Student Location Log

Overview

The Student Location Log (a.k.a “Check-in Kiosk”) enables students to check in (or out) at any “location”, including non-class activities, such as sports practices, chapel programs, etc. School admins are then able to then see who has checked in or checked out of specific locations, allowing for managing student locations for activities, clubs, dorms, the library, sports, and more. An unlimited number of kiosks can be created and managed, enabling easy check-in at a variety of locations around campus.

Depending on the way an individual kiosk is configured, kiosks also have the ability to directly interface with Master (daily) Attendance; allowing students to “check in” as a late arrival, or “check out” as an early dismissal, with all the associated integration with Master Attendance.

Please Note: The Student Location Log is an extra cost module. If your school is interested in using the Student Location Log, please speak your Account Manager.

Using the Student Kiosk

Once configured and activated, the kiosk immediately reflects the configured options. It presents a drop-down box of student names with a single check-in option, a notes field for the user to enter notes as they check in, or a simple text field to enter a Student ID, etc.

To check in or out, simply authenticate the chosen student using the input method (student list dropdown, or other [see below]) and click the appropriate button, “Submit”. A small status screen confirms the check-in and then disappears, allowing for the next student to also check-in.

Kiosk Admin Page

To begin the attendance kiosk configuration process, navigate to the URL listed below, except instead of “yourschool”, insert the actual short name of your school.

https://checkin.veracross.com/yourschool/admin

This same address is available as a link in Axiom. Click on the ‘Check In/Out Kiosk Configuration’ link in the Check In/Out Kiosk section of the System homepage. On the Kiosk Admin Page, existing kiosks can be edited and activated and new ones can be created. There is no limit to the number of kiosks a single school is able to use. The New Kiosk button in the upper-right corner of the Kiosk Admin page allows the user to create and configure a new kiosk by navigating to a blank kiosk configuration page. The Log Out button allows the user to sign out of the Check-in Kiosk Admin page safely and close the window.

Editing a Kiosk

There are a number of configurable options located on the kiosk configuration page. Fields with an asterisk are required fields. The “Activate” button in the middle of the Admin screen opens the live kiosk at the URL indicated above the button.

Description: The name of the kiosk displays in the upper left of the kiosk, as well as the middle of the live Kiosk view that students see. Limited to 100 characters.
Access Name*: The access name, or “slug”, appears in the URL of the kiosk. Note that the slug appears in the URL above the “Activate” button.
Location*: Appears in the attendance log record in Axiom and is for internal use only.
Status*: Active, Draft, or Archived. The difference between Active and Draft is specifically for workflow purposes only. Archived kiosks will not appear on the Checkin Kiosk Admin page, but may still be accessed and re-activated via Axiom query ID 305060 (axiom.veracross.com/yourschool/#/query/305060).
Check-in Method*: Determines the input method for people interacting with this kiosk. There are several ways to check students in at a kiosk:

• Veracross Student ID: Veracross Student ID must be typed in.
• Card Reader (VC ID): Integrates with card reader hardware. This method checks against Veracross Person ID, so cards should be loaded with the Veracross Person ID for success. Functionally, the only difference between this method and the above is that after a submission via Card Reader, the cursor is already focused in the correct field for the next card swipe.
• School Student ID: Student Legacy ID (stored on the Other tab of the student record) must be typed in.
  • Can be integrated with card reader software.
  • The ID value is checked for uniqueness on entry; non-unique values show an error and the student will not be able to check in.
• Username and Password: Student’s username and password must be entered.
• Student Name Drop-Down: Drop-down of student names and grade levels, organized alphabetically by last name.

Authentication Method*: Determines what Authentication is needed in order to successfully utilize the kiosk. This “authentication method” refers to the method of the administrator activating the kiosk. The options are:

• PIN: Create a custom numeric PIN (PIN field is displayed if this option is selected).
• Public (Open): No authentication is required.
• VC Login: The staff member uses their regular VC login.

Kiosk Type*: Determines the type of kiosk and the functionality associated with it. There are six types of kiosks. These options are:

• Check In: Generates a Log Entry for checking in.
• Check Out: Generates a Log Entry for checking out.
• Check In or Out: Generates Log Entries for either checking in or checking out.
  • The above three types are independent of attendance or school days and may be used any day of the year.
• Late Arrival: Generates Log Entries for late arrivals.
• Early Dismissal: Generates Log Entries for early dismissals.
• Late Arrival/Early Dismissal: Generates Log Entries for late arrivals or early dismissals.
  • The above three types are directly integrated with Master Attendance, and may only be used on actual school days. If one of these three types are used on a non-school day, the checkin/checkout attempt will display a brief error message indicating that no attendance exists.
  • When configuring one of the above three Attendance types, an additional configuration option will appear, allowing the admin to configure which Attendance Status to assign for the late arrivals/early dismissals when the Kiosk is used.

Instructions: This field displays in a text box on the kiosk while being used.
Log Notes: Internal use only. Text that is saved in the Notes field of the kiosk log (and master attendance record when applicable).
Allow Log Notes*: Toggle that displays or hides a user text field that allows end-users to input notes or comments in the kiosk.
Submit Button Color: Allows for the configuration of the button color on the kiosk though hex-code. If left blank, this field will default to Veracross Blue.
Submit Button Text: Allows the user to set the text on the button of the kiosk. This function does not apply to kiosk types that display multiple buttons (the ‘Late Arrival/Early Dismissal’ or ‘Check In or Out’ types).

