1. Background and Identification of the Problem

1.1 Background

My mother works as a deputy head teacher at the 5th Elementary of Aradippou “St. Afxendios and Efstathios”, one of the most recently built primary schools of the town. The attendance system the staff utilizes, however, to record the students’ presence at the school seems almost ancient. The school is attended by 303 students, who are taught by a staff consisting of 26 teachers, all managed by the school principal Mrs. Evi Christodoulou. The ‘lower’ school has two 1st grade classes, three 2nd grade classes and two 3rd grade classes. In the higher grades, or the ‘upper’ school there are two 4th grade classes, three 5th grade classes and two 6th grade classes. Multiple teachers teach different lessons to each class, and the classes are assigned to a specific classroom, where the students assigned to that class will spend most of their time. Properties such as the physical classroom bound to each class can be altered, however that is done rarely. The children who attend the school are from six up to twelve years of age.

A school secretary works at the school’s office, where all the data about the students and staff is stored and collected. The secretary, Mrs. Angela was asked by the principal to walk around all 15 classrooms every morning and collect a printed 2-column list of all the students, with a cross marked next to the absent students’ names. She then must record all the data in a flat file as well as call the parents of the absent children by eight o’clock in the morning to question them in case the parents had not called in advance to inform the school about their child’s absence (the school starts at 07:45).

My mother has informed me of this system and I thus have taken responsibility to present the principal with a modern, efficient system for recording the students’ absences, while taking into consideration the location and staff’s capabilities and resources.

1.2 Problem Identification

What is obvious about the system in current use, is the fact that data is collected from each class by hand, which can be tedious, unreliable, and exhausting for the secretary, as well as a waste of time and paper. Furthermore, apart from the possibility of human error, there is no backup plan in the case of an absent secretary, in which case a random member of staff that is free on first period is selected. Errors may also arise when inserting the data for the second time, from the papers to the flat file. It is impractical for one employee to have the responsibility of storing information about 303 different people daily.

The system is therefore not fast enough as the data could have only been recorded once by the teachers who have each class at 1st period and ready for Mrs. Angela to go through by 8 a.m. It is moreover improbable that in case a teacher makes a mistake and somehow realize it later, or if a student arrives late at school the information about their arrival would have to change and the teachers do not have a chance of altering or re-submitting a form once that change is detected. The same applies for students leaving the school earlier than the last period which finishes at 1:05 p.m. Finally, no extra data is recorded, for example when exactly each teacher hands in the form or whether a student leaves in the middle of the day.

Finally, the lack of data integrity is obvious since pieces of information are not linked to other information that is relevant. For example, a parent may explain their child’s absence after being called, which is recorded but then exists as a separate piece of paper that is not directly linked to the data collected beforehand (the absence of the child on the teacher’s form).

1.3 Description of current system

Lists for all the student full names, contact information and classroom numbers are already stored in the secretary’s computer as flat files. Information is also held for the staff currently working at that primary school as well as parents who have signed each child up to the school. Obviously only the secretary can make changes as she is the only one who can access these files. Instructions to change information are passed down from the principal. There are no steps to avoid redundancy taken; however, the lists in print form are stored as a backup. If the weather does not allow for a print collection of absences, other unfitting methods are used, such as SMS groups where each teacher texts only the names of those who are absent before 8 a.m. After recording the day’s absences in the flat file, it is saved locally on Mrs. Angela’s desktop computer and a backup of the file is also saved on her personal USB drive.

1.4 Identification of Prospective Users

The prospective users of this system at a glance would be elementary school staff; however, additional workplaces may also benefit from this software. Some examples include private institutes and primary schools where not all members of staff have access to a laptop but have access to a smartphone, as well as medium and large-scale public and private kindergartens. Anyone who needs to periodically record the absence of multiple individuals at a precise location in a building may benefit from the use of this attendance system. I am, however focusing my attention on the particularities of elementary schools as this is what the application should feel like when being used, according to the guidance I received from the principal - she is the one who assigned the project and its exact functions to me to begin with.

1.5 User Needs and Limitations Identification

The user needs vary and include material and cognitive requirements. One of these is the fact that each staff member must own a smartphone running Android or iOS, with the capability of connecting to the internet and the requirement of having some storage space available. The users must also be able to familiarise themselves when it comes to a new mobile application (creating accounts, selecting a tab, and checking boxes are all examples) since there will be no team to train the staff properly on how to use all the software’s features correctly (the user interface will play a key role so that they can familiarise themselves with the system quickly, without it getting too complex).

Thus, limitations of the software include the fact that staff members who are not familiar with modern smartphone applications may find it difficult operating the software and adapting to it. Furthermore, the device of each teacher must be able to perform well enough to support the application (lower-end phones may slow down overall data collection and analysis) and the teachers must all be able to establish a reliable wireless connection to the internet to send the completed digital list so it may eventually reach the secretary’s desk. This task does not require a strong server to operate on since it involves procedures that are easily accomplished by a middle-end system (e.g. sorting).

The school’s current networking configuration is quite favourable since it has been recently expanded with new access points so that all devices inside all buildings are able to establish a connection to the internet. A fully operational network is a requirement in order to safely rely on my solution; however, this does not necessarily make it safe, as it means there are more entrances to potentially hack into the school network. This introduces the requirement that all information being passed on through the system should be encrypted so it may never reach unwanted hands.