2. Card Reader System and Student Attendance
Dr Giles Tewkesbury MBE
Associate Head (Student Experience)
School of Engineering

3. Card Reader Project
420 card readers have been installed in 25 Buildings.
4 July 18 - UEB Approved in principle
18 July EPG approval for Expenditure
14 Aug - 14 Nov - Installation (3 months)
Card Reader system has been operational since Week 1 of TB1:
910,520 Cards have been Scanned so far
20,795 Unique Students have used the card readers
100,502 Events Registered
782,831 recorded absences (since Week 7 of TB1)
Non valid card scans stored from 9 Feb 18

4. Card Reader System Architecture
Closor
(Non-Attendance Service)
CMIS
Azure Functions (APIs)
Azure
SQL Server
Database
Ingestor
(Ingestion & Registration service)
Eventor
(Event collection)
Registery APIs
SAMS
Administration Forms
MyPort
Reporting
Service APIs
Manual Data Entry
SEQ Debugging
Database

5. Card Reader System Architecture - Eventor
The Eventor collects relevant Information from the timetabling system.
CMIS
4800 events each week (only events with rooms that have card readers are collected).
student associations to events collected each week.
Azure Functions (APIs)
Azure
SQL Server
Database
Eventor
(Event collection)
Registery APIs
On future events:
A Complete refresh is performed every night
Daily refresh are performed
every 20 minutes during the day.
Stops refreshing events 30 minutes before the start time.

6. Card Reader System Architecture - Ingestor
The Ingestor takes card scans from the 420 card readers and marks students as ‘Attended’.
It also handles:
Setting the lights / sounds
Health Checks
Other card scans
Firmware upgrades
Azure Functions (APIs)
Azure
SQL Server
Database
Ingestor
(Ingestion & Registration service)

7. Card Reader System Architecture - Closor
(Non-Attendance Service)
The closor marks students as ‘Not-Attended’
Events with Zero Registrations are ignored !
Azure Functions (APIs)
Azure
SQL Server
Database
Registery APIs
SAMS
Non-Attendances collected since week Week 7 of TB1
In TB1 it was only implemented for School of Engineering.
non-attendances registered ( Since start of TB2)
The following Event types are ignored:
Distance Learning, Drop-In, External Speaker, Field Trip, Interview, Placement, Personal Individual Tutorial, Self Directed Studies, Sign Up Tutorial, Virtual Learning Environment
Manual Data Entry

8. Card Reader System Architecture
Closor
(Non-Attendance Service)
CMIS
Azure Functions (APIs)
Azure
SQL Server
Database
Ingestor
(Ingestion & Registration service)
Eventor
(Event collection)
Registery APIs
SAMS
Administration Forms
MyPort
Reporting
Service APIs
Manual Data Entry
SEQ Debugging
Database

9. MyPort integration Attendance indicators on MyPort:
Detailed attendance record
Unit based
Total attendance
Further information
Click on attendance indicator
Here are some students with good attendance (100%): , , , , ,
Here are some with 80% attendance: , , ,
20%: , , ,
0%: , , ,
(Aprox %s)
You can check their detailed attendance info at: for now..

10. My Port - (further details)
Reasons
I forgot my card
I lost my card
I forgot to scan my card
My card would not scan
I was ill
The event was cancelled
I had travel problems
I was told not to attend
Other 9% 5%
34%
18%
14% 1% 2%
15%
I had travel problems???
I attended a different group
Personal reasons.

11. Explanation of Attendance Data collected
Attended
Absent
* Zero
Attendance
Event types
null
Required : Lecture, Seminar, Tutorial ...
Optional : Drop-in, Sign-up-Seminar, Field trip...
* nulls could be due to zero attendance, timetabling errors, card readers not working, staff cancelling or moving sessions without informing timetabling or other unknowns.

12. Initial insights: Attendance data is not 100% accurate
(Based on the raw data…)
Attendance data is not 100% accurate
Students are Falsifying Attendance
Students are forgetting their cards
Overall attendance across the whole university is as low as 40% - 60%
Thousands of events are scheduled and have zero attendance

13. Falsifying Attendance
ENG Spot Check:
1st Check (week 31- snowing!)
2nd Check
Level Av
Class Size
Student Scans
Falsified Attendance 3
156 35 2 62 1 4
221 75 22 26 5
192 57 18 86
Zero students have been caught falsifying attendance for a second time.

14. Trial Temporary cards
10% of Engineering Students used the Trial Temporary card Service.
330 Temporary cards were issued to 201 unique students
>⅓ of the cards issued were not returned
130 Cards were not returned.
Cost of lost Temp cards = £55
1122 attendances were registered using Temporary cards (in Engineering)

15. Events with Zero Attendance
Events with 1 or more attendees Events with zero attendees
1258
758
356
423
483
392
387
430
CMIS week Number
Ignored (due to 0 registrations)
Closed
Total % % % % % % % % %
Note: This is early provisional data and may be subject to change.

16. TB2 Card Reader Attendance at Compulsory Events%
Note: this is for TB2 weeks 1-12 (CMIS weeks 24-35). This is provisional data and may be subject to change.

17. The Way Forward... Learner Analytics!!
Deal with falsifying attendance & improve data accuracy
Software to perform Spot Checks
Temporary card issuing at admin offices
Remove manual editing of data in SAMS
Address Non-Attendance issues
Understand the issues
Identify students at risk early
Propagate access to attendance data
Reporting / spreadsheets
Dashboard integration
Data analysis (AI)
Learner Analytics!!
student mental wellbeing in relation to retention, improving attainment

18. Any Questions?

20. Trial attendance vs achievement data for Level 3 2015-16
First Sitting Mark %
Attendance %

21. Good students perform better
Students progressing to integrated Masters Degrees 44
Students
% of Students 24
Students 28
Students 21
Students
Card Reader Trial

22. Operation of system
Blue light indicates session is open for registration
Opens 30 min before scheduled start time.
Closes at session end time.
Green light flashes with a short beep to indicate card has been read
Red light will show if student is not scheduled in that class.

23. Disciplinary Action for Falsifying attendance
First offence – warning (put on student file)
Second offence - Further
Third offence– Contract of conduct imposed and put on student record (minor offence)
Third offence – Allegation of Major offence submitted in writing to the Academic Registrar. (Major offence)