Building 'Green' Presents Cellphone Challenges at U. of Colorado at Boulder

September 2, 2010, 03:03 PM ET

Go to Class or Stay in Bed? A Web Site Decides for You

Pro: I get to sleep off the hangover.

Con: I already skipped the class twice.

If you're a student, chances are you've faced a dilemma like this. Well, you no longer have to leave the risks up to chance. That's the idea behind a new online calculator, which purports to help students decide whether skipping class is a smart move, based on their answers to a series of questions.

Since its creation in February, the site has made 18,430 calculations.

“It started out as a joke between me and some of my friends,” Jim Filbert, its creator, tells the University of Maryland at College Park's student newspaper. “It wasn’t until April that I saw there were more people using the calculator than I thought.”

Does this thing actually work? We have no idea. But check out Campus Overload, where Jenna Johnson gave the site a hypothetical spin on a class called "Zombies in Popular Media."

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Comments

1. nextgenlc - September 02, 2010 at 04:59 pm

This calculator may be intended as a joke, but similar logic and formulas could be applied to an application for high school students. Over the course of the semester, they could enter data about their grades and assignments. This information could be calculated to give them an idea of where they stand, before a teacher has to provide a warning. It could keep students on track who may be slacking, or simply provide a motivational tool. Perhaps the data could even be used to provide the likelihood of them getting into a certain college of their choice.

2. crankycat - September 02, 2010 at 05:21 pm

Does it work for faculty, too...?

3. cwinton - September 03, 2010 at 09:19 am

Duh ... if you're a slacker why would you be making the effort to enter data about grades and assignments? And if you aren't you wouldn't be wasting your time in this manner.

4. dr_redrum - September 03, 2010 at 09:49 am

"Consult the syllabus"? Yeah. Like that's ever gonna happen.

5. drjeff - September 03, 2010 at 12:19 pm

No-one wee-wee'd in my corn flakes this morning. Looks like I'm the only one.

6. briley929 - September 03, 2010 at 02:55 pm

It's funny that she chose "Zombies in Popular Media," as students who survive the course usually report that it's ridiculously difficult.

http://curragh-labs.org/zombies/

Full disclosure -- I teach it.

7. cc_alan - September 05, 2010 at 01:03 pm

What does it mean when the spam is more interesting than the article?