ampEducator - Hour Clock, Course Events & Attendance Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Attendance in ampEducator

2. Attendance Details in a Course

3. Creating Course Attendance Events in ampEducator

4. Bulk Update Course Attendance Events

5. Updating Attendance Events Using Evaluations

6. Collaboration Attendance (Zoom Meetings)

7. Generate Attendance Report(s)

8. Import Student Attendance from CSV file.

9. Hour Clock in ampEducator

10. Generating Student ID Cards

11. Scanning Student or Staff ID Cards.

1. Attendance in ampEducator

ampEducator allows you to track Attendance and Hours together or separately and has sections to record both independently of each other if required. This may seem confusing at first glance but is purposely designed to meet the needs of 'Clock Hour' institutions where the Attendance or Hours are not specifically related to a Course, for schools where students are attending asynchronously (at different times) or when the scheduling/capacity of the Course simply needs Attendance to be more flexible than the traditional models. For example, a Student can be clocked in and out at specific dates and times or marked Present and in both cases Hours can be tracked, but how this applied in practice really depends on determining the best approach to save time for your staff.

Present, Late, Authorized Absence, Left Early, Not Participating and any other Custom Penalties with Notes can be created and/or Students/Staff can optinally sign themselves in using digital ID/printed card with USB bar code scanner or by logging into the Hour Clock webpage with Username. Additionally, Attendance can be entered (created) on-demand when using Evaluations. Attendance is also tracked when using Collaborations (Zoom Meetings) if enabled. Attendance is typically recorded by staff (usually instructors assigned to the Course on a computer or tablet directly in ampEducator) for each Course. Attendance can be updated for all Students at once or individual Students and there are options to Auto Mark Present (or Absent) all Students in Course so that you only have to record the Students who have missed class or allow to the system to mark Students absent who did not sign in that day. We also offer built-in Reporting tools that allow you to set Thresholds to track Student Attendance and then email reports to Staff and Student Warnings when these Thresholds are met automatically. All of these options along with Make Up Attendance dates and Override features give you a high degree of control to meet all the challenges of your Attendance tracking in ampEducator.

No matter what workflow you ultimate decide on with ampEducator Hours and Attendance, before you can record any Attendance for a Student in a Course you should understand Attendance Events within Courses. If there are no Course Attendance Events added then nothing will display under the Attendance Tab in that Course. If you are just interested in tracking time in and time out daily and hours per Student (not related to specific Course), then you do not need to add Attendance Events or use Attendance in a Course and can simply add Hours to the Student in their Profile. If you wish to do both you can Link Attendance in the Hour Clock to update Attendance automatically when the Student signs in using the Hour Clock and update Course Attendance occurring at the same time. Note: Attendance Events do not need to be added when using Evaluation Attendance and Collaboration (Zoom Meeting) Attendance as these are created automatically.

If you have a large amount of Courses to manage or are looking for a faster method, there is an option to Import Courses and Create Events automatically using CSV (Excel) Templates to save time as well at Importing Student Attendance once the Course is created with Events. If you prefer to try this option rather than using our User Interface to add Course(s) and Course Events for Attendance Tracking then please see Home > Imports.

2. Attendance Details in a Course

Before you "Add Attendance Event(s)" to the Course, the Course Attendance Type needs to be set. Again, this depends on the requirements of the Course as some schools are Clock Hour schools rather than Standard Attendance schools that just need to record Present, Late or Absent - See #3 Creating Events in ampEducator.

The Attendance Type is selected as a pulldown under Course Details > Details > Attendance Type:

Attendance Type. There are 2 types of Course Attendance in ampEducator "Standard" and "Hourly". When starting (or importing) any Course the Attendance Type under Course Details defines what Course Attendance input options will be displayed for Instructors (or Staff with access to the Course) to enter for Students once Course Events are added.

If "Standard" Attendance Type is selected the following will be presented under Course > Attendance Tab for each student under each Course Event that is scheduled. To edit the Attendance for the Course Event, simply click the Date to make the Column Active (it will turn Green).

If "Hourly" Attendance Type is selected a box will appear allowing the Instructor (or Staff) to enter the hours as required rather than selecting Present, Absent, etc. Tip: If the shortcut at the top is checked off below the Date - this assigns the Hours available to all Students for the Event (ie. If each event is 1 hour, then 1 hr will appear in all the students boxes). To clear the list check the (-) button.

Tip: To save time we have added a shortcut to make all Students Present or Absent. Checking this off below the Date assigns this Attendance outcome for all Students. To clear the list check the (-) button.

Check Mark = Present, If Attendance Hours for the Event are entered - then 100% will assigned to the Student.

X = Absent, 0% Hours Assigned to the Student.

