Professional Documents
Culture Documents
of
Electronic Attendance System
David Dearman
CSC318—The Design of Interactive Computational Media
October 8, 2008
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Executive Summary………………………………………………………...…3
2. Concept
o Vision Statement………………………………………………………...4
o Rationale…………………………………………………………………4
o Background and Motivation……………………………………….……5
o Stakeholders……………………………………………………………..5
o Assumptions…………………………………………………………..…6
3. Field studies
o Overview………………………………………………………………....6
o Questionnaires………………………………………………………..…7
o Interviews………………………………………………………………...7
o Observations………………………………………………………….…8
4. Analysis
o Stakeholder Descriptions………………………………………………9
o Personas……………………………………………………………..…12
o Essential Use Cases……………………………………………….….14
o Task analyses……………………………………………………….…16
5. Scenarios
o Scenario 1: The Late Student………………………………………...20
o Scenario 2: The Supply Teacher…………………………………….20
o Scenario 3: The Call Home………………………………………...…21
o Scenario 4: The Armed Intruder…………………………………...…21
6. Design requirements
o Functional requirements………………………………………………23
o User requirements……………………………………………………..24
o Usability requirements……………………………………………...…24
o Environmental requirements…………………………………………25
o Technical
requirements……………………………………………………….…..25
7. Appendices …………………………………………………..……………….27
o Group Responsibilities Breakdown
o Field study protocol…………………………………………………….
o Questionnaires………………………………………………………….
o Interview Protocol………………………………………………………
o Natural Observation Protocol………………………………………….
o Consent form……………………………………………………………
o Useful Raw Data………………………………………………………..
o Group Meeting Notes………………………………………………….
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Executive Summary
The objective of this study was to derive a more efficient and reliable way of taking the
attendance by understanding various schools’ existing system and its challenges. Our research
revealed that the current attendance system employed by schools around the GTA were
satisfactory, but could be improved. Presently, it poses two key problems; it regularly hinders
student learning, and it is a safety concern to have students in the hallways unsupervised
either because they were late or because they needed to deliver the attendance. We noticed
that it was an inefficient use of human resources in that a secretary was needed to scan in
records when it is a task that can be easily automated. After the interviews, we learned that
their current way of locating students during emergencies was unorganized. Specifically,
communicating between classrooms with school telephones proved limited and dangerous. With
these insights we hope to design a system where all the needs of the staff and students are
addressed.
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Concept
Introduction
School systems around the world are often regulated by strict rules and routines in order to
ensure that their staff and students have a safe environment to teach and learn in. Each
school's attendance system plays a vital role in ensuring school safety. It is the main way in
which schools keep track of where their students are at all times. For this reason, secondary
school teachers are required to take attendance for every class that they teach, and
elementary school teachers are required to take the attendance once in the morning, and once
in the afternoon. Administration staffs are then required to gather all of these records and
Vision
In order to alleviate some of the administrative and classroom tasks that office staff and
teachers are obliged to do everyday, we are proposing the Electronic Attendance System
(EAS). This system will: allow teachers to take attendance in an easy manner through the use
of a simple electronic device, remove the need for administration staff to manually enter each
classes' attendance into the school system, and make attendance records easily accessible
Rationale
Most schools in Toronto are employing the Trillium attendance system. With the use of this
system, teachers records student absences on machine-readable papers that are delivered to
the administration office by one or more students. However, many teachers and administration
staff feel that the system can be improved by being less prone to errors. For example, schools
using the Trillium system require teachers to bubble in the "Absent" column beside the names
of absent students on the machine-readable class list. But teachers often fail to fill the bubble
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status. Moreover, in the case of an emergency, teachers have to determine which students are
missing without access to an updated copy of the attendance on hand once it’s been delivered.
This is one of the many flaws with the current system. As these issues come to our attention,
we felt the need to develop a system that is capable of meeting all the needs of the staff and
students. That is, a system that is keeps a secure and accurate record of student attendance
where student data can be inputted in a fast, easy, and intuitive way. Furthermore, this system
should prove useful role in emergency situations such as a school fire or lockdown.
universal concern in recent years with the increased number of school shootings and other
security issues. For example, earlier this year five schools were forced to lock down when a
man with a gun was seen in the neighborhood. In emergency situations similar to this, we
learned that students are not allowed to use their cell phones. It is also worth noting that not
all students have cell phones. Panicked parents are left without means of contacting their
children. We hope to design a system that will help alleviate some of these concerns from
This is in addition to the amount of time staff spend on repetitive routines that can be carried
out by a machine.
