[Building Sakai] New Tool: Attendance

[csev]

Bryan,

It is funny - I was just designing such a tool on the way in to work this morning.    My approach was to build a Basic LTI tool that did attendance tracking with a Google App Engine Application.

I have a design in mind that would:

- Require login from CTools
- Have IP address logging and an IP address filter
- Have an optional secret that would be communicated to the class to unlock it for students
- Integration into the Gradebook based on instructor controlled settings.

It should take be a few days on Google App Engine and then it would work in Moodle, ATutor, etc as well as Blackboard since it is Basic LTI :)

Of course it is a bit of an experiment so I am not suggesting that you change direction in any way - but as I build it, I will add commentary to your confluence page.

/Chuck

On Feb 8, 2011, at 4:44 PM, Bryan Holladay wrote:

> Everyone,
> 
> We are putting together some specifications and designs for a new tool that will track student's attendance, partially sponsored by some of Longsight's clients. The idea is to have a simple table that lists each day the class meets where a teacher can insert in attendance records for each student (see below (or attachment) for a crude mockup).  I've heard there's been some interest in the community for a tool like this and it would be great to get the community involved. I'm hoping to get input from everyone about any ideas or features they'd like to see. Also, any collaboration with design, UI, coding, or internationalization would help a lot. I've set up a wiki page where anyone can contribute input/ideas or sign up to help: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/ATTEND/Home 
> 
> Here are some quick ideas for specifications:
> 	•	Show a listing of dates (similar to a calendar, but in a spreadsheet-like format, rather than a monthly calendar-style view, and with the students names listed in one column on the left)
> 	•	Have the ability to select only certain days of the week for viewing as the default for a particular site (for example, Mondays and Wednesdays only, if it is a M-W class)
> 	•	Enter an attendance mark for each student for each date the class meets, such as P (present), A (absent), T (tardy), E (excused), H (holiday), etc.
> 	•	Listing would be sortable by name, or specific date column
> 	•	Students displayed could be filtered by group or section
> 	•	Allow faculty to export and/or print the attendance data for offline-line record keeping if needed
> 	•	Allow students to access the tool and view ONLY their own attendance data for that class
> 
> Additionally, it would be really great if:
> 	•	Faculty had a place where they could define the start and end dates of class for that term
> 	•	There were a way to tabulate the number of absences per user and record it somewhere easily visible to faculty and students
> 	•	The instructor could choose to assign points for attendance, and this data could be (optionally) linked to the gradebook to give an overall attendance score
> 
> 
> Even if you are unable to contribute, it would be nice to know the interest level within the community for this tool, so please reply with your thoughts or add comments to the confluence page.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Bryan Holladay
> The Longsight Group LLC
> 
> <Screen shot 2011-02-02 at 3.00.04 PM2.png>
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