A = Authorized Absence, No Hours assigned, Student was Absent with Reason and Absence not counted against Student. Click X, then A to set this Attendance outcome. An example of this would be Absent, but had doctor or dentist note and a note of this would be entered under the Attendance details by clicking the magnifying glass.

There are 3 examples of Late Attendance outcomes for Student Late tracking or "L". Please see below:

Example 1. A student can be Late for class L and you would select L for this and the default time would be deducted from the student. (We set this at 15 minutes but you can edit this to be whatever you require).

L = Late, applies the Default set minutes under Username (Top Right) > Institution Config > Courses > Defaults > Default Late Amount (min) = 15 minutes (or whatever you set here).

Example 2. A Student Left Early. For this you would select L, then ! to pick Left Early from the Attendance Penalty custom list.

! = Late Penalty, applies the Late Penalty that you select. Administrators can edit this list and the penalty minutes under Username (Top Right) > Institution Config > Courses > Penalties.

Example 3. A Student was late for class and then left early as well. For this you can select "L" and "!" to indicate both outcomes. To edit the penalties (if required) you can do this under the magnifying glass for the student Attendance Details. See Below.

Auto Mark Present. If the Auto Mark Absent option is checked under Course Details > Details > Attendance a job runs nightly (after midnight) which marks all student present for that day in all courses in which this option is selected and which have course events for that day.

Auto Mark Absent. If the Auto Mark Absent option is checked under Course Details > Details > Attendance, ampEducator will check the previous day for no Attendance entered (ie. empty attendance fields) and if no Attendance was taken the Student will be automatically be marked Absent for the previous day by ampEducator. Otherwise if Auto Mark Absent is not checked then Instructors (or Staff) will need to mark Absent for each day the Student is away for Absent to be counted.

3. Creating Course Attendance Events in ampEducator

Course Events are scheduled Event "Dates" that Students can attend for the Course. Course Event Attendance Hours are the Hours that Students receive when marked Present. Course Events can have 'Identifiers' that are optional but useful to help Students and Staff identify the Event (ie. Lab, Theory, Test, Final, Field Trip, etc.) and multiple Course Events can be added at the same time on the same day as long as they don't occur at the same time (Example: Monday 9-10am "Theory", Monday 10am-11am "Lab"). If there are multiple Course Events that require a different Start Time and End Time they will have to be added as a second step. The optional Location pulldown will by Default show 'None' and this list refers to Resources (ie. Room 101, Building B) that can added under Account Config > Resources and then applied to the Course Events. The 'Location' here should not be confused with the overall Location of the Course which is fixed when you Start the Course.

Under Course > Details > Attend Events, Click New Events. This will present a modal window which will allow you to add Events one at a time or by click off Add Multiple Events (to add events on the parameters you select). Again, if you need to add multiple events at different times, then simply add the common days and times and return back to the menu to complete the dates with different times. Skip Holidays will not add Events to dates listed under Institution Config > Academic Session > Holidays (these can also be used for non-statutory 'holiday' events such as renovations or temporary closures ie. 'study week'). Identifier is to allow you to name the Event for reference purposes only ie. Lab or Lecture. Attendance hours specifies how many hours will be assigned if the student is present ie. the course may run from 9am-11am but there can be a half hour break that you don't want to award to the student as hours, thus the hours for attendance would only be entered as 1.5 rather than 2. Using Assign Student is for a individual students only - a rare case where a student needs a specific Attendance Make Up Date or when you need to create unique Attendance dates only for one Student. This will only track the Attendance Event for this one Student and not others ie. it will not penalize others if they are not in attendance for this Event.

There is also another option to add Events under More Actions > Add Course Schedule Events which will use the Course Schedule and the Start and End Dates of the Course to add Course Attendance Events:

Course Schedules are not required but if they have been pre-defined in the Course Details > Schedule Tab then the More Actions > Add Course Schedule Events will use the Course Schedule and the Start Date and End Date you set under Course Details to Add Events to the Course. If the Course is Open Ended the Start Date and End Date is defined by the Academic Session Start Date and End Date you assigned to the Course:

Once you click the More Actions > Add Course Schedule Events a modal window will appear to confirm the Course Start and End Date as shown below and the Course Schedule, if this is correct then click Add:

To use View / Print Schedule under Student > Courses Tab, Course Schedules for each Course need to be created for each Course the Student is enrolled into as this function uses the Course Schedule to display that information. If the built-in schedule doesn't meet you requirements you can request a custom schedule be created by contacting support@ampeducator.com

4. Bulk Update Course Attendance Events

If you need to edit Course Attendance Events due to schedule changes you can do so individually but there is an option to update multiple or 'Bulk' Attendance Events. You must first select (check) the Attendance Events you wish to edit, then select under More Actions > Update Selected Events:

A modal window will appear with the following options that can be used together or individually:

Clicking Update will then apply the changes to the Attendance Events you previously selected. You can also use the same process to remove Attendance Events by selecting and then More Actions > Delete Selected Events. This will prompt you to confirm the action as once the Attendance Events have been removed the cannot be restored and any Students with Attendance related to those Attendance Events will also be lost. If you need to recover Attendance accidentally deleted (or any other data) contact support@ampeducator.com.