Stakeholders
With the EAS, most of these tasks will be automated, allowing teachers and administration
staff to have more time to address other responsibilities. In addition, students will not have to
deliver class attendance and parents will receive earlier notices about the absence of their
child; calls will be made at the end of each period as opposed to the end of the day.
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Assumptions
Before researching we made the following assumptions:
• The current attendance system requires the teacher to devote a significant amount of
• Teachers and administration staff would prefer to use a more convenient way of taking
• EAS will save the valuable time of teachers, administration staff, and students.
• Students spend lot of time loitering in the hallways and it will be safer if we can
• Teachers and office administration use a telephone or public address (PA) system to
After acquiring a deeper understanding of our target users through field work, we have either
validated or falsified these assumptions. These will be discussed in the sections to follow.
Field Studies
The field studies conducted by our group consisted of questionnaires, interviews and
observations. To carry out our research we contacted and visited many schools within the
It proved difficult to gain formal admittance to schools as principals did not wish to disrupt
their routine. After contacting over 30 schools through phone calls and emails, we were
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Questionnaires
The questionnaires were designed to gather information about various schools’ present
attendance systems and the technical capabilities of their staff. It was a valuable tool in
obtaining data when interviews were not possible. Using a written technique allowed our
participants to sit down and formulate their thoughts—something that interviews and
observations prohibit by nature. The questionnaires were typed out and distributed during
school visits.
To summarize, we found that most schools are on the Trillium system which is consistent with
our initial assumption. Although we thought wasted time was the major flaw of their existing
system (with safety being something we could only enhance), our research indicates that the
lack of communication during emergencies in terms of accounting for missing students was a
On the technology front, the majority of participants interact with PCs on a daily basis. Those
who are less technically sound were familiar with interfaces such as ATMs and microwaves.
Interviews
We conducted a structured interview based on our questionnaire with one teacher from four
different schools across the GTA. Using a structured interview gave us a uniform way to
approach teachers from the different schools. Furthermore, we did not want to bog down
teachers with long questions that required in-depth answers. It allowed us to follow up with
questions only on the topics that peaked our curiosity. This proved to be an effective
Contrary to our initial assumptions, taking the attendance is not a time-consuming task;
however, one teacher expressed concerns about the disruptions that are associated with the
task. Between calls from the main office if they forget to bring down the attendance and
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sending students for admit slip if they are late, the system cuts into the student’s learning
time.
Additionally, in elementary schools, a class list is expected to travel with the class as they
move from period-to-period as a way of ensuring students are attending all classes. This
burdens the student with responsibilities that are unrelated to their studies.
When prompted about the school’s emergency procedures, we were informed that all schools
have an emergency class list located near the exit. The shortcomings, though, included not
having an up-to-date record of students who were present that day and the inability to track
Observations
It was inconvenient for us to observe classroom operations, but we had the opportunity to
observe a staff of the administration process the attendance forms. Our protocol involved
noting the specific tasks and the times that it took to complete them, prompting them with
allows us to see patterns and behaviours that the participants themselves weren’t aware of.
Through this technique, we learned that all elementary schools under the Toronto District
School Board (TDSB) have their own Safe Arrival Program (SAP) which is used to locate absent
students. The details of the SAP program differs from school to school, and often are
confidential.
In the school that we visited, the administration staff was required to contact all
parents/guardians of absent students within 30 minutes of the time that all machine-readable
attendance sheets are to be entered into the system. Specifically, in the morning, all
attendance sheets need to be scanned into the system at 10:00am. Similarly, in the afternoon,
all attendance sheets need to be scanned into the system at 2:00pm. Within 30 minutes of
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these times, the administration staff are to locate the absent students and take note of their
cause of absence. If the student or parent/guardian cannot be reached, the matter escalates
and safety precautions are taken to ensure the safety of the student. Again, the natures of
these precautions are different at each school and such information were not disclosed to us.
Through this observation, we learned that the administration staff are required to personally
call the parent/guardian of the missing children. The administration staff that we observed
knew three different languages, but this will most definitely be a problem for those
administration staffs who are not fluent in as many languages. Again this task can be
automated.
