Lecture Attendance

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Two of the six modules I'm taking this semester take attendance records. I don't attend lectures.

I'm fine with them taking attendance records, but when they send vaguely threatening emails along the lines of they may contact me/my tutor, I'm slightly confused.

From a general point of view, students shouldn't be made (or even expected) to attend lectures - they are optional, and more importantly we are the customer. One of my favorite lecturers last year had this view.

I, myself don't attend lectures for two reasons - the first is that I'm lazy, it's hard getting up in the morning when you don't have to (but it's much easier to get up for work when I know I have to be there), the second is that I don't/can't pay attention in lectures. There's just something about being sat in a large room and being passively talked at that doesn't sit well with me. I started off this semester going to all my lectures, and then I realised I don't pay any attention, so what's the point in me even leaving? I also look around in lectures and see a lot of people half asleep (occasionally fully asleep), so I think to myself: "What's the point in turning up?" There is none. I don't try to make myself feel less guilty by turning up to lectures and sleeping through them - there's absolutely no point whatsoever in doing that.

My method of learning (which worked for first year - 81% overall average), is use the lecture notes as a reference point and use:

• Copy out the lecture notes
• Youtube
• Coursera
• Khan Academy
• Wikipedia
• Textbooks
• Ebooks
• Other lecture notes
• Implement the algorithms myself
• Flashcards

Which actually forces me to learn to the content as it's not passive learning but active learning, so much more information remains in my head, and, since its not just the content in the lecture notes, I am reading around the subject thus getting a lower level of understanding. And that lower level approach is even recommended by Don Knuth:

But yeah, just a little ramble/light rant about how lack of attendance to lectures doesn't mean I don't care.

A prime example is my Java module - 50% attendance, yet 100% in the practicals so far. Programming can definitely not be taught passively.

I think the best example of active learning I've had throughout my life was my A Level maths, we'd cover a section of a topic and then do practice questions. Everything stuck in my head so much better, and you actually know how it works.

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