Sign-In Station

This section explains the Sign-in Station options you have to collect Center Attendance and SI Class Attendance with Accudemia at your Center or Institution.

Purpose: This section is used to set a Computer as being a Sign-in Station for a Classroom or a Center. If you want to configure the way it handles Students during the sign-in process is defined in the Control Panel > Walk-ins section. There are some additional settings defined here to setup a Fixed Sign-in Station that allow your Students to sign-in to preset selections.

How to Access: Administrations > Sign-In Stations > Computers

When a machine is set as a Computer Sign-in Station and the [yourcollege].accudemia.net site is accessed the browser pulls the Sign-in Station screen up based on a cookie stored in the Computer's browser. This process explained below will ensure they see a particular Center's or Classroom's Sign-in Station screen and Students or Tutors can then sign-in at the Center. Sign-ins are necessary and the primary way to log attendance in Accudemia. A Sign-In Station helps by creating Session Logs for the Students and Tutors who sign-in. Although there is a manual process to create these Session Logs directly by System Administrators this is the automated and most convenient solution.

This section is created to explain the minimum requirements needed in a computer to be setup as a Sign-in Station in **Accudemia**. Due to the web-based nature of the **Accudemia** system there a no real specification on the computer hardware so these are the only items that you need to ensure:

1. The computer has an active Internet connection (preferably wired and not wireless).
2. The computer has a browser installed that can access *.accudemia.net on port 80 (Internet traffic) over the network and Internet connection.
3. The computer's browser has the ability to store cookies from *.accudemia.net

As long as these 3 criterion are met you should have no problems setting up and maintaining the Accudemia Computer Sign-in Station.

To create a new Sign-in Station, follow these steps:

1. Login as an Center Administrator, College Administrator, or System User with permission to make Sign-in Stations.
2. Navigate to the Administration > Sign-in Station > Computers option from the left-side navigation.
3. Now click the Create Sign-In Station here button at the top of this page.
   
4. Next choose the Location for which Center or Classroom you want to create the Sign-In Station, enter a Namefor the Sign-in Station, optionally enter a Description, and then click on the Save Changes button at the top of the page.
   
5. Once that is done you'll see the following pop-up message
   
   and the screen will now display that it is a Sign-in Station and appear in the list below the Center name.
   

If a station was already created for the machine you are using, you will see the following button text:
Remove this Sign-in Station (demo station)
Note: The Name of the Sign-in Station will appear in the parenthesis.

Using the example above, to remove a Sign-In Station designation from the current computer's browser, click on the Remove this Sign-In Station (demo station) button.

To delete a Sign-In Station (any Sign-in Station from the Centers or Classrooms) list do the following:

1. First select a Center in the drop-down menu.
2. Then select a Sign-in Station from the list.
3. And finally click on the Delete button at the top of this page.

These next 2 sections cover the options and differences between these 2 types of Computer Sign-in Stations. To sum it up in one sentence… the Center Sign-in Stations ask why the Student is coming into the Center giving them options whereas the Classroom Sign-in Stations knows what Class is happening based on the current time in the Classroom therefore just allowing the Student to swipe-in to the Class. Continue reading about the difference in the next 2 sections as it is explained in greater detail.

Students and Tutors are signed-in to a Center thru the Center's Sign-in Station screen. Every Center has to place has their own Center Sign-in Stations and every Center has their own custom tracking settings. The Center Sign-in Station screen has a welcome message on the top. The text displayed just like many other messages can be changed thru the Center's Appearance and Themes in the Website Settings section of the Control Panel. The current date and time will appear under the ID Entry box. The Users will see an ID Entry box on the Center's Sign-in Station screen by default.

Signs in are registered thru the Sign-In Stations screen. Student Sign-In is the default. To sign-in, the student simply enters his ID number in the ID Entry box and press the “Enter” key or clicks on the forward arrow. When entering an ID in the box, one of the following will happen:

• If entering an ID for a person with multiple roles, additional links will appear to choose the role and continue.
• If entering a new ID number that is not in the database:
  1. If new students are allowed, the user will see the New Student screen.
  2. If new students are not allowed, an error message will appear to the student.
• If entering a student ID for a student that is in the database:
  1. If the student is not signed in, the Activity Tracking Screen will appear.
  2. If the student is currently signed in, the user will be signed out and you will see a sign-out confirmation message.
• If entering any other type of ID, a password box will appear and must be entered to continue. Tutors will be signed in, all others will be directed to the home page.