Analysis
Stakeholder Descriptions
The use of the attendance system is two-fold; the teachers must take the attendance, and the
administration must process it. However, as we will discuss in the following descriptions,
teachers are our primary stakeholders and the administration staff are our secondary
stakeholders.
Primary Stakeholders
The user group, teachers, would be the ones who will interact with our attendance system the
most. All teachers are required to take the attendance at least once for each class that they
hold. Although it is a simple task that takes no more than five minutes to complete, it is
repetitive and mistakes are easy to make due to the design of the current Trillium system
Under the Trillium system, teachers interact with rows of bubbles beside a student's name.
There are three bubbles for 'present', 'late', and 'absent' for five days of the week. Errors can
arise from filling the bubbles in incorrectly, misaligning the rows, or filling in the bubbles for
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the wrong date. Theoretically to save time, only late or absent students are recorded but it
takes time for the teacher to figure out who's not here. Until a student shows up late, they are
marked 'absent' which requires revision allowing for more opportunities to make mistakes. One
participant suggested they should record students who are present by responding to the
student's voice when their name is called. Although they are honest mistakes, both
Solution and consequence: two buttons for 'present' and 'late'; students with no marker are
defaulted as 'absent'. This design eliminates the problems of filling out a bubble incorrectly
and the need to adjust a student from 'absent' to 'late' by erasing and re-bubbling.
Secondary Stakeholders
Administration staff is the smaller user group and they deal with attendance at most twice a
day. In elementary school, calls are made to the parents of the students who are absent in the
morning and in the afternoon once all the classes have been accounted for. In high school, calls
are made at the end of the day. It is also the responsibility of the administration to remind
teachers who fail to deliver the attendance in time. This is a disruption in their work as well as
As a safety concern, administration needs a way to account for students who are not currently
in the classroom during emergency procedures. For example, during a lockdown, teachers are
instructed to lock the doors, relocate the students away from the doors and windows, and be
quiet. Students in the hallway or in the washrooms are directed to seek safety in the nearest
classroom. Once the doors are locked and the teachers are away from the entrances, students
are left to fend for themselves until they reach the office. In the office, there is no way safe
way to determine all the students who are missing. Teachers may inform the administration via
telephone, but there are risks (e.g. signs of life inside a classroom if there's an intruder in the
building) and restrictions (e.g. available phone lines, secretary to teacher ratio) .
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Solution and consequence: attendance records are transmitted directly to the office when
the teacher takes it. It alleviates the problem of the teacher forgetting to deliver the
records when it's done. The instantaneous nature of the EAS ensures an up-to-date record
During an emergency procedure, the administration and the teachers can communicate
silently via the system. The teacher will forward all the students in his classroom to the
central database. The system will compare these results to all the students who are at
school on that day. The system will also relay the safety of students who were adopted into
another classroom back to the teacher who is responsible for them. In other words, the
administration will know where all students are, and the teachers will know where all his
students are.
Tertiary Stakeholders
Parents and students are our tertiary stakeholders. Once the attendance is processed, the
results are relayed to the parents who may or may not be aware of their children's whereabouts
during school hours. Students who will be absent for a known period of time can have their
guardian notify the school to have their absence noted on the system.
In order to evaluate the needs of the students, we need to divide them into elementary and
high school students. The current system in elementary school requires one student to carry a
daily attendance sheet from period to period to verify that students are attending all classes.
Since classes move as a unit, the attendance moves with the class. Records are delivered to the
administration office twice in a day-the first period in the morning and the first period in the
afternoon.
The current system in high school requires the teacher to have an attendance sheet for each
class that they teach. Since the groups of student vary from period to period, the attendance
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moves with the instructor. Records are delivered to the administration office on a period-to-
In both cases physical artifacts are being transported and involve students missing a portion of
the class either from delivering the attendance or updating their status from 'absent' to 'late'
Parents and guardians need to be aware of their children’s whereabouts and behaviour at all
times. This is especially vital when a school is threatened, or when missing/being late for
Solution and consequence: class lists are pulled from the system on a device that is located
in each classroom therefore lifting these non-academic responsibilities off the students.
Up-to-date records of students under adult supervision will be available at any given time
with an electronic attendance system that operates in real time. It gives parents that extra
Personas
The following personas are based on our ideal and observed targets during the study.
