QR code-based attendance

[zepright]

I'm currently a TA for an approximately 160 student class. The other TAs, professor of record, and I would like to try and automate attendance taking as much as possible while preventing students from fraudulently marking themselves as present. 

To do this, we had the idea to use a rolling QR code (that we don't believe we can implement to Canvas). The other idea was to use a Microsoft Form (as our university doesn't utilize the Google Suite). However, we're not quite sure how we'd go about doing so, or if it's possible to integrate the two together in the first place. 

I'm aware of paid services that may be able to offer this possibility, however I'm unsure if that is an option for our course. 

[natariastx]

Hi @zepright! Just to clarify, does your institution use Attendance in Canvas? If so, is it that you are looking for a better way to automate this where students sort of own the checking in process? Thanks for any clarification you can provide!

[zepright]

Yes, we use Attendance in Canvas and are looking for a better way to automate it using a self check-in system. It would end up being very time consuming to have to manually check in all of the students for each class session. In the most ideal case, we'd have a way where the students cannot check their colleagues in, as we have graded attendance (5% of the course's overall grade) and rely on having a majority of students attend due to the structure of the course (primarily in-class activities). 

[natariastx]

Ah, I see! I cannot think of a solution off the top of my head that would help you automate and ensure students could not check one another in, but we can keep this thread open in case anyone else has ideas to share! If I think of anything, I will definitely be back! Best of luck!

[oneilllj]

Hi @zepright 

You can definitely create a MSForm and obtain a QR code from this. You can either embed the whole MS Form into Canvas or adding the QR Code image onto an Announcement, Discussion or Canvas Page. However, I still foresee that anyone who has access to the Form or QR code through Canvas in this way (even non-attendees) could still complete it. 

You may just like to create the MSForm and have the QR Code on a screen and those who do attend would scan it and confirm attendance. 

For both instances, the MSForm should be restricted to one response only. 

Hope this helps with some ideas.

Thanks

Jen

[dbrace]

This is the best I can think of:

1. create a "quiz" every time class is scheduled to meet
2. the quiz could have one question in it where the students type their name into an essay question to certify that they were physically present for class
3. set the quiz to also have a password (if a New Quiz) or access code (if a "Classic" Quiz)
4. the link to the quiz could be converted to a QR code
5. the quiz's "Assign" settings could be configured to have a pre-determined and random time each class meeting "From" and "Until" times and only be available for 2 or 3 minutes
6. at the pre-determined and random time during class meeting, display the QR code and password (or access code)
7. have the students scan the QR code, take the one question quiz, and submit it

It might be possible to circumvent it but you could also provide a disclaimer of some sort in your syllabus that says something like "entering, or providing assistance with, a false "present" attendance record is considered a form of academic honesty and could result in disclipinary measures".

I hope this idea helps, even if you modify it or if someone else comes up with another way to tweak it.

-Doug

P.S. I would not recommend adding the "quiz" to a module because then a student not physically present could see it but the password (access code) might help a little with that (unless someone shares it with them).