Purpose: To allow the Student to select the options he/she will be using during this visit to the Center. These options include the Services offered by the Center, the Student's Subject Areas (Courses), the Instructor(s) for those Classes, and the Tutor they would like see. This section also determines how these options are shown to the student if at all.
How to Access: This screen appears to student during sign-in.

This screen is displayed to students upon sign-in. The Activity Tracking Screen may contain up to four panels with the following questions:

• Subject Areas: Select one course by clicking on it. The option “none” appears if course entry is defined as optional in the center settings screen.
• Services: Service selection may be optional or required. If optional you don’t have to select
• Instructor: Select the instructor by clicking on it.
• Tutor: Select the tutor by clicking on his/her name.

You need this selection if you want to track which tutor the student met during the visit.

After selecting the above, the student has to click on the “Sign-In” button to continue.
Depending on the configuration in Center's Walk-ins Settings a confirmation message will be shown before signing the student into the Center.

• Sign-In Confirmation Message
  The user will see a confirmation message showing name, sign-in date, and sign-in time.
• Sign-Out Confirmation Message
  The sign-out confirmation message appears when students sign-out. The message shows the student’s name, sign-out date and time, and sign-in period for current session.

Purpose: Any of the following icons except for the sign-in options can be hidden for a center place thru the Station's Options.
How to access: Tracking Settings > General > Station's Options)

Here is an explanation of their functionality:

• Sign-In: This option cannot be removed and is the default shown when the website is loaded. If you clicked on the My Homepage button to Login but need to now Sign-in or return to the normal Sign-in mode click this button to Sign-in as a Student.
• My Home Page: This option allows Students to “login” to the back-end of Accudemia to College and Center news and make appointments. This personalized “Homepage” can also be easily accessed through any web browser at home with a Internet connection so you may want to disable it. This option also can be disabled in the Control Panel > General options.
• Show Students In: Brings up a list of students who are currently signed in. This option also can be disabled in the Control Panel > General options.
• Show Tutors In: Brings up a list of tutors who are currently signed in. This option also can be disabled in the Control Panel > General options.
• New Student: This screen allows new students to register themselves in Accudemia. This option also can be disabled in the Control Panel > General options.
• Forgot Your Password: This screen allows reset or recover your password to registered Accudemia's users. This option cannot be disabled in the Control Panel > General options.

Purpose: To register and collect information about new students.
How to Access: This screen appears to a student during sign-in if their ID is not already in the database.
This screen collects information about the new student, recently created. After typing the student information on the first tab, the new student is able to see the profile questions and complete it.

Purpose: This screen merely exists to help you check who is signed-in at each Center in Accudemia.
How to Access: From the Main Sign-In Screen buttons (if enabled) or under Center Attendance > Who’s In

There are two versions of the Who Is In Screen. One is available to all Users from the Sign-In Screen (if settings allow so.) which lists only tutors or only students signed into the system.

The other one can be seen by Administrators after signing in to the system. Subject/s and service/s, which students signs into, can be filtered by staff. Accessing to the Who is In Screen as a college administrator thru the menu, User will be able to see all students and tutors signed in to all centers. A filter search button will appear on the tool bar to select viewing criteria. For each user, the date and time of the sign-in, course, service, tutor and instructor are shown.

Users are signed-in through the Classroom Sign-in Station screen only if you need to track Supplemental Instruction classes at your Center(s). Every Classroom has to have their own Classroom Sign-in Station screen and every Classroom has their Class Schedule setup. The text displayed just like many other messages can be changed through the Control Panel > Classroom Attendance Settings. The current date and time appears under the ID Entry box and The Classroom Sign-in Station displays also displays the current Classes and next Classes at top of ID Entry box. Students signing into a Class will never be asked why they are there (unlike the Center Sign-in Stations) as the system will know if they should be there (based on registration for the class) and what class is taking place already (based on the class schedule).

Click here to learn more about setting up a portable Sign-in Station using our iAccu Apple App (an Accudemia add-on product) with Apple devices.

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