[game_edu] curious

[Steve Rabin]

I'll address some of the concerns about the Fibonacci Attendance Policy that several people have raised:

1. I have one of the highest rated classes at DigiPen and normally my attendance rate before the Fibonacci scheme was about 45 out of 50 (so overall very good). However, there are a handful of students who don't take coming to class seriously and the Fibonacci scheme is the motivation they need. As a result, it's now on average 49 out of 50 and about 1/2 of the time 50 out of 50.

2. I only have 14 classes a semester (they are 3-hour classes) so missing an entire 3-hour class is a BIG DEAL. It really hurts them if they miss, so this just makes it more tangible to some students. I really don't want someone passing the class if they miss 1/3 of the classes, thus the Fibonacci scheme ensures that. Also, I don't want to give away a freebie missed class to every student, because each and every class is important since there aren't that many of them.

3. I've decided that the primary value from taking the class is hearing the lecture and participating in-class. I don't require a book, so if they miss a class, all they have is the PowerPoint. Thus, I need to ensure that students come to class for their own benefit. So if I really believe this, I need a very large incentive to come. Also, I know from experience that students who miss 3 or more classes tend to fail or barely pass (without figuring in any attendance penalty), so the Fibonacci scheme helps keep them from shooting themselves in the foot by missing classes. My failure rate is now lower after implementing the Fibonacci scheme.

4. If students mess up bad early on, they usually drop the class. Good. They can try again next semester when they're ready to take the class seriously. Also, it's better for them to mess up early and get out, rather than go 1/2 of the way through and then realize that they will fail.

After teaching for 8 years, it's pretty clear to me that you need strict policies to keep students from sabotaging themselves. Again, this is only needed for the 5-10% of students who don't take the class seriously or are accustom to skipping class.

The only reason I originally wrote about this attendance scheme is because I was floored at how well it worked. I get almost full attendance every class and fewer students are failing. What teacher doesn't want that???

-Steve




From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ian Schreiber
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 1:57 PM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] curious

I hate taking attendance. It's one more administrative task (as if I don't have enough grades to keep track of) and sends the message that showing up is somehow related to their skill at designing games (or whatever it is that I'm teaching). Generally if students miss class, they're going to miss material that will ultimately lower their grade on exams or projects anyway (unless they really apply themselves outside of class to catch up, or unless they already possess the skills I'm trying to teach, in which case it'd be a waste of their time to show up to class anyway and I wouldn't want to penalize them just because my own teaching skills are not sufficient to make class time worth their while). If attendance is low that can actually be a useful metric for me - it lets me know when I'm not providing sufficient interest/value to overcome students' class-aversion that they've learned over the last 16 years of "education"...

Strangely, I wouldn't be as concerned about someone missing an early class and being saddled with lost points forever - the same would be true if they lost points on the first homework, or failed to turn it in or something. With a progressive penalty, at least it doesn't REALLY start to hurt until you've missed a few, and by that point maybe the student should think of dropping anyway. (For schools I've been at that had a required attendance policy, usually students could miss something in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 classes per term, any more than that and they'd either be auto-failed or auto-dropped. So Fibonnaci numbers are in line with that, at least.)

Another method for high attendance that I remember Brenda talking about at a conference one year: when teaching her applied game design class, about half way through the course (after covering design of core mechanics) there was an abrupt switch to designing from narrative. She did this by essentially turning the class into a tabletop RPG, starting with the narrative that was happening to the students' characters, and making up rules on an as-needed basis. Perfect attendance from that point on - no one wanted their PC to be at the mercy of the professor in their absence ;-)

- Ian

________________________________
From: Maria Droujkova <droujkova at gmail.com<mailto:droujkova at gmail.com>>
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org<mailto:game_edu at igda.org>>
Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2012 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: [game_edu] curious

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Steve Rabin <Stevera at noa.nintendo.com<mailto:Stevera at noa.nintendo.com>> wrote:

 Here is something that I developed in the last year that I just have to share because it works so amazingly (perhaps more related to psychology than gamification):

96%-98% class attendance guaranteed!
It's the Fibonacci Attendence Policy of Doom (TM).
If a student is absent 1 time, they get a 2% deduction to their final class grade.
If a student is absent a 2nd time, they get an additional 3% deduction (total 5% at this point)

I have two big concerns about this. Maybe it feels better than it looks in an email? I would like to hear more.

First, it's overall punitive, so it can undermine the trust between the students and the professor.

Second, if someone messes up in the beginning of the class, they may as well give up, because they can't catch up at all. The points are lost forever.

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
919-388-1721

Make math your own, to make your own math

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