http://www.teachingprofessor.com/articles/participation/buying-the-passive-role A teaching and learning conference. Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:48:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 http://www.teachingprofessor.com/articles/participation/buying-the-passive-role/comment-page-1#comment-523 Paul Miesing Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:38:09 +0000 http://www.teachingprofessor.com/?p=917#comment-523 IMHO, this argument assumes that students are customers in the traditional market sense. While they are "consumers" of the knowledge and experiences we provide, the real customers are our recruiters, taxpayers, alumni, and donors. Students are merely one of many stakeholders, and don't even pay for their full share of the costs! Therefore, I take the position that we are responsible for certifying that our students are qualified. We sometimes determine the metrics to use for that determination, at other times accrediting bodies tell us. Hence, while it might be worthwhile trying to convince students of the improtance of participating I don't believe we are obligated to defend it or to give them options. Like Nike admonishes, "Just do it!" IMHO, this argument assumes that students are customers in the traditional market sense. While they are “consumers” of the knowledge and experiences we provide, the real customers are our recruiters, taxpayers, alumni, and donors. Students are merely one of many stakeholders, and don’t even pay for their full share of the costs! Therefore, I take the position that we are responsible for certifying that our students are qualified. We sometimes determine the metrics to use for that determination, at other times accrediting bodies tell us. Hence, while it might be worthwhile trying to convince students of the improtance of participating I don’t believe we are obligated to defend it or to give them options. Like Nike admonishes, “Just do it!”

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