Northern Arizona University To Use RFID Tags to Monitor Student Attendance

So one guy goes in holding several ids on a rotating basis. Costly to implement something that takes less time to break than to read about.

If your in college do you really need to be babysat? if you dont go to class you dont learn, and will do bad on the test. and if you still pass the tests, than you didnt need to go to class. teach the kids responsibility not how to be a baby.

Sounds like Arizona, next thing you know they will require hispanics to wear it

It's just another way to take roll. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. If instructors take roll currently by calling students' names or by having them sign-in, this just automates that process.

Are students also going to protest because the teacher calls their name out loud at the beginning of class to determine if they are there?

fact is, your paying for the classes(large sums of money). if you dont wanna go to class, why pay for them? why even take roll? its going to increase the cost of college unnecessarily for the students who go to class all the time anyways

What's everyone so afraid of? Just show up for class and you'll be fine.

@greg
thats like the worst possible excuse. So if a law is passed that you have to wear red jackets or go to jail, its fine? cause as long as you wear a red jacket your fine? no.
now thats a bit of a stretch sure, but it applies just the same

The only way this will not be hacked is by implanting the chips into the kids. This way buddy swipes are impossible, unless you have the other persons hand with you. And if they do, you should probably call the police.

However!! There is one more possibility that might arise. Some one might go to the extent of bringing their own reader and scan other student's chips and duplicate them. So now you'll have to implement chip plus, retina, plus finger print scanning at the door to really guarantee identity and attendance.

Everything is going e-learning online anyways. Why travel when you can learn from your office/dorm at your own time and pace.

Not afraid of it, but this is a dumb idea -- it will be beaten by the designated mules (funny if 300 kids are reported, but there's only 1 person in class )

If they are that insistent, have random quizzes -- if you don't turn in a quiz, you probably aren't there!

Otherwise, have NEW tests each class year to discourage copying and validate that that exam takers are the actual students.

Wait, what? Say that again.

"...the intent is to encourage professors to incorporate attendance into grading systems. More frequent attendance leads to higher grades, the university says."

What problem do they think they're solving? If frequent attendance is known to lead to higher grades then attendance already factors into grading systems before the introduction of this policy.

um well im sure that the parents paying for the kids classes would be warm to this idea. knowing they arnt wasting thier money on a little drunkerd. im sure they can have the id scanner at the professors desk, so if some idiot wants to bring xtra id badges he wont be able to swipe them all. now if the students that skip go as far as having some random person sit in for them. cant see that happing too much

Where I graduated from, on our ID cards there was a scan strip like on the back of a credit card. In our case, the card held "flex" dollars and allowed one's entry into the dorms and class buildings(We engineering students tended to be there much later than 7). If class attendance is so important, and it is, why don't they just swipe the card and have the "perfect" attendance be an incentive to a boost to the final GPA in the class. Not all students that attend every class are 4.0 types. Also, why do all this and raise the cost of attendance by creating an unnecessary yearly expense, use the money for more scholarships.

You get out of the class what you put into it. Just being there doesn't mean you learn.....it's not quite that simple. Some professors have trouble speaking clear English at some of the campuses I've been to. Talk about distracting and putting one to sleep. Yea, RFID chips tell if you were there....but plenty can get exceptional grades without that kind of intrusion.

I don't see the problem. Teachers take attendance, this is no different than calling out the name and having the student say, "Here".

The student still has what ever freedoms they had before, if they don't want to go to class, they don't have to. If the professor decides that attendance is part of the grade, then they can certainly fail the student for feeling that they don't need to go to class.

If the students don't think that they have to show up for classes, what are they going to do when they get real jobs?

big brother is just getting us ready.... they do things in small steps, so that you are used to it. start with college attendance, then use it for other things, and before you know it, people will be willing to do it for all sorts of reasons. when things are done in phases, less people complain.

this article by the way is also posted on government tech website.....

Everyone is focused on how attendance affects grades...no one seems to realize that grades affect the school's ranking. Naturally they're going to do things to increase the chance of getting more graduates with better GPA's.

That said, I think I'll have to vomit after reading this article. This is a waste of money that the students will pay for in the long run.

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