Asking the students to stop using the devices during lectures

[kerprof]

I am teaching hands on Computer Science related course. My classroom is not traditional one. The classroom is a more of lab setting based with pods of tables/chair  around the room where the students sit. As an instructor,  I stands in the middle of the room and deliver lectures.

During the second week of the class, I asked the students to stop using the laptop. However, few mentioned they want to take notes using laptop and that I need to let them use the laptop. So, I started letting them use the laptops. However, many of the students who use laptops seem to be engrossed in their laptop/devices with something else and not participate in the class, when I am demoing the concepts / give the lectures.

So, going forward I am planning to ask the students not to use their laptops during the lectures/demo sessions and can start using it when I instruct them to use the laptops.


Please advise if this is a right approach to address this classroom management issue. Also could you provide any other suggestions to address this issue.

[Langue_doc]

It's probably too late to address this issue with this particular class.

I have a "no electronics" policy which is clearly stated in the syllabus. I also have "Attendance and Participation" as one of the grading categories so there are consequences for checking their electronic devices.

You could try announcing at the beginning of class about the laptop policy (assuming that you have such a policy).

You could also see how these students are performing in your class. You could email the students concerned about their failing scores, linking these scores to their not paying attention in class. You could also point out in their mid-term evaluations how their being engrossed in their laptops is contributing to their performance.

Pre-pandemic, when I taught in-person classes, I would have to remind students to put away their electronics. For the most part, the students were in compliance, but this was because the syllabus was clear about the policy and the consequences for violating this policy.

[downer]

There's no perfect approach. It will partly depend on the class size and how compliant the students are. It can also depend on your relationship with the students.

It can be hard work enforcing a policy against students who don't follow it.

My main concern is about students on their laptops distracting the students around them. Apart from that these days, I just give them some recommendations and let them make their own decisions. Their failure is not my problem. It isn't high school.

[lightning]

Y'know. If the class is so easy that they think that they don't have to pay attention to your delivery of content and still pass the class, then it's time to give them a reason to pay attention. Design the course and assessments in such a way that if they aren't engaged, they won't understand the material well enough to pass a test.

[kaysixteen]

That approach would work well, in theory, but the problem would be for an adjunct who knows or at least strongly suspects that he would be held accountable for student failures amongst those students who could not be bothered to pay attention and put away the gizmos.

[sinenomine]

I teach in similarly laid out classrooms, and I walk around as I teach. Students are less likely to mess around with non-course activities on their computers, and the rest of them are indeed taking notes with them.

[the_geneticist]

The "no laptops" is not a battle you can win.  Many students like to type their notes.  Unless you are having them use software that is only available on the computers in the room, there is no reason to discourage personal laptop use.
Many of my students have the ADA accommodation of using a computer to take notes too.  You can't say "no laptops without accommodations" since that singles them out.
Just spend more time walking around the room, make the class more interactive, and remember that they are adults.  If they are incapable of paying attention and insist on playing Wordle/chatting on Discord/shopping for shoes in class, that is their problem.

[kaysixteen]

No, it really isn't 'their problem', esp if the professor is teaching a professional standards course or basic course teaching knowledge majors will have to obtain, whatever said major is.   Teachers have some responsibilities, and, of course, students' using electronics is also disruptive and disrespectful to their peers.   ADA accommodations are fine, and it can clearly be stated on day 1 that anyone not providing appropriate accommodations paperwork to the prof must not use laptops, phones, etc.   Period.   Students can be taught real pen and paper notetaking skills-- I have done this myself-- and then expected to use these skills.

[marshwiggle]

The "no laptops" is not a battle you can win.  Many students like to type their notes.  Unless you are having them use software that is only available on the computers in the room, there is no reason to discourage personal laptop use.

This is especially true because of this:

So, going forward I am planning to ask the students not to use their laptops during the lectures/demo sessions and can start using it when I instruct them to use the laptops.

If students are required to have laptops in the classroom for some of the work, then requiring that they be shut down, closed, etc. for the rest of the time makes things very complicated. (As one trivial example, there are vastly different times it takes for different laptops to boot up, and vastly different amounts of power consumption when in sleep mode so that what is reasonable and practical for one student will not be for another.)

