I guess I thought it was a new thing as neither my husband nor I remember anything like this when we were in college. Granted that was a LONG time ago, since we’re old enough to have one going to college ourselves!
Honestly, I don’t every remember having quizzes in college. Your choice if you read the material, if you didn’t you wouldn’t understand the lecture, and then wouldn’t do well on the exam, and if there was a paper, you’d have a difficult time with that. Natural consequences of not doing the reading. We had suggested work, but things weren’t turned in and graded. This is feeling more like high school to me.