5. Updating Attendance Events Using Evaluations

See Evaluations Guide - https://ampeducator.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/11000106814-ampeducator-evaluations-guide

6. Collaboration Attendance (Zoom Meetings)

See Collaboration (Zoom Meeting) Guide - https://ampeducator.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/11000110012-ampeducator-zoom-collaboration-guide

7. Generate Attendance Report(s)

To Generate an Attendance Report, simply go to any Course > Attendance Tab > More Actions > Generate Attendance Report for all the Students in the Course. If you wish to produce an individual Student Attendance Report, this is done under the Student Profile > Academics > Attendance (with various options). If you require a Custom Attendance report, this can be produced as well - Contact support@ampeducator.com for more details on custom reports.

Student Profile > Attendance:

There are options to 

8. Import Student Attendance from CSV file.

There is also an option to import Student Attendance under Home > Imports > Import Student Attendance. Using a CSV file formatted properly you can perform a Test Import to ensure their are not errors, then final Import:

9. Hour Clock in ampEducator

Every ampEducator account has a built-in Hour Clock that can be used to track Student and Staff Hours. The Hour Clock can be configured by any Admin User and is found under Username (top right) > Institution Config > Hour Clocks:

The Hour Clock itself is a hosted webpage URL that is automatically generated by the system:

If you copy and paste this URL webpage to any modern browser it will launch the Hour Clock webpage and display it's status as ONLINE mode (or OFFLINE mode based on the internet connection):

Note: If you have "Capture Image" enabled the Hour Clock will prompt the user for first time access to Allow the browser to connect and record their image as well on sign in and sign out. If the user doesn't have a connected webcam or doesn't Allow access to the webcam - then the image will area will be black as shown below:

If the User Allows the Webcam to connect it will show their image and record it with the Sign in and Sign out records in their Student/Staff Profile.

If the internet connection is not working the Hour Clock will display log sign in and sign out to the Browser Log (cache) and when the internet connection is restored it will submit the Logged records to ampEducator.

Institutions that wish to track Sign In and Sign Out of Students /Staff can do so by providing this URL link and the Student/Staff enter their assigned Hour Clock ID via 2 different Input Methods.

The input method of the Student/Staff ID can be either Barcode or Manual Entry of the Student/Staff User Name:

If you select Manual Entry (User Name) then you can allow Students/Staff to sign in or out to the Hour Clock page using their User Name assigned in their Student/Staff Profile > User > User Name:

Before you can start using an Hour Clock you must create the Hour Clock (Staff or Student) with day and time restrictions (if any) and then assign it to each User in their profile (see below). The Student would then access the Hour Clock URL by some method either by being sent the URL and saving it or bookmarking it or clicking a button on your website that is linked to the Hour Clock URL and enter their User Name using a keyboard into the Yellow Text Field Area and hitting return/enter on the keyboard to submit their User Name to the Hour Clock for sign in or sign out:

If you select "Barcode" as Input Method you will need to produce the barcode using the ID card generator with Barcode option turned on in ampEducator and provide these to the Students.

Note: You can type in the Barcode Number with a keyboard instead of barcode reader, but you will need to omit the word "Student" or "Staff" that appears before it - in the example above you would type in "013665" NOT "Student013665". In Barcode input mode ampEducator will only accept the number portion of the barcode - not letters before it.

If you enter the wrong input for any reason and/or ampEducator cannot process the entry then you will get an error message "An error has occured. Please try again or see your administrator." and you should check to ensure that you are using the correct input method configuration as this is the most common reason for this error.

If the Hour Clock is closed (due to schedule in the Hour Clock config) or Student is not assigned an Hour Clock in their profile the system will alert the Student:

To set up Hour Clock Tracking you must access the second Tab under Institution Config / Hour Clocks where you can Add New Hour Clock for Student or Staff Hours Clocks with a schedule that will accept day of the week and time in and time out restrictions based on your requirements:

The instructions for the Hour Clock are indicated in the summary at the top for the Hour Clock settings overall and as you check off which day of the week applies to the Hour Clock there is a Start and End Time and Penalty Option. Example: You might want to allow Students to check in early at 8:30am, but the Hour Clock would not record the Hours until 9am. In this case you would set the Sign In Threshold to be 30 mins before the Monday at 9am time the Hour Clock opens. The Grace period allows Students who sign in before or after the start or end time to be rounded to the Start Time of the Hour Clock. Example would be if a Student signs out 5 mins early at 4:55pm the Clock would indicate 5pm if the Grace Period Sign out is set to 5 mins:

Once you have created a Student or Staff Hour Clock you must assign the Hour Clock to the User in their Profile under Admin section / Hour Clock:

For Staff is the Hour Clock is assigned under their Profile / Details / Hour Clock:

10. Generating Student ID Cards

ID Cards settings are found under Institution Config > General > ID Cards:

The settings found here can be used with various pre-printed products such as Avery Business Card Templates.

