A photo posted by a user of Sina Weibo, one of China's leading microblogging platforms, shows the attendance registration for a class via the red envelope function of Alipay [Hxnews.com]

A teacher in southwest China’s Fujian Province has devised a unique way to take roll call in his university lessons – he uses a personal finance app to give out small amounts of money, or "red envelopes", and check whether students are present.

The unusual method was revealed by one of the lecturer's students who tweeted on their microblog on March 16.

According to the student, his teacher at Yango College of Fuzhou University sends "red envelopes" valued at 66 yuan (about U.S. $10) for every session of his class. 

To get a share of the sum, the students need to enter a password, which the teacher tells them at class. The number of red packets handed out by the teacher is always exactly the same as the number of attendants.

After receiving the red packet, the students have to enter their names and ID numbers.In this way, the teacher knows who comes to class and who is absent.

"It is so novel. We have never seen such a way of calling the roll," said the student.

"It is wonderful that we can have a red envelope when attending the lesson," he added.

The teacher's method of registering attendance sparked heated discussion online. Many envied the students of Yango College.

"The teacher is so generous to send 66 yuan to each class," said a netizen.

Interestingly, the official Sina Weibo account of Alipay, the popular payment app which includes the gift-giving feature, forwarded the original post with comments: "Alipay can be your teacher's assistant in the future, to see to if you skip class."

The teacher, who refuses to give interviews, leads an optional course on e-commerce entrepreneurship, according to the student.

"He just wishes to focus on teaching. He doesn't want to have too much outside pressure," said the student, understandingly.

Alipay comments on the way of attendance registration in its official Weibo account. [weibo.com]

(Source: Hxnews.com/Translated and edited by Women of China)

Editor: Kate Wu（Women of China)