Mastery Paths: Student-Centered Differentiation

Why do I make my students submit attendance checks? When I first came to college, I assumed that students would come to class because they were paying to be there--but in fact, I have found that removing structures increases failure rates. As such, I've built a number of structures to push students in the direction of success--something I recommend to anyone.

But there's a problem. When I build these things for students, only some of them find such things useful--and some find them downright cumbersome. Advanced students, in particular, aren't big fans--they find such things to be busy work, and hoops-to-be-jumped-through.

How to keep the benefit of the structures, and preserve the freedom for my top students?

My TA suggested that we let students "choose their own adventure," and put control back in their court. I liked the idea, and this is a little about the experiment.