Automating Research with Google Scholar Alerts

July 1, 2010, 11:00 AM ET

The Attendance App for iOS devices

One of the only explicitly teaching-related iOS apps that I use is Attendance, a straightforward program by David Reed, a computer science professor at Capital University. I reviewed the app for Macworld.com upon its first release, and have used it religiously over the intervening 18 months.

Attendance has such a straightforward purpose that, frankly, I haven't paid much attention to the features added in recent updates. It turns out that Attendance is a universal app, in that it runs on iPhones, iPod Touches, and the iPad. While re-installing a copy on my iPad to get ready for summer teaching next week, and with a new version available in iTunes, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a fresh look at the app.

I liked the app because, with a 4/4 teaching load, I need things to be simple and convenient. Once you have the student names entered (more on this in a second), Attendance is dead simple to use: You open the app, pick the class, add a new date, and tap the list of students to mark them as absent, late, present, etc. At any time, you can e-mail yourself the record as a CSV file, readable by any reasonable spreadsheet program. My favorite feature has been the ability to get a name at random--handy for those times when you want to call on someone, but no one wants to talk! Those features have always been in the app.

Getting names into the app has always been the trickiest bit. In the original version, you could add them manually, or import them as a group from Address Book. (Of course, that meant getting them into Address Book . . . .) I always just add them manually, in part because it gives me a chance to mentally rehearse pronunciations. In a typical semester with 4 classes, I might have 100 students, so this isn't too big a hassle. The appearance of big lecture classes would probably change that calculus a bit!

Recent versions of the application have added some new functionality that makes the app even more attractive to iOS-orientated faculty:

The ability to make a quick note about a class, or a student, directly in the app. Sometimes, I'll forget to take attendance, and so automatically count everyone as present. (Because I don't like to punish students for my disorganization.) It's nice to have a place to record that.
Recent versions have more communication options: in addition to e-mailing a class's attendance record to yourself, you can e-mail an individual student their record, and you can e-mail all students absent on a given day, right from the app. (Provided, of course, you've captured their e-mail addresses.) In the brand-new iOS4 version, users can send SMS messages from the app, too! (This feature not available on iPads currently.)
Those notes and communication features support TextExpander!
Recent versions provide an in-app alert system: Once a student accumulates a certain (user-customizable) number of absences, their name turns red in the app.
You can now customize the labels for present/absent, etc.
There are more options for getting data into the app: can copy-and-paste CSV files from an e-mail, or retrieve them from a website--or by copy-and-paste from previous courses.
In addition to the random student feature, you can now get randomly-generated student groups.

The app is $3.99 on iTunes, which to my mind is a bargain for an app that you use for every meeting of every class you teach.

Here's a video Prof. Reed made of the application in action:

Image by Flickr user mackenzienicole / Creative Commons licensed

Comments

1. briancroxall - July 01, 2010 at 11:36 am

This app was indispensable to me this year in my own 4/4 schedule. Another great feature is that the developer, David Reed, is very attentive to emails and questions from users. He helped me figure out a few issues when I first started using the app through a quick exchange of emails.

2. michaelnelson - July 01, 2010 at 11:54 am

This is partly what I use Bento for. Of course, Bento works best if you have the desktop application as well. But you can use it as iphone-only.
For instance, I have it set up so that not only can I track their attendance and grades on assignments, but I also build-in rubrics for assessing class presentations. I can customize this quite extensively. I'll have a field, for instance, for "presentation-speaking" and then can select from a scale I hve made. And, of course, you can also have notes fields where you write in more description.
Definitely recommend people give it a try!

3. billiehara - July 01, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Are there comparable programs for the non-Mac, non-iPhone crowd? I use a Droid and a PC. ... or maybe this is an excuse to get an iPad...hmmmmm.

4. peril - July 01, 2010 at 01:48 pm

This is a great app.

For students (and teachers I suppose) iStudiez Pro is fantastic! It's wont a lot of awards and is constantly featured by Apple. (for you Jailbreakers it doesn't work if you have backgrounder installed)

Also for Mac there's a great App called Mental Case, it's a flash card manager. For students there's an iPod/Phone/Pad App that's really great. For teachers there's a free version called Mental Case Classroom with which you can effortlessly distribute your pre-made flash cards or notes (which are automatically sent to the students in your class using the App).

5. dave256 - July 02, 2010 at 08:59 am

Thanks for the review and positive comments about the app. Here's the web page for Attendance for anyone who wants to find out more about it: http://www.dave256apps.com/attendance/

Thanks,
Dave Reed

6. heatherwhitney - July 02, 2010 at 09:07 am

Thank you for bringing this app on my radar screen! I'm like Billie, I'd like to know about comparable programs for non-iOs implementations.

7. billso - July 02, 2010 at 05:32 pm

I hadn't heard of this app. It's a great idea, but I wonder if there potential FERPA issues in using an app full of student names on a personal iPhone or iPad.

8. george_h_williams - July 02, 2010 at 06:32 pm

@billso: You should check with the person on your campus who's responsible for ensuring compliance with FERPA.

9. dave256 - July 03, 2010 at 12:06 pm

As far as FERPA, I figure it's no worse than a piece of paper that I'm more likely to lose. I do use a passcode on my device which makes it more difficult for someone else to get at the data (although not impossible as supposedly you can mount an iOS device as a disk using Linux even if there is a passcode). The app also has a preference for using Bcc when emailing groups of people to prevent exposing email addresses to others in the group.

Dave Reed

10. emmadw - July 06, 2010 at 12:57 pm

A colleague has used an excel spreadsheet for attendance, but one thing that he'd set up was that by default, everyone was assumed to be present, so he just had to record the absences - which was quicker (assuming a >50% attendance!)
Does this have a similar option?

11. dave256 - July 07, 2010 at 03:30 pm

To emmadw:

Yes, you can set any status (including Present) you want as the default status. The app ships with Absent as the current default status, but can be changed to Present easily. The videos here show more info: http://gallery.me.com/dave256 and the specific video showing how to change the default status is: http://gallery.me.com/dave256#100061

Dave Reed