Several University of Toronto students are frustrated after one professor made it a requirement to purchase his book and follow him on social media in order to receive participation marks.
Reddit user XdaZxz posted a photo of the breakdown of participation marks for the personal finance course, taught by sessional lecturer Mitchell Huynh.
The screengrab of the breakdown, accompanied by the caption "Pinnacle of Participation," indicates that participation marks are worth a total of 10 per cent in the course.
Buying a physical copy of the latest edition of Huynh's book, Dumb Money, is listed as being worth 1 per cent. Following him on Twitter and Instagram is also worth an additional 1 per cent of participation marks as well as connecting with him on Linkedin.
Students are also required to have the book signed by Huynh for another 1 per cent.
Pinnacle of Participation from r/UTM
Angry students are commenting on the post, which was published in the University of Toronto Mississauga Reddit thread, to express frustration and offer advice.
"What course is this," one student wrote. "Asking cuz I’m gonna try to avoid this course at all costs"
"Marks for social media follows is definitely not allowed," another wrote. "Presumably the book signing is so that students can't buy a used copy and it would not be appropriate to so blatantly tie this to the students' grades."
"I think the main issue here is that he's blatantly trying to profit off his students by increasing his followers count AND attributing marks to buying his book," another speculated.
Huynh's website describes him as a sessional lecturer at U of T, a director at a wealth management firm, a condo developer and the host of two financial TV shows. His website also includes several extremely positive student testimonials.
Huynh did not respond to blogTO's request for comment.
by Mira Miller via blogTO
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