Consumers get their news online now more than ever. Netflix moved away from mailing discs to streaming its content online. Conferences, festivals, and other events now have interactive apps instead of paper agendas. Included in the realm of advanced technologies are mobile devices, which have seen dramatic improvements in the last ten years alone. Smartphones, iPads, tablets, and computers are becoming commonplace in the education sector at all levels. These mobile devices are capable of many things, such as GPS tracking, instant data sharing, facial recognition, and more. The capabilities of these devices make them ideal tools for taking attendance in class. Below are six advantages that using mobile devices to take attendance presents to schools.
1. Simultaneous check-ins
Mobile attendance solutions allow all of the students in a class to check in at the same time, meaning the whole class can check in in mere seconds, no matter if it’s ten students or 100 students. Scanners, paper sign-in sheets, fingerprint verification methods, instructors’ roll calls, and other attendance practices only allow one student to check in at a time, causing students to line up one by one and cut into instruction time, which over time can turn into hours of lost instruction every module.
2. Mobile devices can share information instantly
Through WiFi or cellular data, all mobile devices can connect to the internet, allowing them to instantly share information. Mobile attendance solutions ensure that there is no delay in delivering the attendance data captured in class to registrars. This streamlined process eliminates the need for instructors to manually upload data and allows registrars to take action on attendance data immediately.
3. Inhibits academic dishonesty
Classes that take attendance through clickers or swipe cards are more susceptible to academic dishonesty. One student can check in for multiple students by bringing those items to class for their peers. Mobile devices, though, contain so much personal data and are arguably an extension of our persons, so students are significantly less likely to give a classmate their phone for hours just to avoid going to class.
4. Paperless processes
Utilizing mobile devices to track attendance means saying goodbye to paper processes! No longer will instructors and registrars be plagued by frustrating roster printing, lost sign-in sheets, illegible writing, and manually entering attendance data into a spreadsheet. Plus, schools can reduce their physical storage space with digital record keeping instead of having to keep years worth of paper attendance sheets for future audits.
5. Accurate location verification
Mobile devices are powerful pieces of technology. And almost every student brings one to class with them. Taking advantage of advanced technology like GPS tracking or soundwave communication allows for a much more accurate, secure, and efficient attendance taking process.
6. Transfers the responsibility from instructors to students
Students check in on their mobile devices. Which means that the students are accountable for their own attendance. Instructors, who previously had to administer attendance for each of their classes, can now jump straight into the content. Starting on time gives the instructor a much higher chance of covering all of the material for that day. But the biggest benefit of having the students responsible for their attendance is that the reported data will be based on the students’ time in class, not the instructor’s judgement on how to administer and award time. Not to mention, it makes the students more responsible and prepares them for the real world.
Mobile devices are extremely powerful pieces of technology that just about every student carries with them to class. Leveraging those devices to handle the attendance-taking and tracking process is extremely advantageous for the students, instructors, registrars, and institutions as a whole.
Schools across the country are already enjoying streamlined attendance processes. To get an in depth demonstration of what taking attendance using mobile devices would look like at your school, schedule a demo with a CourseKey team member below.
