Attendance App for Teachers | Free, Automatic | Acadly
One-tap mesh-network based attendance on Acadly
Update
The Acadly platform supports all these methods for attendance automation:
- Acadly Here: Standalone attendance-only product for automating attendance in in-person settings. Has a free plan. Open for all. App-only.
- Acadly Basic: Attendance automation and student engagement product. Most useful for in-person settings. For higher-ed only.
- Acadly Pro: Virtual classroom upgrade for Acadly Basic, powered by Zoom integration. Built to support online, hybrid and in-person teaching and learning. Supports online and hybrid attendance.
Acadly is a student engagement platform and attendance automation platform. It allows professors to host live polls, quizzes, discussions, share content, invite Q&A and record attendance inside the classroom.
The Attendance Problem
Recording and documenting student attendance can be incredibly time-consuming and tedious. While the benefits of doing so are well documented in research, app-based solutions for attendance still rely heavily on manual input.
On the other hand, some ‘automatic’ attendance apps use deeply flawed methods to record attendance, such as password-based or GPS-based attendance.
- Password or code-based “verification” is as imperfect as it gets. Students can simply text the password to those outside the classroom.
- GPS-based attendance doesn’t cut it either. GPS signals are weak indoors and non-existent underground, which increases the chances of false negatives. More importantly, students can “spoof” or fake their GPS locations using a number of apps on both Android and iOS (1, 2, 3), which makes the process vulnerable to dishonesty.
So what kind of verification would work? We thought about it long and hard, and zeroed in on an idea that is easier to imagine than to execute
Mesh network based attendance
Your smartphone has a number of ways of getting cues about its surroundings and making direct, peer-to-peer connections. If one were to use just one of the available mechanisms, the process would be imperfect and the chances of failure quite high.
In light of the challenges presented by smartphone operating systems, what Acadly does is quite remarkable. It allows the attendance signal to propagate throughout the classroom via mesh-networking, and here’s what this means:
Not inside the class? No attendance
Simple as that. Only local signals inside the classroom help one get marked present, and there’s no way to outsmart that. If someone’s logging in from home, they will not be marked present.
What’s the benefit?
It depends.
- If you have to record attendance, you either spend 5 minutes of class time doing roll calls or use paper. One takes too much time and the other makes the attendance data available to you in a form that is scarcely usable, which brings us to the next point…
- If you don’t have to record attendance, it is still extremely useful to have it available on the same platform as the one where you host assignments, quizzes, polls, discussions and other course activities. This helps the platform do the dirty work for you. E.g., give you insights about student behavior, participation and interest in the course.
It works anywhere
Your classroom could be 100 feet underground. As long as there’s an internet connection, mesh networks will do their magic.
What’s the range?
These are mesh networks, so the range isn’t an issue. Acadly has been used in classrooms with as many as 350 students, and it works equally well for jumbo classes too.
What are the privacy risks?
Practically none. Acadly does not use geolocation tracking and never accesses or stores anyone’s geographical location. All it tracks is whether or not your students are in your proximity.
What do you need to make it work?
Both the professor and students need the Acadly app (available on Android and iOS) on their phones. Acadly is available on the web as well, but the instant roll call feature works only on the apps.
What if someone doesn’t have an Android or iOS smartphone?
Students who don’t have a smartphone can walk up to the professor once the lecture ends and get themselves marked present manually. All you need to do to mark someone present is to tap on their name.
Will this drain my battery?
The Acadly app automatically switches the radios on your phone off once the attendance process is over to minimize energy consumption.
What if someone is standing right outside the door?
You can take attendance any time you want during the lecture. So if someone is willing to stand right outside the door the entire time… well yes. They can then fool the system.
Is it foolproof?
If someone sends their phone with to class with a friend, they can still get attendance. Apart from that, there’s no way to cheat the system.
How does it compare with the alternatives?
Here’s a holistic rubric based comparison:
Cool, I want to see it!
Here’s the complete demo video.
What else does Acadly do?
Glad you asked!
- Interactive online classes with Zoom integration
- Interactive in-person classes
- Live polls and quizzes (no limits on class size)
- Social Q&A & instant messaging
- Participation tracking and learning analytics
Here’s the promo!
If you’re interested in using some of the most cutting edge easy-to-use technology available, visit www.acadly.com and get your free account now.
Happy teaching!
