Regardless of position, that is, being an employee, employer, or student, attendance is a common factor being monitored. Besides leading to a personal loss of salary and reputation, the lack of attendance also adversely affects one professionally. The schools focus on attendance a lot. Consequently, some schools even use an automated system for quick and easy attendance management.
Teachmint provides software with multiple operations along with a carefully designed attendance management system. The various advantages and features of the same are the main discussion point of the article. Have a look to learn more about how the student management system at school works.
Attendance Management System: What is it?
The system for attendance management is software designed to record a person’s absence and presence in a school. It holds general attendance information, which is presented as a report for performance analysis. An organized system for managing attendance in schools is a sign of the introduction of automation and digitalization in the classroom. Attendance is common in all schools. However, the difference can be observed in traditional undigitized classrooms and modern classroom attendance management. There are certain banes associated with the traditional method of taking attendance.
Traditional System for Attendance in a School
The traditional attendance system is hectic and tedious. The beginning of the same process every day in school consumes much time, costing study time. The associated endeavors further cost the class teacher time. The system requires manually writing all the names repeatedly for around 40 to 50 pages of the register. Additionally, attendance is all about making ticks in such small boxes, which may result in accidental and unavoidable errors.
Figure 1. Typical Attendance Register in a Traditional Classroom
Figure 1 depicts the compact register utilized for attendance in all the schools. The data entered in the attendance register further undergoes processing by manually entering the information in a system. Otherwise, it will be summarized by the teacher, which eventually ends up taking their precious time that could be devoted to catering to the needs of the students. Apart from time consumption, the endeavor can again result in errors compromising student attendance.
Disadvantages of the Traditional Attendance Method
The method of taking attendance in schools has posed several disadvantages and still continues to do so. The associated issues are:
- This leads to a waste of time.
- It is a redundant process that needs repetitive writing of every piece of information daily
- Requires cross-checking to identify the errors
- Completely manual action and hence prone to errors and omissions
What are Benefits of an Attendance Management System?
Owing to the numerous disadvantages and lack of digitalization, the need to introduce an efficient system to manage the attendance arises. Let us check out what are benefits of an attendance management system:
Smooth Workflow
The automated environment provides a hassle-free environment for functioning. The sorted and organized system at the workplace encourages a motivating and happy work environment. Attendance is the first thing at any workplace to begin work. Removal of fuss and incorporation of reliability will guide the smoothness.
Greater Flexibility
The attendance management software is feasible with different electronic gadgets. It can be used on desktop websites through the portal and on mobile through the app. Furthermore, the addition of biometric services aids in automated attendance without requiring any personal device.
Optimal Digitalization
The schools preach moral and ethical behaviors, the necessity to conserve the environment, and encourage tree conservation. Applying the same thing in their settings will set a good and practical example. Digitalizing attendance is a significant step. It requires daily and individual participation that will exhibit the step towards eco-friendliness.
Enhanced Reliability
Replacing manual intervention with computers is the most effective step in removing the possibility of errors. The machines guarantee the accuracy of data better than any individual. Besides, a decrease in activity helps the staff members to focus on other important tasks enhancing productivity.
Room for Personalization
What are benefits of an attendance management system for presenting the data? The system represents the attendance data in multiple ways. It provides the overview with concise information accompanied by detailed information. Furthermore, the structurally categorized information of different classes and sections can be viewed to gain individual students’ data.
Quick Reports
The system that manages attendance also provides quick access to reports generated automatically. It minimizes human interference by directly providing the information. So, no need to go through each attendance or calculate the percentage of each student for a month or session. The reports can be quickly analyzed for further actions or contacting the student’s parents.
The individual and class attendance reports with a separate report for students with less than 75% attendance is an added benefit for every teacher and school. The restriction to view attendance can be set to avoid viewing or modifying the attendance and its reports. It ensures privacy and eliminates the possibility of discrepancy and fraud.
One-stop Attendance Solution For All
The attendance of every individual visiting the school is necessary, be they at any post. Different attendance systems in such a scenario will be hectic and challenging for the management team. The attendance management systems are designed to accommodate every post in the software, providing a one-stop for all attendance. The database contains information on every individual properly categorized based on their job profile and work.
Greater Sense of Responsibility Among Students
The efficient and carefully managed attendance allows any time report stating the student’s attendance status. The information can aid the teachers in informing the students about their attendance, making them accountable and responsible.
No Duplication Flaws
In the methodology of the traditional attendance system stated above; we have discussed duplication of attendance. The teachers are generally required to take attendance on a sheet followed by marking the same on the computer, which results in duplication. As evident, duplication is easily prone to error and requires double the time investment. Eliminating the data duplication followed by automatic calculation via attendance management software removes the fuss.