Persona 1
Mary is a middle aged woman with a good education, a fair amount of teaching experience
and some technical skills with modern technology. Mary is a kind hearted person who takes
her responsibilities over her students very seriously. Due to recent events in the news about
violent intruders entering schools, she has become increasingly concerned. With her two
children (one in elementary school and one in high school), she can easily understand how
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parents may feel during an emergency. Mary wants the school to know her children’s
whereabouts at all times. If they were in trouble, she would want to know about it as soon as
possible. However, as a parent and a teacher, she must also extend her dismay towards the
time that is taken every day for the attendance and the disruptions that come with it.
Persona 2
second to none as he graduated top of his class back in China. Michael only recently moved to
Canada in the last few years from his home of Guangzhou, China. Although he was able to
attain a job teaching, it sometimes takes him a bit longer to comprehend English. Translating
what he understands in English into his instinctive Chinese thought process is usually what
Persona 3
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Joanne Varty (Secondary):
High school vice-principal, age 63.
“I want something that even I can use to help keep my school orderly and organized.”
Joanne is the kind of person who likes to keep her school in order. She is getting tired of all the students
barging into her office to get a late slip after being sent down by their teacher for tardiness. Due to
Joanne’s responsibilities as vice-principal, it is her duty to have a hand in preventing anything that can
disrupt the school's routine. Such disruptions in her opinion are robbing students of an ideal learning
environment and therefore should be eliminated. These ideals are spurred on by her 30 years of experience
teaching before modern media and electronic gadgets began to litter schools. However, not growing up in
the technology boom has prevented her having a firmer grasp on modern electronics.
Case 1 - Daily Use: A daily record of who is present and who is absent. If a student is absent,
Case 2 - Emergency Use: Means of communication between the administration and the
teaching staff to keep track of where students are in the school building during an emergency
situation.
Use cases are abstracted in the sense that user intentions are separated from system
responsibilities so that the 'system' can either refer to the current Trillium system or our
proposed EAS. The EAS will require the user to do less work in facilitating the system
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procedures whereas many of the ‘system’ responsibilities are carried out by people in the
Trillium system.
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User Intentions System Responsibilities
Wants to find all adopted students
Generates a list of all adopted students
Wants to notify teachers whose
students have been adopted that
their students are safe
Update record on teacher's end
Wants to find all students who are
unaccounted for
Generates a list of missing students (students that were
neither marked off by the teacher who is responsible
for them nor an adopted teacher).
Task Analysis
0. Taking Attendance
1. Get the class list
1.1. Open up the attendance folder
1.2. Find the attendance sheet corresponding to the class that
they are teaching.
2. Call out a student’s name
2.1 Listen for the student’s response
2.2 Mark off the student: Bubble in or recognize that the
student is present
2.3 Mark off the student: Bubble in that the student is absent
3. Wait until it is time to deliver the attendance
3.1 Open up the attendance folder
3.2 Mark off the student: Bubble in that the student is late
4. Get a student to deliver the attendance to the administration to the
administration office
5. Send the student to the administration office to get a late slip in order to
correct his/her attendance record
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1.2 Remind teachers to submit their attendance records if
theirs is missing from the current set
2. Put the machine-readable attendance sheets through an appropriate scanning
device
3. Start up the Trillium software to generate the results of the gathered machine-
readable attendance sheets
3.1 Generate the list of absent students
4. Make phone calls to the parents/guardians of absent students
4.1 Update the note of absence for that student
4.2 Leave a message on the parent/guardian’s voicemail if a
voicemail box is activated
5. Update the attendance records with note of lateness
Note: Please see the next two pages for the corresponding task analysis trees. The plans
associated with each task analysis can also be found on the next two pages.
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0
Plan 0:
Daily Attendance: Taking
Do 1-2-3-4.
Attendance
If student arrives late, then do 5.
1 2 3 4 5
Get the class list Call out a student’s name Wait until it is time to Get a student to deliver the Send the student to the
deliver the attendance attendance to the administration office to
administration office get a late slip in order to
correct his/her attendance
Plan 3: record
Plan 1: If a student arrives late, do
1.1 – 1.2 3.1-3.2
Plan 2:
Do 2.1
Do 2.2 or 2.3 depending on the student’s attendance.
