The goal is not to make it impossible, just inconvenient. The course textbook is online, but assignments are usually printed in a packet. Students need to synthesize both sources.
It’s hard to say precisely what the effect is, but I will say that students performed better this semester on written exams than ever before. Lots of confounds, of course, but I do think the emphasis on having to retype things yourself forced students to really engage with the material. That said, the number of students coming to office hours was WAY down. Given that I’ve taught this course many times over the years, there’s really only one explanation for that.
The goal is not to make it impossible, just inconvenient. The course textbook is online, but assignments are usually printed in a packet. Students need to synthesize both sources.
It’s hard to say precisely what the effect is, but I will say that students performed better this semester on written exams than ever before. Lots of confounds, of course, but I do think the emphasis on having to retype things yourself forced students to really engage with the material. That said, the number of students coming to office hours was WAY down. Given that I’ve taught this course many times over the years, there’s really only one explanation for that.