Technology is ever-evolving, and the newest creation is Class 120; an app that holds university students accountable for themselves and their parents by sending an alert every time the student misses a class.
“44 percent of America’s freshmen aren’t graduating within six years,” Jeff Whorely, creator of Class 120, said. “It’s obvious that some new approach to student success, including improving class attendance, might make a difference.”
A study found that an estimated $31 billion a year is being wasted on college classes that are paid for but not attended. As an incentive to focus on school, Whorley created his company, Core Principle, to find innovative ways to reach students.
“We’ll know based on a geo-location pinging system that we have developed to say whether that student and their smartphone is in class at the appointed time for the class,” Whorley said.
Class 120, which can be downloaded for free, has mapped out 2,000 campuses so far, and all students have to do is upload a class schedule on their phone and designate a third party to get the alerts. After that, the app takes care of the rest.
“I think it’s a good way to scare people into attending class,” senior Pratyusha Medikonda said. “If your parents are paying for you to attend college, I’m sure they would want to know if you were making good use of their money. It’s kind of a necessary evil.”
However, not all students are excited for the app. Many feel that as adults, they should be allowed to make their own decisions and shouldn’t be monitored by their parents.

“It’s a good idea,” sophomore Laura Nornes said. “But the point of college is to be on your own. It’s like a little preview of what life will be like without your parents looking over your shoulder.”
Core principle is confident that just by going to class, almost any student at any college will improve his or her chances of getting good grades and graduating on time.
“We started Core Principle with the firm belief that better class attendance will lead to more students succeeding in college,” Whorely said. “We set our sights on creating an approach to college class attendance that would result in clear, measurable improvement in grades and graduation rates.”