EDUCATION

App lets profs, parents see if students attend class

Kris Turner

I always had an excuse to skip class in college.

More often than not, my main priority was making sure Michigan State University’s student newspaper, The State News, ran like a well-oiled machine. That was the No. 1 reason why you wouldn’t find me half-heartedly taking notes in a lecture hall.

But when I wasn’t working, it usually meant I was chasing shots or random adventures in downtown East Lansing. My mindset was simple: Attend enough classes to pass, but have as much fun as possible.

My lackadaisical attitude was shared by my friends and acquaintances – it was practically a social norm. That norm, however, is being challenged by south Broad Ripple startup Core Principle Inc., which developed Class120, an app that allows parents, professors and campus administrators to monitor whether students attend class.

Jeff Whorley, Core Principle’s founder and chief executive officer, said college students spend more than $31 billion a year in classes they don’t attend. On average, students report that they don’t attend about 20 percent of classes throughout their collegiate career, he said.

Whorley said he was inspired to create Class120 after talking with a professor about the number of students who fail to attend class.

“We know 40 to 45 percent of students that start at four-year colleges don’t graduate in six years,” he said, adding that students who regularly attend class receive better grades.

The app, which is live and costs $17.99 a month or $199 a year, doesn’t monitor a student’s whereabouts 24/7. It simply checks whether they’re in class — if they’re not present, it will alert a parent, professor or college administrator. It also notifies the student they’ve missed a lesson.

Although the app provides an incentive to get students to class, it still requires their consent.

About 2,000 people are using Class120, and Whorley hopes to advance that number to 5,000 by fall. Core Principle has a contract with a midsize college that plans to implement the app across its campus, but Whorley would not name that institution.

Whorley wants to tap parents, universities and athletic departments as his firm’s main clients, and believes the app will be successful is because it is dependent on something no person under 25 is ever without — a cell phone. Students are not likely to hand off their phones to check-in to a class, he said.

Greg Havill, who has two children in college, said he’s a fan of the app because it pushes students to attend every one of their classes. Havill, who purchased Class120, bet his son $300 to attain perfect attendance this semester.

“It’s ultimately up to the student whether he will get up at 8 a.m. and go to class,” said Havill, a 53-year-old Carmel resident. “But if the student knows he’s being monitored and there will be a consequence if he doesn’t’ go to class, it will help.”

I’ve never been happier I came of age in the era of flip phones.

Call Star reporter Kris Turner at (317) 444-6047. Follow him on Twitter: @krisnturner.