This official Oral Roberts University photo sure has a lot of Fitbits in it, doesn't it? (credit: Oral Roberts University)
Oklahoma's Oral Roberts University opened in 1965 with a fitness course requirement for its newest incoming freshman and transfer students—a rarity among American universities. That requirement became even more unique to the evangelical university in January when the school added a technological requirement to the course: mandatory Fitbit ownership, whose fitness tracking must also be synced to the school's grading system.
The school formally announced the change in early January, and the news became better known around the country late last week as college-minded outlet The College Fix wrote about students' thoughts on the change. An Oral Roberts representative confirmed to Ars that students in the course, known as "Health Fitness I," have a student requirement of 10,000 steps a day, and the app-tracked targets account for 20 percent of a student's grade in the course.
In its formal press release, Oral Roberts University confirms that over 550 Fitbit units have been sold through its on-campus bookstore, and it describes the initiative as "literally transport[ing] digital electrons from student’s wearable band anywhere on campus into the secure Learning Management System."
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