal was to relieve students of the burden of scribbling notes, freeing them to focus on the lectures' substance.

Yet the result, Allen said, was that only about one-third of her 154 students showed up for most lectures. In the past, when Allen put less material online, 60 percent to 70 percent of students typically would attend.

Allen said that to curb "the absentee approach to college," she won't put her lecture notes online this term.

'Podcasting'

When it comes to lectures with enrollment in the hundreds, universities usually don't compel undergraduates to show up, or lower their grades for poor attendance.

Doug Suda, 19, a student in Azevedo's UC Berkeley class last semester, said he skipped about three-quarters of the lectures because of his off-campus job. At the end of the term, he crammed for the final exam by watching videos of the lectures over three days.

"If I hadn't had that, ... I would have probably failed the class," said Suda, who received a B-plus.

Statistics on class-skipping are scarce. But a University of California, Los Angeles, survey of freshmen at 142 schools found that 33 percent said they skipped occasionally. (The survey, conducted last fall, also found that 43 percent were bored and 58 percent had fallen asleep in class.)

Despite concerns about absenteeism, schools increasingly are experimenting with ways to let students watch or listen to lectures on their computers or digital music players, such as Apple's iPod. Last month, Harvard Medical School began "podcasting" lectures that its students can download onto digital music players.

Teaching experts say Internet-era instructors have to change tactics to combat boredom and absenteeism. Azevedo, who last semester became the first UC Berkeley instructor to teach a podcast course, said he is working to enliven his lectures with material and interaction that students can't get online. He wants to move to a Socratic teaching method and foster more discussion, while using technology to relay basic information.