I recently came up with this computer policy idea. After observing some very disruptive and disrespectful behaviour this term, and my past observations about how many students do online shopping, watching videos, and chatting with their friends on their computer, I am going to use the following computer policy in the future.
(1) All students will by default get full “participation mark” (say 7%). They don’t need to do anything. They don’t even need to show up.
(2) However, they will lose participation marks if they are disruptive and/or disrespectful in class, such as:
(i) using their computer for purposes unrelated to the course (e.g. online shopping) [this is very distracting to everyone sitting behind this person]
(ii) refusing to participate in in-class learning activities;
(iii) chatting [the noise is very disruptive].
(3) Of course I will not enforce it the first time I’ve seen someone do it. I will give them plenty of warnings before giving any penalties.
The main reason for this computer policy is to minimize disruptive behaviour. Students must know that other people are distracted by their videos and moving images on their computer screen. If someone is not going to pay attention in class but will instead be distracting other people, I’d rather that they don’t come at all. The interests of those who do want to pay attention in class should be given preference. Hence there is no attendance mark and everyone gets full participation mark by default.
