Surviving the semester: Tracking Students

One major problem I had during the semester was tracking students in terms of their attendance and their final marks, and to put this problem in to perspective I will give you some numbers….

I was running first year classes of 350, and second year classes of 250. The first years had 5 lab sessions with me (with each lab session run 4 times), and the second years had two lab sessions (with each one run three times). For each lab session (and keep in mind that some students may swap between sessions for different labs due to other commitments or illness) I had to track that the student was there (otherwise they got no marks) and that they had completed any work during or post the session. In total I was tracking 3,500 data points (350 x 5 = 1750 attendance, and 1750 pieces of work) for the first years and 1,000 data points (250 x 2 = 500 attendances, and 500 pieces of work) for the second years, giving a total of 4,500 data points. Quite a bit of data.

Obviously one solution was to use signing in sheets for attendance, however, this would mean lots of bits of paper, plus there would still be a need to get the data in to the computer for the final match up of who was there and who was not, so that marks could be awarded and feedback returned (see Surviving the semester: Assessments - Returning to Students). It turned out, a solution to this problem was Bento.

I have mentioned Bento in a number of other blog post. It got a mention in Exam Question: Spreadsheets are evil. Discuss; To lab book, or not to lab book, that is the question? (I say no, what do you say?); and in An open letter to Nature Scitable - please add markdown! So clearly it is a program with which I am familiar, and one that I find very useful, and in terms of tracking students it really came into its own.

Bento is a simple database package, that is based loosely around the idea of a spreadsheet, but which is much much more powerful than your standard spreadsheet. One of the really good features of Bento, which makes it incredibly useful in teaching, is its ability to synchronise between the iPhone, the iPad and desktop version, over the Wi-Fi network. This means I can always have the latest version of the data with me whether I am at my desk or in the teaching lab.

Bento - getting data in

As I said above Bento is jut essentially a spreadsheet that is a real database, so if you can use a spreadsheet you can pretty much use Bento. One really useful feature is the ability to import data straight from a spreadsheet, which mean I am able to export student data, such a student number and name etc., straight from available systems and into Bento. I can then add various checkboxes and text boxes for the data I wish to track in my teaching.

Using Bento in the lab

Saying that Bento is a spreadsheet is a little unfair as it really is a database and therefore has some of the powerful search and sort functions associated with databases.

In my teaching we typically export the class data from the University systems and then the students are assigned a lab location, bench and a group. This results in a spreadsheet with the student name, email address, student ID, lab, bench and group. This can then be easily import into Bento, and as it is imported it is automatically reformatted as a database. I then add attendance check boxes and a text field for any additional notes - and I am done! All very simple and straightforward, and once constructed on the desktop machine this can be easily synchronised (exported) to the iPhone and iPad versions of the software.

As Bento is a database it means that I can set up views in the program that only show specific data. For example, at the start of a lab session I will have the view set so that it only shows students that should be in that session. Therefore any student turning up and asking me if they should be in the session I have the data readily available. I also have the view set so that it only shows students that have not attended, that way once I have marked a student as present their details are removed from the view. Basically I am using Bento as an electronic register, and with the touch of the screen of an iPad it is very easy and quick to mark students off as present. The data is then all synchronised back to the desktop version of the program.

One unexpected additional bonus of this approach is that once the lab is finished I can see who failed to attend and I am able to quickly copy their email addresses from Bento and email the students. The students get an email within 10 minutes of the lab session finishing, and any reply I get from the students I am able to copy back to the database for future reference. (I some times use this to check-up on students in subsequent labs and ask why they missed a session, and whether or not they were able to catch-up on the missing work.)

Bento - getting data out

Just like a spreadsheet Bento can export data through either copy and paste or file export. These data can then be imported into a spreadsheet and matched up with any student marks and by some crafty use of standard spreadsheet functions* marks for any submitted work can be updated and changed to reflect whether or not the student attended the session.

The net result is a spreadsheet of data that can then be easy imported into the university student database.

Summary

Personally I don't think I would've been able survived last semester without the use of Bento. It proved to be remarkably useful for tracking student attendance, and then also working out the final marks. The ease-of-use of the touchscreen to enter student attendance was great as it meant that I didn't have any fiddly typing around on keyboards, or clicking of the mouse, to actually enter the student attendance data.

The bottom line is, Bento really helped, and enabled me to track students through out the semester.

(* the spreadsheet 'if' function is very useful for this type of work, if you are not familiar with it then you might want to check it out.)

Disclaimer: I do not work for the company that sells and/or produces the above program, and I do not get a 'kick-back' from the company for writing this article. I do, however, routinely use the program in my teaching, I do find it extremely useful, and so I thought I would share my experience.

Sorry, I don't know if there is a Windows version of this sort of program (surely there must be?). If you do know of one, please feel free to add a comment below.

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Surviving the semester: Tracking Students

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