Elentra ME 1.22

Event Attendance Tab

New in ME 1.21!

  • The option to mark all learners as attended or as absent.

On the Attendance tab of an event page you can record attendance for an event. Elentra supports recording attendance manually, by having users swipe an id card (kiosk mode), having learners mark themselves present using geolocation checking, or by having users send a text message to confirm attendance (using Twilio).

Please note that there is a separate attendance tool for learners to record their attendance at clinical events (if you have scheduled learners into clinical events in the Clinical Experience > Rotation Schedule).

Event Facilitator Records Attendance

  • Click the checkbox beside the name of each learner in attendance. Click the checkbox again to change the attendance status.

  • Optionally mark all as attended or absent using the buttons at the top right (new in ME 1.21).

  • Changes are saved constantly so there is no Save button on the page.

  • Search for a learner by typing in his/her id number.

Any student whose absence is pre-approved via the Absence Management module will have a comment in the Notes section indicating so, they should still be marked absence by de-selecting the tick box. This will be recorded on their dashboard as an “Approved” absence.

Kiosk Mode - Learners Use ID to Confirm Attendance

Kiosk mode allows learners to swipe their school ids to complete the attendance record for the event. To use kiosk mode your organisation must set up some hardware and link it to Elentra to record attendance.

Once attendance kiosk mode has been configured it is easy to use.

  • Navigate to the relevant learning event page.

  • Click on the Attendance tab.

  • Click 'Kiosk Mode'.

  • When the green check mark comes up, learners can begin to swipe their cards.

You can download a CSV of learner attendance (blank or after completion) using the Download CSV button at the bottom of the page.

Any ISO 3 track magnetic card reader should to support for Kiosk Mode. Barcode scanners or RFID readers should work as well, as long as the result from the scan is the staff/student number in Elentra. Magnetic card readers are readily available and can be as inexpensive as $20.

Absence Management Module Connection

Elentra introduced an optional Absence Management module in Elentra ME 1.18. If the module is in use and configured to track attendance by event, you may see comments in the Notes section of an attendance page.

Geo-Location for Learners to Record Own Attendance

New in ME 1.19! Allow learners to confirm their attendance at events by marking themselves as present and feel confident they are being truthful by checking their physical location at the time of confirming attendance.

A database system setting is required to use this feature (location_attendance_active).

This feature relies on organizations entering longitude and latitude coordinates for their buildings in Admin > System Settings > Locations. Make sure you have done this before expecting learners to mark themselves present.

You must also enable Location Attendance Taking on each event where learners will be expected to confirm their attendance. Do this on the Setup tab of the event in the Event Options section.

When learners access the event they will be able to click a button to say "Mark Attendance."

They will be prompted to consent to sharing their location information by clicking Allow.

Their attendance will be confirmed or rejected based on their location.

SMS Attendance Taking using Twillio

Please note that Twilio is a fee-based service. If you choose to use this attendance option, your institution will need a Twilio account. See more at https://www.twilio.com/

This option allows learners to mark themselves present via text message using a code distributed during a learning event.

Requirements

  1. Your Elentra installation needs events_sms_attendance_enabled and twilio_enabled to be active. Speak to a developer about enabling the setting.

  2. An active subscription to Twillio SMS delivery service. Twillio may offer a trial period at no cost, but please be advised that there are fees associated with using Twillio.

  3. Learners need to provide their contact information in their user profile. Their numbers will be verified by Twillio.

Details

Elentra has been integrated with Twillio, allowing learners to send SMS message with an event code (generated during the event, by the faculty member), which will automatically mark the learner in attendance to the event.

Usage

  1. Create a Twillio account, specifically you want the Programmable Messaging service

  2. Create a phone number in your Twillio account

  3. Your developers need to modify Elentra's config.inc.php file and add in the details provided by Twillio, including the phone number

Once that's setup, people teaching an event can enable SMS mode on the attendance page of an event.

  • Teachers enter a timeframe (in minutes) for how long learners can mark their attendance.

  • Teachers click Generate Code. After the code is generated, teachers share the code and destination phone number with learners.

  • Learners text the code to the number provided.

  • After texting the code to the provided phone number the learner's attendance will be updated to present.

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