Cost-effectiveness
You might wonder what are benefits of an attendance management system regarding cost. This system's multiple benefits indirectly aid the school through efficient cost utilization. The enhanced productivity of teachers and other staff members and accurate reports with ready interpretation and decision-making data contribute to the school’s growth. Similarly, removing manual interference reduces the chances of errors leading to exact salary payment. The extra or lower salary payment will also affect the cost incurred by the school.
Real-time Updates
The automated attendance system updates the attendance directly according to the actions of users, especially for biometric-based attendance systems. It aids in urgent planning and checking on the availability of specific individuals or teams. It abolishes the need for manual attendance or reports to know the absent students or teachers. Schools can benefit from the same in assigning substitute teachers, which often depends on manual attendance. It further maintains the discipline and decorum of class.
User-friendliness
The automated system for managing attendance is designed for usage by every individual. It makes the design completely user-friendly, with the organization of every input being considered. The labeled headers with neat and spacious arrangements increase visibility and understanding. The multiple options like search and filter facilitate quickly finding the desired information or individual, often not seen in the traditional management system.
Quick Integrations
The attendance management systems are designed to function independently or in coordination with biometric systems. They can also allow coordination with smart cards. The easy integration facility makes them suitable for universal use regardless of the traditional attendance system in any school.
Leave Monitoring
The leaves in school staff's lives are the most exciting part. With the limited number of leaves available to them and no information system in traditional attendance management, it is difficult to know the remaining ones or plan them. The system provides the number of leaves for personal information. The school administrator gets detailed information that further eases the management of leaves.
Figure 2: The different features offered for staff attendance
Types of Attendance Systems
Digitized attendance is offered through the biometric scanner and gadget-based marking. Here is a brief on the functionality of both.
Biometric Attendance
A biometric scanner is one of the most common solutions witnessed in schools for automated attendance. They function to capture attendance through the fingerprint of individuals. It checks multiple aspects of the fingerprint through different angles that lead to data accuracy. The availability of the unique fingerprints of every individual allows removing room for discrepancy and fraud. The devices come into two types, using capacitive or optical scanners.
These are generally placed at the entrance of schools to facilitate unbiased and easy capturing of information. Their suitable location, however, depends on the use. For instance, placing them at the classroom entrance will facilitate hassle-free and easy attendance over one device for hundreds of students.
The biometric systems provide the reports in different formats depending on the software. It can also be integrated with the specific attendance management systems software purchased by the school.
RFID System
It is another sophisticated method utilized by a few schools. The device works at low frequency and requires an RFID ID card to be brought within the range of five centimeters to mark attendance. The system requires the server to be installed on the campus. It transfers the attendance data at the interval of ten minutes, also providing real-time updates. The list reaches the lectures, which can be further used for cross-checking the information.
App and portal-based
The app and portal-based
s are simple and easy to use, and loaded with multiple functionalities. They are designed to provide a hassle-free attendance-taking system through any device. Suited for mobile, tablets, and laptops, these can be used to take attendance on any electronic gadget. The minimal format allows for saving time and effort.
Figure 3: Portal-based Attendance System
These apps and portals instantaneously and automatically generate reports. The categorized arrangement by the tool creators allows effortless viewing and working on different services regardless of expertise and tech-friendliness.
Figure 4: App-based Attendance System
What are Benefits of an Attendance Management System by Teachmint
Teachmint has digitized and automated attendance systems compatible with all three types of attendance systems. The app and portal-based systems are solely provided by Teachmint, while biometric attendance systems can be integrated with the software for a user-friendly interface and reports.
Moreover, the system is applicable and suitable for the attendance of students and staff members. The special sections are designed for each solely dedicated to the category in concern. Let us have a detailed look at what are benefits of an attendance management system offered by Teachmint.
Student Attendance System
The student attendance system provides notifications, an overview of attendance, insights into points that might require action, and a detailed report, which can be further viewed in depth. Every aspect is discussed in detail as follows:
Notification: The webpage begins with a notification about the attendance status for the day. It is placed to remind the authorities who can take further action as required.
Attendance Overview: The attendance overview is simplistically designed to provide graceful insight and brief information about the current attendance status of the day.
Figure 5: Attendance Overview available in Student Attendance
Note that the attendance overview is indicative of all the students enrolled in the school. Subsequently, other data comply with the same. The more detailed version is discussed below. Here overview serves the need of updating the user without scrolling much into the software.
Insights: This part is given on the side of the attendance overview. It serves the purpose of providing an alarming alert that needs immediate action. The alert is about the number of classes whose attendance is not marked yet. It also familiarizes the school authorities with the number of classes with less than and more than 75% attendance.
