Or can I cannibalize any resource or activity to achieve my goal?
Once set up, this is to run totally without my intervention.
I simply don't want to take class time to call out names and take tally of who is there.
As it is, I place the daily password on the board. The students send it to me in the subject line in an e-mail message. They arrive at my computer and get sorted into a folder. If I ever need to know how many times some one was present, all I have to do is add up the e-mail message from that student. Yes, I am aware of possible misuse of my system but that is not really a problem.
I would like something in Moodle to do something similar.
A forum was considered but I want the messages to be sent to me only.
If Moodle can retain the stats, then I don't even need to use e-mail.
Thoughts appreciated.
There is an attendance plugin that allows students to take their own attendance in the Plugin Repository.
..and if you install the version from github you will find that the new version has a number of improvements to self marking including some automated marking processes. I will be presenting on the new features at the Sydney Moodlemoot later this month and will update the version in the plugins db at the same time.
That plugin is used by lots of people, has been around for a long time and comes from Catalyst, all good things in my view.
The system is not going to be modified, even for just a plug in, during the semester.
Can anyone see a way to do this with an activity?
All I want is for a student to send in the daily password and have the system send me a message accordingly. No one should passwords from other students or be bothered with messages as a form is inclined to do.
A no-subscriptions forum should do it but I believe that this has to be created before any student signs up for the course.
I really thought I had this one by using a forum.
Would this idea have worked if I had set this up before the semester started and I will have to wait until next semester to use this idea?
What about a timed/ password protected quiz with one question - 'Are you here?'
I thought about that but I have a times question/answer activity that is harrowing to set up and is hard to remind them in time.
Also, a single question quiz would have be another Moodle activity for each class period, no? Then I cannot imagine tallying the results.
Nice idea but been there....
A forum offers one location in Moodle but at the moment, I would end up sending an e-mail message to everyone for each student. Not a pretty sight.... If I could only turn off the subscription for this one forum. A forum just might tally for each submission/student if I set it up for one point each entry.
It might be more helpful to list the total constraints that you have/are self-imposing on the act of taking attendance. Every option presented is either really common or simple, but it seems you are looking for a fairly complex solution to a rather simple problem.
I can't begin to fathom the totality of educational situations but I've never come across something like what you are describing. What is unhelpful about students marking their own attendance and then running the attendance report-it provides a tally for each student by day, week, month, etc.? This literally takes a few seconds to do.
I considered the attendance module but it cannot be added to the system until after the semester is over so I am wondering if there is a way to abuse an existing activity similar to my using a forum as my daily curriculum. It takes some finger calisthenics to set up but once set up is extremely simple.
That said: I presently have students send me an e-mail message with the daily password which is written on the board. The subject lime is coded with CS113pw to tell my outlook to send that message to the PassWord folder. When needed, I sort by name and count the number of entries for the students. The password is included in the subject line.
Now for Moodle. Originally, I figured I would use a forum for this. The student enters the forum and enters the password during each class. The Forum is set up as No Subscription so that notices are not sent out to every student for ever password. Student gets 1 point for each entry. The tally is automatic.
The complication is that the semester has already started. I believe that I cannot set up a forum to No Subscription because students already registered in the course will be subscribed regardless of the setting. Therefore, I cannot create this after the semester has started.
I can create it just before the next semester starts but I would like to have it this year.
Does that help?
If anyone has any suggestions as to how to use a different resource/activity then I an open to new ideas.
There are security problems but they are really not a major issue.
Yes, it does help! I can't think of anything that would do what you want but perhaps some one else can.
On a related note, why can't you install the plugin to your system? This would also take a few minutes of time at most.
"On a related note, why can't you install the plugin to your system? This would also take a few minutes of time at most."
I am not in charge of the master Moodle and changes during the semester are frowned upon...
I don't think the forum cares if people are already enroled. No subscription means no subscription.
And the quiz idea is pretty good-- you'd set it to unlimited attempts and then change the open/close and password each afternoon. Each quiz attempt = one days attendance. Download the report, sort by day...super quick. And far less clunky than using forum, which you would need to use qa for and a new discussion every day, otherwise everyone would see others responses an be able to piggy back, even if they were not there.
Another option would be to use feedback the same way as quiz. The feedback reports are excellent. But I don't think there is a password option.
I tested the Forum and the description button near the choice of options for subscription does seem to verify that "No Subscription" is in effect only for new enrollments. It would have been be an excellent option for me had I started it before anyone enrolled.
I had not considered the Quiz only because I figured it would require a separate quiz every day requiring 36 of them. With the Unlimited Attempts it would allow only one quiz to serve them all. This is interesting because I am already using a quiz with unlimited attempts never considered it for attendance. ( :
I will set one up this morning to see if it works for me.
Thanks.
Everything about the quiz works to answer my problem except that I cannot review the the responses in all attempts in one screen shot. It looks as if I have to go in for each and every attempt to see if the proper password has been entered. As it is, a student can enter anything making entry from home possible.
For the question set up,
- Set the time to one minute.
- Set reattempt to one day.
- Set one answer rating to 100% and use the wild card (*) for the answer.
Smooth, except for that one major flaw.
I think I finally got this one landed. I can see the list of responses.
Open the Quiz then the administration tab menu is dedicated to the quiz. I forgot about that.
Quiz Administration/Results/Responses.
All student responses for all attempts will show and can be sorted on screen or exported to Excel.
I will launch this tomorrow and report the results.
The best art is that Moodle keeps a tally.
Steve, I am a little late to this discussion and might be missing your objective. It appears that you want to encourage daily activity from your students, and report it.
Might you simply use Moodle's log file? Export this to Excel, get rid of duplicates, etc., and then go at it using Excel tools, such as PivotTable? Or don't you have access to the logs? This might provide a bigger picture of student daily involvement across your entire course instead of one Quiz.
(If I am off-target, just disregard.)
I don't know nuttin about these log files but the use of a one question quiz seems to be the charm. Two clicks and I can see the list of daily passwords and one click to export them to Excel if I want.
It seemed to work very well today. Thursday will be the next test but I think the search is over.
I think I even saw a location where Moodle will tally the number of attempts/student.
Better and better....
Then you just need to convince the team to install the attendance plugin and it can be even easier next semester. You can even keep track of people who show up late.
Okay Steve, when you find a solution, stick with it.
Yes, as your students make more attempts, going into the quiz to review results should show you all of the attempts. Then you can export this information to Excel.