ATutor

Does ATutor have attendance functionality

• legend
  

  2007-12-14 21:13:34

  Does ATutor have attendance functionality

  I was wondering if ATutor enables student attendance entry... Can someone please clarify this fact?

• greg
  

  2007-12-15 08:53:22

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Not an attendance module, but you can use the content tracker to see which content pages have been visted, when, and for how long.

• sw0rdfish
  

  2007-12-18 01:35:59

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Why cant we include attendance module in next release? will you take this for consideration?
  
  Thanks

• purifier
  

  2007-12-19 19:54:29

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Yes I guess thats one important thing missing... Isn't it? But could you please tell me how a Content tracker can be used to check for attendance? I mean, a class attendance cannot be deduced from a content tracker if I'm not mistaken. Kindly correct me if I'm wrong...

• greg
  

  2007-12-20 12:32:02

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  swOrdfish
  An attendance module is rather low priority for us here. We have a very long list of things to do for the next year or two. I would suggest someone in the community create an attendance module. It would not be too difficult for an average php programmer.
  
  purifier
  The content tracker is not a perfect solution, particularly is students access tools, but not the content. But if you make content a part of your weekly lessons, it should give you a good idea of who is logging into the course. I suggest you turn on the tracker, and login to a course, and its content, to see the data that gets generated, and then decide if it will work for you.

• legend
  

  2007-12-20 13:30:49

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Alright. Yeah, you must be really busy considering the fact that the new versions are being released. I'll try developing this but based on your experience, do you have any guidelines on what an attendance module should contain from a programmer's and a users perspective? In other words a short design document.
  
  Thanks

• greg
  

  2007-12-20 13:52:33

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Here's a few things off the top of my head, using the hello world module as a start.
  
  Create a table with columns
  member_id
  course_id
  date
  
  In the module.php file, which get loaded each time a page loads, gather the member_id and course_id from the $_SESSION, and if both are not 0, or if the course_id changes, write an entry to the db table, and set a session variable that holds the login status (perhaps the course_id), and don't repeat the process if the status is already set, or something to that effect. You'll also need to reset the status when moving from course to course.
  
  There's a lot more you could do to turn this into a proper tracker module. Perhaps adding additional fields to the db table like page viewed, and perhaps logout time, etc. See the module developer doc and the hollo world module for documentation.

• legend
  

  2007-12-20 13:55:51

  Re: Does ATutor have attendance functionality?

  Oh... I wasn't talking about the introduction to ATutor. I've been using it for quite some time and I think I know a little. You might not remember but I submitted a payments module too for testing.
  
  What I meant was a structure for the attendance module in terms of features... Anyways, I'll try jotting down a few points for now.
  
  Thanks