Repeat Plan 2 until the class list is exhausted.
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0 Plan 0:
Daily Attendance: Processing When it is time to process the attendance records,
do 1-2-3-4.
the Attendance Records
If a student arrives late, do 5.
1 2 3 4 5
Make sure all attendance Put the machine-readable Start up the Trillium software to Make phone calls to the Update the attendance
records have been attendance sheets through generate the results of the parents/guardians of absent records with note of
received an appropriate scanning gathered machine-readable students lateness
device attendance sheets
Plan 3:
Do 3.1.
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Scenarios
Scenario 1: The Late Student
It is a Thursday morning at Morningwood High School. It is 9 a.m. and the bell rings for classes
to begin. Meanwhile, Joseph rushes to school after accidentally sleeping in. He runs down the
hall and opens the door to his first class, computer science with Mr. Michael Tao.
Unfortunately, the clock reads 9:30 a.m.; he is late. Mr. Tao stops his lesson on algorithm
complexity to confront Joseph. Arriving late for class after the attendance is done without a
note warrants a trip back to the office to get a late slip. As a result, Joseph is sent down to
the office to gain admittance. The secretary at the desk, Victoria, sends Joseph to the vice-
principal. Joseph waits in line to see him. Eventually, it is his turn and he approaches the vice-
principal's desk. After a brief explanation, Joseph is given a late slip and his status is updated
on the school system. Joseph leaves the main office and heads back to class. After showing Mr.
Tao his late slip, Joseph sits down in his seat to begin his studies. Mr. Tao glances at the clock
It is a snowy morning at Morningwood High School. All students of Mr. Michael Tao's software
engineering class are awaiting their teacher. Five minutes into class with no teacher, the door
opens and a woman walks in. The woman speaks, “Hello, my name is Mrs. Erica Cheran and I
will be your supply teacher for today. Unfortunately, your regular teacher is having car
troubles and will not be able to be here until later on.” After this explanation, she begins
reading off names from the class list. The morning roll call was uneventful except for one
student playing hooky. Unknown to the supply teacher, one of the missing student's friends
acknowledged that he was present when Erica called the absent student's name. As a result, a
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Scenario 3: The Call Home
It is 3:30 p.m. and the end of classes at Morningwood High School. Calvin rushes home from
school with a very worried look on his face. He opens his front door and throws his school
things on the kitchen table. Calvin sits and waits by the phone. Minutes later, the phone rings
and Calvin immediately picks it up. Unaware to Calvin, his mother is home and also picks up
the phone.
“This is Morningwood High school...” Calvin hangs up the phone. Calvin's mother Veronica, on
the other hand, continues to listen to the message. It is an automated message from her son's
school. She listens intently to the rest of the message. “This is Morningwood High School. Your
child, Calvin, missed periods one and three today. Please talk to your child about this.”
Shocked, she hangs up the phone. Slowly, she walks into the kitchen to talk to her son. She
asks who was on the phone. He lies and tells her it was a wrong number. It seems that Calvin
It is a Monday morning at Greenwood Public School. The sun is shining and all the school
children are busy learning. In the main office, secretaries, principal and vice-principal alike
are going on about their regular administrative duties. Joanne is one such individual and is
dealing with the inaccuracies that appeared in the daily attendance records. Every so often,
she glances up to look at the clock in her room. When she takes a second to look at the
surveillance video of the school's exits, she notices something out of the ordinary. She sees an
unidentifiable man enter the school concealing something in his jacket. With the possibility of
it being a weapon, she announces over the intercom, “Attention, code red lock down. I
repeat, code red lock down. This is not a drill.” Immediately, one of the school secretaries,
Margaret, locks the main office door, turns off the lights and closes the blinds on all windows.
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Meanwhile, the other secretary, Victoria, calls the local authorities. The sounds of doors
closing begin to be heard all throughout the halls of the school. Different groups of people are
“Attention, code red lock down. I repeat, code red lock down. This is not a drill.”
