> If you want to teach them to reason on the spot, then go back to requiring them to orally put forth and defend an idea. I have been thinking for the last cou

> If you want to teach them to reason on the spot, then go back to requiring them to orally put forth and defend an idea. I have been thinking for the last couple years that we may end up in that spot. It is more labor intensive, and perhaps a little more susceptible to bias, but pretty hard to fake. At the end of the term, each student has half an hour with the professor (or a TA) where they discuss the content of the class. It should be quickly apparent who knows the material well enough and who skipped too many lectures.