I think this idea of having illinibucks is very interesting. I believe it would teach students a way of dealing with an amount of capital (illinibucks in this case) and allocating it towards what their top priorities are.
Aside from the obvious one of students using these illinibucks to get first pick when it comes to classes and certain professors (I myself have never had a problem getting into the classes I wanted, I feel that the university has a very wide variety of choices of classes), I think that these illinibucks could be used for things such as exam and final times.
Taking 18 credit hours and having a part time job as a waiter, this idea of illinibucks being used for scheduling of exams and finals would come in great handy. No one likes being suck here at the end of fall semester because their exam is in the very last time slot while everyone else heads home or to some tropical destination halfway across the world. Illinibucks would be used to get an earlier time slot when it came to exams and finals. Aside from just wanting to leave school earlier, going back to this idea of using illinibucks to schedule exams, finals, or even homework, to be at different times to fit the schedules of many students who work and do not simply have only school to worry about.
Another area where this would come in great help would be when there is a family emergency, causing the student to have to go home abruptly. Instead of going through the dean and getting it all sorted out that way, you could use your illinibucks to be excused. Yes, there may not always be truth to these "family emergencies," but thats the beauty of this system, it gives students the freedom to allocate their illinibucks wherever that they feel is needed. Is it ethical? Maybe? You tell me.
And not to say that a student would be able to use these illinibucks a lot to get out of exams or homework if there were to be an emergency, I'd imagine that these sorts of things would require a lot of illinibucks. In my eyes, you would have enough illinibucks to spend on two major instances a semester, along with other things such as getting to the front of the line at the bookstore or maybe even using them on Jamba at the union. But if a student were to spend their illinibucks on lots of little things, they obviously would not have the capital to get out of an exam or big homework assignment if there were to be an emergency.
I believe that this would teach students a little how to budget for things in the future when they are out of the house and on their own, having to pay for rent, bills, and the occasional emergency. These illinibucks could be a "test" run for real life. Not saying things like getting to the front of the line at the bookstore, switching exam times around or having to go home for family emergencies are not important, but certainly not as serious as real life situations.
You have some novel uses for Illinibucks compared to your classmates. Nobody else has mentioned the scheduling of final exams, for example. I do know that many classes have the final optional, where if students have a good enough grade going in then they don't need to take the final. The university actually frowns on this practice. But if you recall, I said early in the semester that for a course like ours a final serves very little purpose. The course project and the blog posts are much more consistent with course goals. (BTW, you should come to class on Monday so you can be assigned to a project team, as well as to attend the review session for the exam on Wednesday.)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of using Illinibucks to influence deadlines is also an interesting idea. What you seem to want is a course that is self-paced. There are a few classes like this on campus, though not too many. In a self-pace course you turn in the work when you are ready to do so and likewise take tests when you are ready (subject to any capacity constraints for administering such an exam). I took multivariable calculus in a self-paced mode when I was a freshman. It can work, but it would also seem to require more maturity of the student, so the student doesn't procrastinate and then fall behind.
As far as learning budgeting, I'm under the impression that many students learn this by living in an apartment and managing the expenses that go along with that. Do you think otherwise, so Illinibucks usage would be a good additional experience for this purpose?
You are totally right when it comes to this idea of self-paced courses and that students must keep up with deadlines and not fall behind. Like you said, a student has to be mature enough to keep up with current deadlines and not fall behind in their school work. There are so many classes out there (at UIUC and outside of it) that hold student's hands the entire semester, making sure they know exactly what is due when by sending emails directly to each of them to make sure they do not fall behind. But what is that teaching them? Nothing. In the real world, employers are not always going to send emails to you, making sure you know exactly what is coming up next (deadlines, big presentations to clients, etc.)
DeleteTo comment on your comment about if Illinibucks would help students budget better, yes, many students live in apartments where they have bills and everyday expenses, but this thing is, who is actually paying for those bills and everyday expenses? I know tons of students who do not have to pay for anything, even if they are living off campus in an apartment because their parents are flipping the bill. For example, my roommate last year had to pay for rent, water, electric, but all of these bills were linked up to his parent's accounts. And when it came to living expenses, he used his parents credit cards. In a case like this, Illinibucks may come in handy because at least these types of students would get to budget something that is actually theres.