Mary Reynolds, a grade 3 teacher, hears the announcement and acts. After locking the door,
turning off the lights and covering the windows, Mary quiets her class and urges them to sit
quietly on the ground, and away from the door and windows. After a quick head count, she
realizes there is one child missing. However, she cannot tell who it is. She goes through the
list of children again, having to double checking as she goes along. Then she realizes that little
Angus is out of the room in the bathroom. Mary grabs the phone and frantically calls nearby
classrooms to see if little Angus ran into one of their classrooms. Unfortunately, every teacher
tells her that all their students are accounted for and that they would not know what Angus
After Mary hangs up the phone on her last call, she hears banging on the door. Everyone in the
room gasps as the intruder tries to force the door open. After a few seconds of struggle with
the door, the intruder gives up and moves on. That was a close call on Mary’s part. It seems
that because she was unaware of the whereabouts of one of her students, the intruder almost
“Attention, code red lock down. I repeat, code red lock down. This is not a drill.”
The lights in the bathroom suddenly dim. Angus, busy washing his hands, becomes dazed with
the shock of darkness and the announcement. Consumed by fear, Angus begins to panic. His
loud cries turn to sobs as no one comes to his aid. With all the noise, someone unwanted may
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Perspective 3: Outside School Grounds
“This is Greenwood Public School. A potential armed intruder has entered the school. We
An operator at the local police station receives the message and forwards it to the chief of the
department, Carl. Carl sends the order for all nearby units to proceed to the school. Minutes
later, Greenwood is isolated by police. The contingent of police is led by Sergeant Leonard Tse.
Orders are issued to all able bodies. The most important task is to obtain an accurate list of
the student body and staff. The list of missing students and staff is requested by Sergeant Tse.
Unfortunately, the current up-to-date list of students and staff is unavailable. It takes time to
request information from classrooms via the room phones. Sergeant Tse has the tough decision
to either wait for an up-to-date list or to go in with the attendance taken earlier that morning.
“Tell me your class number and any students that may be missing.”
All the secretaries, vice-principal and even the principal, Roy Johnson, are taking calls from
teachers to record their present students. Calls are backed up awaiting someone to attend to
“This is the special forces outside. We are going to make our move in five minutes. Let all
teachers know that they are not to open their doors. Don’t even open it for a voice announcing
The principal receives this call from the outside. Unfortunately, there is no way to relay that
information to all the classrooms in five minutes without alerting the intruder. If there was
only a way to let the classrooms know all at once without announcing it.
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Design Requirements
Functional Requirements:
Description: • The device must provide accurate and up-to date attendance listings.
• The device must reduce the chance of user error and make it easier to
correct any mistakes.
• The device must contain all the necessary features while remaining
affordable for many schools.
Reasoning: • This would reduce wasted time and provide an accurate report to track
of students during a high stress situation. (e.g. lockdown).
Method of • Testing will be done in parallel to the current system in real world
Evaluation: situations like everyday attendance and lockdown drills.
User Requirements:
Description: • Teachers and administrative staff, who handle the attendance, must
have some knowledge with electronic devices.
Reasoning: • It would not be feasible to make a device to accommodate for all types
of devices.
Usability Requirements:
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Description: • The device must require little or no training to use device.
• The device must have a simple and intuitive interface for people with
little technical knowledge.
• The number of button presses to complete the task must be kept low.
Reasoning: • Most people would prefer that the interface resembles some device that
they currently use. This would reduce the time taken to get accustomed
to the device.
• The system must be efficient and quick to use as teachers would like to
minimize time used in taking attendance.
Method of • Prototype testing, will determine what each user liked/ disliked about
Evaluation: the interface.
Environmental Requirements:
• It is not feasible for a school to allow for long down times to install the
system.
• Constant replacement due to wear and tear costs time and money.
Method of • Feasibility study to determine how easily the system can be installed
Evaluation: and a cost evaluation on maintenance of system over time period.
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Technical Requirements:
Description: • The device must have wireless connectivity to the main server.
• The device must have a method of input: Buttons, touch screen or some
combination.
• The device must have a fairly large screen to maintain font readability
while displaying lists.
• The device must be light and simple to mount on a wall, without the
need for complex support.
Reasoning: • The panels need to be used fairly often so it is vital that the device does
not cause eye strain to the user.
• In the case of a fire drill, the panel needs to have enough battery life to
take attendance outdoors. The device also needs to be light weight so
that it is easy to carry.
• The wireless connectivity would allow for easy and cheap installation
into the classrooms.
