The Attention Span of Generation Y is Little to None

We’ve all been there… Sitting in a class for what seems like hours, when in reality, it’s only about an hour. The attention span of an average college student is almost non-existent. Most of us can’t even sit through our 50-minute classes without the desire to take a peek at our cell phone and see if anyone has sent us a text. If this is the case for a class just under an hour, how are we ever supposed to retain anything from a four-hour class?

Classes at Piedmont College are offered three times a week for 50 minutes, twice a week for one hour and 15 minutes or once a week for around four hours. I took Spanish One and Two last semester as eight week night classes, and I do not really remember much from either of the classes, except for staring the clock for the last few hours of each class. In fact, usually my night class did not even last the full four hours. So why are we still sitting through such long classes? Shorter class periods are much more effective for Generation Y. In an article from Campus Life, Naomi Rockler-Gladen points out that college students have always gotten bored very easily, but for this generation it’s much worse.

I speak from experience. I have been through classes as long as six hours, and I can tell you one thing for sure: I had a much easier time taking the final in the classes that lasted no longer than one hour and 15 minutes. I understand that some students prefer to take night classes, especially non-traditional students, but how much can one really learn in that sort of environment? Night class length should compare to those of the day classes. Instead of the four hour night classes lasting only eight weeks, a students could take two classes each night for 16 weeks, each lasting two hours with a short break after one hour.
Students would retain much more from these classes and it would still work with the schedules of the non-traditional student with two kids, working a full time job