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Anusha Suresh, asuresh, Problem Definition, 01/28/2019 UNC Check-in App: Increasing Widespread, Error-Free Adoption Problem Setting: At UNC, presently, there are several methods instructors utilize for daily attendance, including passing around a sheet of paper asking students to write their names down (which then gets manually inputted in the system later). ITS Teaching and Learning, a subgroup of UNC ITS, has developed a mobile application allowing students to check-in when in their course. Classrooms where the applications are piloted have a Bluetooth beacon allowing the students only to check in when they are near the beacon (in the classroom). The technology is being tested in about 15 courses with varying course sizes (anywhere from 20-30 student classes to large lecture halls). The idea is to remove as many of the manual aspects of attendance taking and replacing it with a more efficient system that doesn’t take time away from class AND can be used in student-success conversations. Problem Description: This new application is mobile only, and for UNC, cell phones and mobile devices are not required technology. However, for the Bluetooth beacons to remain reliable for validation, mobile devices have better location and Bluetooth capabilities than do laptops. Phones, though reliable, have impeding factors to accessibility, including but not limited to cost, lack of charge, overall usage etc. Internet connectivity is vitally important; ideally, all students and instructors using the application should be on a stable internet connection (in our case, Eduroam). Cell signals are weak in many classrooms thus Eduroam provides students and instructors a consistent platform for security and reliability. The final issue, that tends to be the higher-level issue encompassing these others is the question of how to track the attendance inclusively? Even with students who don’t have smart phones or forgot to bring it that day, they still need to report their attendance, and signing into another person’s app is not a possibility (device recognition plays a factor here). The project is meant to have rollout in the fall, so they would like to have ideas of what solutions could look like before then to have widespread adoption. Project Objectives: Mainly the project team would like to see solutions or remedies that are able to resolve the issues they are facing without instructors having to go back to “traditional” attendance taking measure. Taking time out of class isn’t the option, neither is students not having the ability to check in. The team would like a solution where students are able to check in while in physical proximity to class, without the phone being the dictating factor. One way in which the project could be measured would be by understanding the number of student able to check-in to class without the traditional methods (with errorfree use) and compare that to if solutions (outlined by the project team) were able to widen that population. Project Scope: Considering that the project is currently being piloted, we, as a team, would identify potential issues in the app presently, and assess the processes to understand the limiting accessibility factors that are inherently present. We would have to keep in mind that we would no longer be working with ~15 classrooms, but the overall 200+ that are a part of the UNC Campus. Eventually, they would like to understand what this technology would mean for clients outside of this community. Preliminary Observations: Usability of the app was better than expected. The app allows students and faculty to report any issue in the app, they may remain logged in, see all the courses they are enrolled in, their attendance in each of those courses, etc. Preliminary issues include how to have students understand their internet connections (which are stable, and which aren’t). The app makes it interesting because logging in and out of the app is hassle, which prevents students from borrowing another’s phone to check in. Its connection with the Bluetooth beacon prevents students in their dorm from checking in, as well as the potential for another student to inform them the check-in window is open (meaning there is no pin or code that could be texted). They have it mostly figured out, but the questions are how to make it better, reliable, and something instructors would like to use. Contact People: Jeremiah Joyner, Manager, ITS-Teaching & Learning Systems and Services, [email protected] Marla Sullivan, Technology Support Specialist, ITS - Teaching and Learning, [email protected]...