Well, at least many students think they are very cool. I have slowly moved my courses to a quest-based assignment system. I have taken my regular assignments and tests and broken them up over the semester so students are doing many small things rather than a few big items, to determine their grade.

Students have told me they really like the system that I am using (I plan to make changes to it as we go, of course). Not only do they like it, they perceive that they learn more with this system than with traditional classroom interactions. I secretly know why…. they are responsible for everything. I do very little for them. In that situation, anybody would feel compelled to start figuring stuff out for themselves.

I still give them podcast “lectures,’ but to answer many of the questions, they have to do some research within the textbook (or like most students, they google everything).When they do the work, they are creating their own agency within the course and it starts to make more meaning in their brain. It reminds me of an old adage, something about fishing….