The Issue of Absences and a Possible Solution

How many times have you missed a class because you were sick, had an appointment, had another commitment, had work, or were simply not feeling like going to class that day? Well what if there was an app that could help you keep track of all your absences so that you don't miss too many days in your classes or so that you can be sure to miss just the right amount. The Course Connect app promises to do just that.

First, this group, like many others, started off by presenting some facts about how often people miss class as well as their reasons for missing class. Based on the reasons that were given in the presentation, it seems that most people skip class for what most people might consider a "bad" reason. And, the information also pointed out that an overwhelming majority of college students have skipped class. These students' skipping class then makes it easier for them to procrastinate. It also leads to a failure of communication between the the skipping student and his or her classmates as well as his or her professor. Ultimately, both these things are then likely to cause a student's grades to drop.

So, this is where this group's app comes into play. The apps main purpose seems to be to make it easier for a student to keep up with his or her absences in each class. It does this by having each student provide his or her student id number and then accessing their schedule. The app, however, doesn't stop at being able to keep track of absences. The app can also access a student's Moodle and display that student's grades. As well as show important events and due dates that may be coming up for that student. From this app, a student could also access important documents and information that may be uploaded by a professor.

Now, the main problem with this is that this app is that there is no guarantee that a professor will keep track of most of this information. So, the app would then be meaningless, and would only be useful for keeping track of absences. And, although it is useful to keep track of your absences, one could simply type up a document or get out a sheet of paper and pen and keep track of their absences in each class on their own. On the flip side, if all professors were to use Moodle, this app, other than the attendance tracker, would become obsolete because Moodle is a mobile friendly website that is already run by the school.