The inability to mark attendance can be checked through other services provided by Teachmint. For instance, the absence of class teachers through staff attendance or the unavailability of a substitute teacher can be managed through Teachmint’s services. The classes with low attendance can be monitored for performance and contacted with the class teacher through the communication channel (provided in multiple ways by Teachmint) or contact through phone number.
Detailed Report: It serves two functions for the school authorities:
1. Providing detailed reports about the attendance of all the classes in the school.
2. Helping on the spot marking attendance by the school administrators as well.
Figure 6: Detailed Report of Student Attendance
The information depicted in the detailed attendance report is as follows:
The information available in the student attendance section is in class-wise format. The student attendance report provides more detailed information through four components:
- Present day’s attendance in graphical and tabular format
- Attendance insights (specifically for defaulters)
- Institute Attendance Trend
- Detailed reports in student and class-wise format
Present Day’s Attendance
The information about the total strength of the school is exhibited in a simple pie chart format. The different colors to mark different categories ease the interpretation. This attendance further redirects the users to a detailed report which is organized for a quick glance.
Figure 7: Detailed attendance report for any day
As stated, the interpretation here is effortless and quick, with a clear indication of each column. There are certain added benefits of this system that allow further ease of access, such as:
- Change the alphabetical order of students and enrollment number arrangement for Z to A or A to Z.
- Modify the sequence of classes and sections and roll number from top to bottom or vice versa
- View the marked or unmarked classes first based on priority through the sort feature available at a single click
- Search the students by name or enrollment ID
- Change the date for a specific day's attendance view
- Apply filter to view specific classes, sections or students according to the status
- Download the attendance report
The present day’s attendance register is also specified in tabular format, which can be synonymously used to register attendance.
Attendance insights
It allows information on the total number of students with less than 75% attendance. The feature is highly advantageous for board students, where admit cards and eligibility for examination is attendance. It is also available in a detailed report for exact information. The link redirects to student-wise attendance indicating their performances. Here is a glimpse for better insights (figure 8).
Figure 8: Student Wise attendance indicating the defaulters
Notice the additional column representing present days for better understanding. Users visiting the defaulter's list for a quick view or to take the appropriate action will have all the information on one page. The other facilities, like search, change the session, filter, and download options, are similar to figure 7.
Institute Attendance Trend
It is the small horizontally incorporated bar in the report which provides day-wise or monthly reports of student attendance. The representation is friendly for brief information on attendance. The school administrators interested in the detailed reports can further move on to the same. Check out figure 9 for a sneak peek.
Figure 9: Institute Attendance Trend in daily format
Detailed reports in student and class-wise format
The student-wise detailed reports have been shared in previous sections. The class-wise reports provide information in the following sequence:
Class and section wise → Class strength → Students Present → Students Absent → Attendance → Class Teacher → Detailed Status
The detailed status again provides student-wise attendance, but specifically for a particular class. Effortlessly filter and download reports and perform other actions and formulate strategies.
HRMS
The staff attendance is also covered in detail. Here is the guide to it:
Staff attendance
Reach the website and begin the analysis from a horizontally inclined calendar with the colored marking of events. The page also contains information on the total members, their attendance status, names, and job profiles. The staff attendance page also allows easy marking of attendance or simply marking all as present and then marking only the absent ones. Search, download, and change the view for any specific date for the status.
Leave Management
The leaves, regardless of categories, can be viewed, approved, managed, and tracked. Gain insight into past leaves, request a new one, or approve the pending requests. There is a separate section provided to view the leave and request the same. The section is named ‘my leaves’, shared in figure 10. All the required functions can again be viewed for specific dates as per convenience.
Figure 10: View of ‘My Leaves’ Section
Biometric Configuration
The integrability feature allows attendance reports as submitted on the biometric and RFID devices. It provides real-time updates providing spontaneous information. The section named ‘Biometric Configuration’ in Teachmint indicates the number of attached biometric devices and the mapped users. Exploring the same will help you dive into the detailed data captured from the systems and presented in an easy-to-understand manner. The connection with biometric devices requires LAN or Wifi connection.
To Sum Up
Attendance management is a compulsory and time-consuming task. Owing to the requirement, automation and digitalization are crucial to removing redundant activities. It will encourage the creativity and productivity of staff members. The teachers can focus more on curriculum and teaching materials. Automated report generation can aid strategic decision-making too. It does this by depicting the statistical information in a sorted and user-friendly format, as seen in different snapshots of shared reports.
Leverage the true benefits of this system for conveniently managing attendance at your institution with Teachmint and explore attendance details that help optimize your school’s overall teaching and learning experiences!