[arcturus]

There's no perfect approach. It will partly depend on the class size and how compliant the students are. It can also depend on your relationship with the students.

It can be hard work enforcing a policy against students who don't follow it.

My main concern is about students on their laptops distracting the students around them. Apart from that these days, I just give them some recommendations and let them make their own decisions. Their failure is not my problem. It isn't high school.

This.

I teach in similarly laid out classrooms, and I walk around as I teach. Students are less likely to mess around with non-course activities on their computers, and the rest of them are indeed taking notes with them.

And this.

The main concern should be if their actions are distracting other students. The solution is to walk around the room, not "stand in the middle of the room and deliver lectures." If the students think that *you* might see what is on their screens, they are more likely to stay on task. If you see a student doing something very distracting (porn or video games), ask them (discreetly!) to see you after class. During that conversation, be certain to explain that the issue is that their actions are distracting to other students, NOT that they are not paying attention to the lecture (the latter is their choice).

[Caracal]

No, it really isn't 'their problem', esp if the professor is teaching a professional standards course or basic course teaching knowledge majors will have to obtain, whatever said major is.   Teachers have some responsibilities, and, of course, students' using electronics is also disruptive and disrespectful to their peers.   ADA accommodations are fine, and it can clearly be stated on day 1 that anyone not providing appropriate accommodations paperwork to the prof must not use laptops, phones, etc.   Period.   Students can be taught real pen and paper notetaking skills-- I have done this myself-- and then expected to use these skills.

You can do this. It's just not how I would prefer to use my capital in the classroom. My job is to teach students, not to make them learn and pay attention-which is good, because I can't do that. I am responsible for creating an environment in which learning can happen.

I try to think about classroom management issues within that distinction. I have reading quizzes and responses because it results in much better class discussions. I'm not trying to teach the students that they have to do the assigned reading-perhaps they will realize they do better in a course when they do the reading-but I'm not in charge of that part. Similarly, if a student is sitting in the middle of the class texting on their phone, it distracts me, it distracts other students and it tends to send the message that this is a perfectly reasonable and fine thing to do in class. If someone is all the way at the back of the room looking at their phone but I can't see it and they aren't in the line of sight of other students...I'm not really inclined to intervene.

Since this does seem like an issue that is a problem for you and other students, I'd address it in those terms. I'd Say something like:
"I understand a lot of you take notes on your laptops-that's fine, but I've noticed people getting distracted and doing other things on their computers. I get it-if you have the computer in front of you, it's really easy to think you'll just check one thing and the next thing you know you've gone down some rabbit hole. However, that distracts other students and it makes it really hard for us to learn stuff and have a useful class. Besides, its obviously not going to result in you learning the material when you're distracted the whole class. So, if you have your computer open, just keep it on the notes page-if its too much of a temptation maybe just put the computer away and write notes by hand. I don't want to ban computers, but I do need to make sure everyone can pay attention-and they don't have some weird cat video playing in front of them."

Then do make a point to wander around more and if you see people with something else open, just ask them to close it. Some students will still screw around, but they will probably do so more surreptitiously and the more conscientious ones will stop.

[marshwiggle]

No, it really isn't 'their problem', esp if the professor is teaching a professional standards course or basic course teaching knowledge majors will have to obtain, whatever said major is.   Teachers have some responsibilities, and, of course, students' using electronics is also disruptive and disrespectful to their peers.   ADA accommodations are fine, and it can clearly be stated on day 1 that anyone not providing appropriate accommodations paperwork to the prof must not use laptops, phones, etc.   Period.   Students can be taught real pen and paper notetaking skills-- I have done this myself-- and then expected to use these skills.

You can do this. It's just not how I would prefer to use my capital in the classroom. My job is to teach students, not to make them learn and pay attention-which is good, because I can't do that. I am responsible for creating an environment in which learning can happen.