Using Microsoft Word / Labels / Options / Label Products = Avery US Letter / you can select your Avery Product Number and them click Details and copy and paste the settings to align ampEducator to print properly (ie. Vertical Pitch, Horizontal Pitch and Margins) - this will create a PDF file that you can then send to a Printer of your choice:

If you wish to have background artwork you can upload to Institution Config / PDF Artwork / Add PDF Template (the PDF must be the exact size-as your final trim card) and then assign it to your ID Card.

In this example below Artwork Background was saved as PDF in this case 3.38" x 2.14" in order to be printed to plastic Card Printer "MAGiCARD 300" (image shown below). As long as you match the settings to your Printing device the ID card should work.

The final result is the image, student name, program name, ID and barcode are dynamically created on top of the Student ID Card. The expiration date is typed in here each time the cards are printed, alternatively the expected end date for the Student in the Program could also be used for this:

These can then printed and/or digitally created and emailed to Students by Selecting the Student(s) and then using the option under Students > More Actions > Generate IDs for Printing  (Digital is an option if preferred as well using this same method):

To Print (or Email Digital) card return to the same menu and select Print / Email Generated ID Cards:

This will present you with options to Print Selected or under More Actions > Email Selected. Printing the card results in a PDF document based on the settings you used under Institution Config > General > ID Cards. If you require assistance with these settings or card design (adding logo, etc.) please email support@ampeducator.com.

Using the email digital ID option will produce an automated email as follows:

11. Scanning Student or Staff ID Cards.

Once created the ID with barcode can be scanned from a Student/Staff Card or from their SmartPhone if Digital card is provided instead. If you wish to scan the barcode from a screen or card a USB barcode scanner must be purchased and used with an internet connected device such as computer with monitor or tablet with USB or bluetooth scanner (or device with scanner built in). There are many devices and combinations that can be used depending on your preference and budget. All in one rugged tablets with scanners can be more expensive in price, but tend to be more reliable when put into use so it is important to purchase hardware that won't constantly be needing attention or causing frustration for students and or staff at sign in points:

More expensive with highest reliability: 8-inch Rugged Tablet Scanner, Android 13 Enterprise Tablet with Integrated Honeywell N6703 1D & 2D Bar Code Scanner Engine, WiFi & 4G LTE.

A more typical inexpensive solution is an less expensive wifi connected (or ethernet) All-In-One Windows PC, mini PC and Monitor, Rasberry Pi Android OS that can be wall mounted or at reception with barcode scanner connected in a stand. The scanner is set to continuous scanning and students and staff can check themselves in or out.

Examples below are scanners that can be plugged into all in one monitor and PC ie. Lenovo ThinkCentre All-in-One PC. plugged into Lenovo ThinkCentre All-in-One PC

or Monitor and mini-PC combo ie. Intel NUC or similar Mini PC,Windows 11 Pro Intel N5095 (Up to 2.9 GHz),Mini Desktop Computer

1) Zebra Symbol DS2208-SR Corded 2D/1D Handheld Barcode Scanner/Imager with USB Cord and Goose Neck Hand Free Adjustable Stand

(2) Zebra Symbol DS2208-SR Corded 2D/1D Handheld Barcode Scanner/Imager with USB Cord wall or desk mounted

Hour Clocks can also be IP protected so that Hours can only be recorded by a device at the physical location of the IP address.

You also have the option of linking Hour Clocks to attendance.  Check off "Link to Attendance" in the Hour Clock config to enable this feature. Note: There is also an option to "Override Existing" which means that Hours entered in the Student Profile > Hours Tab will Override Course Attendance that has already been entered. You would use this option if you wanted to update all Course Attendance from the Student Profile > Hours Tab. Otherwise you would not have this checked.

If "Link to Attendance" is checked off, the Hour Clock sign in action will look up scheduled Course Events that the student is enrolled in for that particular sign in day and time action and mark them as Present or Late OR assign the exact Hours/Minutes depending on how you have configured the Course Attendance and the Hour Clock assigned to the Student.

Student Hour Tracking and Course Attendance can be using jointly or independently in ampEducator.

The Hour Clock is not required to track Student Hours. If you do not wish to track actual Sign In and Sign Out of Students you can just use our Standard or Hourly Attendance Types with Course Attendance to track Student Hou