Automated attendance tracking for leading business school

Our client wanted to introduce card readers into every classroom to track student attendance digitally and free-up programme administrators for their primary role of student support.

Still reliant on paper-based registration at every class, our business school client wanted to make student attendance tracking digital and consequently more efficient. As things stood, programme administrators had to cross-check paper records against the central database and several hours each day were spent completing this task.

The business case for introducing an improved system was significant. Digital tracking would save the programme administrators time, enabling them to redirect their attention to their primary role of student support. Students could track their own attendance and see how it compared to successful students in the past. Equally importantly, if attendance levels were low, any student welfare issues would be picked up on and addressed.

Government education grants and international student visas also require effective attendance tracking. Both are subject to confirmed attendance rates of 80% and above.

Inneall worked with the client to develop a vision for the introduction of card readers into each classroom. Every student would receive a personal ID card with a unique barcode and would scan the bar code to confirm attendance. This information would be automatically collated with the central student information system (SIS) and attendance rates seen via a simple dashboard.

Significant software development and system integration work was required by Inneall, to ensure glitch-free registrations by students at each class and dependable transfer of attendance data to the SIS. With the onset of the pandemic further development work was requiredto sustain attendance tracking as classes transferred online.

Today, students and programme administrators can view attendance data for on-site and online classes through an easy to understand dashboard. With time returned to them, programme administrators have extra capacity to support more students on a daily basis.

Near real time collection of attendance data has also enabled interesting data analysis. The college can see individual and overall attendance at each class and compare levels to test performance. While students can also see how their attendance compares to high performers, which is helping to drive their attendance.