In addition to the configuration options detailed above, the bottom of the kiosk configuration page has several options that apply to the kiosk as a whole.

• Save: Saves changes that have been made to the kiosk’s configuration. If changes have been made that have not yet been saved, this button will be highlighted pink.
• Copy: Copies this kiosk’s exact configuration to a new kiosk and appends “- Copy” to the end of the Description.
• Get Link: Copies the URL of the kiosk to the user’s clipboard.
• Archive: Immediately applies the ‘Archived’ status to this kiosk.
• Delete: Deletes this kiosk permanently from the system.

Location Log Usage

As location log kiosks are used, the data that is generated (location log records) is accessible in a variety of ways, and useful for a variety of purposes.

General Access of Data

Location Logs are easiest to find via the “Find Attendance Log Records” query (axiom.veracross.com/yourschool/#/query/128316) on the Attendance homepage in Axiom. That will give you the full data set of all checkins and serves as a useful query template for building additional reports for other workflows.

The “Recent Attendance Logs” query under the “Today” section of the Attendance homepage is a useful look at the checkins/checkouts from only today and yesterday.

The logs also display on the “Attendance Log” tab on the Student detail screen and can be accessed via the Kiosk List on the system homepage; this Kiosk detail screen also links to all the logs associated with that Kiosk.

Additionally, the “Attendance Log” tab on the Master Attendance detail will show any logs generated for a date that included master attendance. Even the “regular,” non-attendance checkin/checkout-type logs are accessible via the Master Attendance record on days where Master Attendance was taken and logs were generated due to a student using a kiosk. This particular matter might seem a little complex when old, “blank” master attendance records are purged (learn more about Master Attendance), but the way the location log handles this is by deleting the reference to master attendance. The location log records always retain their data about location, date, time, notes, and more.

Late Arrival/Early Dismissal Kiosk Usage

When a Late Arrival/Early Dismissal log is created by a student checking in or out of one of the kiosk types integrated with attendance, the following data is updated on Master Attendance for that student for that date:

• Master Attendance – Attendance status is set to the value defined in the Kiosk admin configuration
• Master Attendance – Late arrival time (or) Early dismissal time is set to the exact current time on the clock when the kiosk is accessed by the user
• Master Attendance – Notes are updated with notes from the location log that was created. There are two notes fields in the location log records. Those are the “Log notes” (see above) and the “User Notes” entered by the student when they use the Kiosk, and those are concatenated into the one Master Attendance notes field, as “{internal hidden notes text} {two line breaks} User Notes: {user notes text}”. So the notes added to the Master Attendance for the student at the day might show, for instance, “Used at the front door {two line breaks} User Notes: Sorry I was late today, My dog ate my homework!”

We do not have explicit support for using the late arrival/dismissal kiosk types outside of normal school days. If, for example, the student uses “Late arrival” kiosk at 8:00pm, you’ll see unusual data and should keep an eye on those kinds of data integrity issues.

Checkin/Checkout Kiosk Usage

The Checkin, Checkout, or “either” kiosks are usable any day of the year. This makes them potentially ideal for usage on weekends, holidays, or during summer events.

For example, these kiosk types might be useful at the Dorm for boarding schools, so that students may swipe a card to indicate their comings and goings all seven days of the week.

For schools that have weekend activities, these kiosk types may be useful as well. For instance, many schools have track meets or crew regattas on Saturdays, and this type of Kiosk can be useful to track students as they board the bus.

Kiosk Detail Screen

Clicking on the Kiosk List link in the Check In/Out Kiosk section of the System homepage navigates to a query displaying all kiosks currently configured for the school. Clicking the Description link brings the user to the kiosk detail screen.

The kiosk detail screen is largely read-only, with three notable exceptions:

• Description: The name of the kiosk.
• Status: The current status of this kiosk: Active, Draft, or Archived. Changing the status from the kiosk detail screen is the only way to move Archived kiosks to Active or Draft.
• Kiosk Log Notes: Allows user to enter notes about particular log entries when viewed in the context of the rest of the kiosk log.

Kiosk Log

The lower half of the kiosk detail screen displays the Kiosk Log. Here, a log of all uses of this particular kiosk are stored and may be referenced at a later date. Fields displayed on the log detail screen are the Log Date, Person, Current Grade, Homeroom, Log Time, Kiosk Location, Log Type, and Notes. Only the notes field is editable on this screen, however, if a kiosk log record is viewed on their individual detail screen, the Log Time and Kiosk Location are able to be edited, as well.

Security

Configuring Kiosks: Only SysAdmin_1 users have permission to access the Kiosk admin (configuration) application. Once a kiosk is activated, the SysAdmin_1 user’s login session is automatically ended. This way, users (students) are not able to click “back” on the browser from an activated kiosk and edit a kiosk using the Kiosk admin application.

Accessing Data in Axiom: The log records are accessible for users with SysAdmin_1, Attendance_UPDATE, and all Division_Head security roles.

FAQ

Q1. Does this integrate with “Where is student now?”

A1. No, the Student Location Kiosk does not currently integrate with the “Where is Student Now?” feature.