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Using Mobile Readers for Attendance Tracking and Assessment

Learn how The University of Texas at Dallas uses mobile card readers for attendance tracking and assessment to improve student engagement and success. Discover the reasons behind expanding the program, the equipment used, reservation process, Odyssey configuration, data exporting, assessment results, and challenges faced.

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Using Mobile Readers for Attendance Tracking and Assessment

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  1. Using Mobile Readers for Attendance Tracking and Assessment Presented by: Joel Dille, The University of Texas at Dallas

  2. eSports Program Started in Fall 2018 Began as Graduate Research Only 1969 Admitted Juniors and Seniors in 1975 Located in Richardson, Texas First Freshman class in 1990 Enrollment more than 27,600 In 2018 Qualified for National Research University Fund

  3. The Comet Card Office Where the Magic Happens • CBORD Products • Odyssey PCS • GET Funds, Food & My Card • UGRYD • Micros 3700 • Carding System • PremiSys ID Pro • Queuing System • QLESS

  4. Assessment What Prompted the Need to Expand Mobile Reader Program? It started with our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) as part of our reaffirmation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) • Major aspect of QEP involved student engagement • Increasing levels of student engagement will improve retention and student success • Would need to be able to identify program attendees for demographic information instead of just head counts

  5. Equipment What Prompted the Need to Expand Mobile Reader Program? • Prior to Fall 2017 we were using the Troubadour handhelds • Only had six in inventory • Hardware became unreliable • Transactions were offline • Met with Office of Assessment in Summer 2017 • Discussed expanding mobile reader program to capture attendance for most programs within Student Affairs • Would need more card readers in order to keep up with the demand • We had already tested mobile activities with an iPad and decided this was the time to implement a new card reader program • Usage of cards readers was strongly encouraged by VP of Student Affairs • They covered the cost of five devices • VP stressed importance of using mobile card readers at multiple division meetings 

  6. Equipment Our current inventory of Mobile Card Readers • Twelve iPads • Approximately $400 per device • Five iPods • Approximately $250 per device • iMag Pro II • Connects through the lightning jack • Has Micro USB port • Devices are restricted to only allow access to Odyssey app • We use a dummy account to access the campus Wi-Fi

  7. Reservation Process • All requests must be sent to our shared inbox • We use cometcard@utdallas.edu • Requests must include • Office/Department • Event Name • Start/End Time • Expected # of Attendees • Allows us to know how many readers to reserve per event • Requests have a few guidelines • Expected attendance of 25 or more • Not for regular meetings • Must bring Comet Card when picking up and returning readers • Reservation is added to a shared calendar • Each reservation is assigned an event login that allows for Assessment team to distinguish attendees when multiple events occur

  8. Odyssey Configuration Users and Terminals • Ten generic user accounts for the mobile readers • Nine users are for regular attendance • Any active cardholder will be validated • Tenth user is for special events that includes a specific subset of attendees, i.e. Seniors only events • Ten separate terminals were created • Each terminal is assigned to a specific mobile user account

  9. Odyssey Configuration Users and Terminals

  10. Odyssey Configuration Exporting the Data An automated export runs every morning for the mobile activity transactions from the previous day • Our department and the Office of Assessment receive an email with the export results attached as an Excel file • The export is set to show all activity on the terminals that are tied to the mobile user accounts

  11. What Happens to the Data • Assessment team creates a separate file for each program • This file is shared with the department that sponsored the program • This file is then imported to the Student Engagement Access database • Database also has data from student information system (PeopleSoft) & Residential Life system (StarRes) • Initial results include data from August 2017 through April 2018 • 390 events • More than 50,000 swipes

  12. Assessment Results

  13. Assessment Results

  14. Issues So Far • Mobile readers will only connect to Odyssey server if connected to campus Wi-Fi • Eliminates using devices from some outdoor events • Some areas on campus have poor Wi-Fi in general • Some people still do not understand how Wi-Fi works • Departments want to have their own departmental iPad instead of reserving ours

  15. joel@utdallas.edu Questions?

  16. We want your feedback! Please evaluate this session in the ERMobile app. Your feedback helps usimprove future sessions. Find this session in the app,and touch COMPLETE SESSION SURVEY. Thank you!

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