This is the thing. The big change from teaching children to teaching adults is that with children, much of the effort is regulating the input; i.e. getting them to sit up straight, follow the rules, etc. When teaching adults, the focus is on evaluating the output; i.e. seeing that what they produce has filled the requirements.

Covid has created an unprecedented experiment in remote work. Why hasn't it happened before? Because employers were afraid their employees would be unproductive without constant supervision. The reality has been that employee productivity hasn't suffered, and many employers aren't even going to require as much (or in some cases any) in-person work. This illustrates the fact that adult work environment should focus on output, not on input.

[smallcleanrat]

I have a somewhat related question.

Previously, I TA'ed for a course with TA-led discussion sections. Every session started with a brief quiz on the assigned reading. I would visually scan the room to make sure laptops were closed and phones were not out so they couldn't look up answers.

Once, one of the students simply ignored me when I said, "Phones away, please."

I repeated the request three times, with my gaze fixed on the student (the only one who hadn't complied). Each time I repeated myself, I moved closer toward the student's seat. Each time, he glanced at me then went back to looking at his phone.

He finally put it away (rolling his eyes and sighing loudly) after I called him out by name and other students also started fixing their gazes on him, annoyed that he was holding things up.

I'm not sure what I would have/could have done if he continued to refuse. I might have told him he had to leave the classroom, but what if he refused to do that too?

Maybe I could have given the students the quiz anyway and simply given the student with the phone a zero? But there would still be the issue of distraction or him using the phone to display answers for students sitting next to or behind him.

[EdnaMode]

I have a somewhat related question.

Previously, I TA'ed for a course with TA-led discussion sections. Every session started with a brief quiz on the assigned reading. I would visually scan the room to make sure laptops were closed and phones were not out so they couldn't look up answers.

Once, one of the students simply ignored me when I said, "Phones away, please."

I repeated the request three times, with my gaze fixed on the student (the only one who hadn't complied). Each time I repeated myself, I moved closer toward the student's seat. Each time, he glanced at me then went back to looking at his phone.

He finally put it away (rolling his eyes and sighing loudly) after I called him out by name and other students also started fixing their gazes on him, annoyed that he was holding things up.

I'm not sure what I would have/could have done if he continued to refuse. I might have told him he had to leave the classroom, but what if he refused to do that too?

Maybe I could have given the students the quiz anyway and simply given the student with the phone a zero? But there would still be the issue of distraction or him using the phone to display answers for students sitting next to or behind him.

I have in my syllabus that no phones, smart watches, tablets, laptops, etc. may be seen or heard during quizzes and exams, and if their phones, etc. are seen or heard, they earn a 0 on the quiz/exam and possibly a violation of academic integrity if I catch them looking things up and not just making noise that startles everyone and ruins their concentration. I remind them to put the items away and on silent multiple times. Then they start the quiz or exam. I rarely have violations but make sure to enforce the rules when it happens, and word gets around. Once a student's phone rang loudly in the middle of an exam and startled everyone, he actually took it out of his bag and answered it. I said quietly, "You're done," took his exam, and told him to leave. Had another with his phone in his lap looking up answers. I stood beside him for at least five minutes before he noticed.

[kiana]

I'm not sure what I would have/could have done if he continued to refuse. I might have told him he had to leave the classroom, but what if he refused to do that too?

Maybe I could have given the students the quiz anyway and simply given the student with the phone a zero? But there would still be the issue of distraction or him using the phone to display answers for students sitting next to or behind him.

I will not hand a quiz to someone with a phone out. I will hand it to everyone around them and walk off.

In the syllabus AND in the header for every quiz and exam, I have instructions that the visibility of any electronic device during an exam (other than an approved calculator) may result in a score of 0. If they pull it out during a quiz, I pick up their quiz, say "your quiz is over" and walk off.

Exception is if they forgot to silence it (rare) -- I walk over and stand next to them and eye the screen as they pull it out and silence it. It may be somewhat embarrassing, but hey, that's what you get for disregarding the multiple reminders to silence your devices.

For latecomers, I hand them a quiz as they come in the door and say "pull out your phone and silence it before you open the coversheet". Compliance with that is generally pretty ok.