Photo/Illutration The Waseda University campus in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Once upon a time, "daihen" was part and parcel of Japan's university student culture whenever a roll call was taken at the start of a lecture to check attendance.

When you were going to cut class, you asked a friend to answer the roll call for you, and they would do their part by varying the pitch of their voice.

I suspect the lecturers usually knew what was going on, but went along with it anyway.

Nowadays, some universities check attendance by requiring students to scan their IC-chip ID cards. To beat this system, a technique dubbed "P-nige" (literally, P-escape) is employed: You leave the classroom the moment the scanner reads your ID card and emits a peep.

As for skipping online classes, which have become common amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that some students are now resorting to what is known as "simultaneous video viewing."

Most lecture videos can be watched any time. When a student plays a video, it leaves a record of attendance, for which the student may earn credit.

But Waseda University saw a big problem when a large number of its students were found to have played multiple videos simultaneously on their computer browsers.

My initial personal reaction was just to mockingly rebuke those students: "Taking in multiple lectures all at once, eh? My, you must be real geniuses who'll put Prince Shotoku to shame." Prince Shotoku (574-622) was said to have been the greatest multitasker who ever lived.

Waseda, however, was not inclined to take this lightly. The offending students are believed to total around 100, and the university reportedly decided to give them all an F.

In the past, the "mass production of education" became a major problem in Japan. Packing large numbers of students into cavernous classrooms inevitably resulted in one-way teaching, and corrective steps were supposedly taken to promote more interactive education.

But non-interactive teaching is precisely what video-recorded lectures represent. Is it impossible to maintain this format without punishing wayward students by failing them all?

Daihen, P-nige and simultaneous video-viewing are all acts of taking shortcuts to save one's time. But what do you do with the time you've saved?

That's the question all university students should be asking themselves.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 18

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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