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APPENDICES
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Group Responsibilities Breakdown
Name Tasks and Time Taken Total
Estimated
Time
Spent
Victoria Mui - Designed and distributed survey (3 hour)
- Data collection (interviews etc...) (6 hours)
- Editing (4 hours)
- Organizing appendices (1 hour)
- Contacted potential users (schools) (5 hours) 25 hours
- Scheduled prototype testing with schools (2 hours)
- Concept mapping and introduction (3 hours)
- Created task analysis tree visualization (1 hours)
Brian Shim - design basic section outline for write-up (1 hour)
- Personas section (3 hours)
- Situations section (4 hours)
- Data collection (interviews etc...) (6 hours)
- Distributed survey (1 hour) 23 hours
- Made survey available online (1 hour)
- Editing (4 hours)
- Contacted potential users (schools) (3 hours)
Veronica - Data collection (interviews etc...) (6 hours)
Wong - Designed and distributed survey (3 hours)
- Editing (4 hours)
- Led the meeting when distributing tasks (1 hour) 23 hours
- Stakeholder descriptions (3 hours)
- Raw task analysis tree (vision) (4 hours)
- Essential use cases (2 hours)
Joseph Ng - Design Requirements (5 hours)
Chow - Data collection (interviews etc...) (6 hours)
- Editing (4 hours)
- Distributed survey (1 hour) 22 hours
- Contacted potential users (schools) (1 hour)
- Research potential system designs (3 hours)
- Minute taker at meetings (2 hours)
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Field Study Protocol
1. Project Title: Interviews and Observations of teachers and administration
2. Investigators:
3. Purpose: The purpose of our research is to understand the duties of teachers and
administration staff in the TDSB to help us derive requirements for the design of novel
interactive computational media that are intended to be useful to the aforementioned
teachers and administration staff. A brief description of our design concept is: an electronic
attendance system that will collaborate data between administration and teaching staff.
4. Process to be followed: We will brief the participants about the purpose of the study,
explain the consent form to them, and ensure that they sign the consent form. We will then
engage the participants in <data gathering techniques to be used, for example, an hour-long,
semi-structured interview>. We will also with their permission make observations as follows:
<description of observation procedures to be used and the workplace or living space or
environment in which the study will be conducted>.
5. Participant selection: Participants will be chosen from teachers and administration. They
will be identified via school visits and selected according to schedule availability. In general,
they will be characterized by responsibilities.
7. Risk and benefit: There will be minimal risk to the participants, for example that they feel
that they have wasted their time. The only benefit will be to contribute to the education of
the investigators. Participants are free to withdraw before or at any time during the study
without the need to give any explanation.
8. Consent details: We will brief the participants about the purpose of the study, and explain
the attached consent form to them, and ensure that they consent to participate and sign the
consent form.
11. Confidentiality: Information will be kept confidential by the investigators. Names or other
identifying or identified information will not be kept with the data. The only other use will be
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to include excerpts or copies in the assignment submitted, but names and other identifying or
identified information will not be submitted.
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Questionnaires/Interview Protocol
Interview Protocol:
required topics
Teachers:
Grade:
Subject:
Regarding Attendance
Briefly describe your school’s current attendance system.
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How often do you take the attendance each day?
How much time is required to take the attendance for each class?
In the case of an emergency, how do you make sure all your students are
accounted for?
Regarding Technology
How often do you interact with a computer?
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1 (rarely) 2 3 4 5 (very often)
Which of the following interfaces are you more familiar with (check all that apply)?
Additional Comments
Administration Staff:
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Regarding Attendance
Briefly describe your school’s current attendance system.
For each day, how much time is allotted towards organizing attendance records?
On average, by what time do you receive all the attendance in the building?
In the case of an emergency, how does the current system account for all the
students?
Regarding Technology
How often do you interact with a computer?
Which of the following interfaces are you more familiar with (check all that apply)?
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__ a mobile phone
__ a personal computer
__ a Global Positioning System (GPS)
__ a microwave
__ an MP3 player
__ a gaming console
Additional Comments
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Natural Observation Protocol
Take note of:
- Mark down procedures that you don’t understand. It is at your discretion whether to ask
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Consent Form
I hereby consent to participate in a research study conducted by Victoria Mui, Joseph Ng
Chow, Brian Shim, and Veronica Wong.
I understand that the purpose of this study is to better understand the current school
attendance system.
Participant:
Investigator(s):
Signature ______________________________
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Useful Raw Data
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Group Meeting Notes
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