Unattended sign in and sign out

Synergetic supports:

unattended sign in and sign out of students using individual student ID cards with barcodes
recording other student movements, such as recording exam leave sign outs or bus late sign ins.

The student ID cards need to have the student's Synergetic ID encoded as a barcode. Alternatively, student ID cards can use RFIDs (Radio Frequency IDs).

How to:

To sign in, a student scans their student card with the In barcode scanner. This creates an Auto Sign In absence event. See Recording a student signing in automatically.
To sign out, a student scans their student card with the Out barcode scanner. This creates an Auto Sign Out absence event. See Recording a student signing out automatically.
To record student movements with a default reason code. See Recording student movements using default absence type codes.

PC setup

To sign students in and out, you need to set up a PC with:

one labelled barcode scanner for students signing in, attached to the PC
a second labelled barcode scanner for students signing out, attached to the PC
Synergetic logged into the Create Absence Event window
a second screen driven by a dual graphics card, if required.

Additional barcode scanners can be set up for special purposes, such as recording exam leave sign outs. Each barcode scanner needs to be labelled so that the students use the correct one.

Setting up Synergetic for Auto Sign In and Auto Sign Outs

You can set up the Synergetic lookup table luAbsenceEventType so that:

the barcode scanner Prefix is set up for both the:
in barcode scanner (Auto Sign In mode)
out barcode scanner (Auto Sign Out mode)
the Hostname of the PC is specified so that only the Auto Sign In or Auto Sign Out modes are used on this PC:
if the Hostname is blank, these modes can be used on any PC
if the Hostname contains a PC name, then the modes can only be used on that PC
if the Hostname contains a PC name with an asterisk before it, then it can be used on all PCs except that one.

See luAbsenceEventType lookup table in the System maintenance manual.

Given that the PC remains logged into the Create Absence Event window all through the day, it is advisable to set up a special user which is given security access to this function only.

Setting up Synergetic for Exam Leave or other purposes

You can add entries to the luAbsenceEventType lookup table to cater for recording specific student movements, such as:

late bus sign ins
exam leave sign outs.

In the following example, an exam leave entry has been added to the lookup table.

Set up the fields shown to meet the needs of your sign in or sign out option. The scanner prefix matches the value programmed into the specific barcode scanner. See luAbsenceEventType lookup table in the System maintenance manual.

The DefaultAbsenceTypeCode should already be defined in the luAbsenceType lookup table. See luAbsenceType lookup table in the System maintenance manual.

Note: New Zealand schools must use the values already defined by the NZ Ministry of Education.

Second screen

The second screen can be a larger wall mounted screen which displays the student signing in or out. If the PC has a second screen attached, the student's name and photo is displayed. This is to deter students signing each other in or out.
Unexplained is displayed in red and the PC beeps, if the student signs in or out but there is no prior arrangement and this setting is configured. See BeepWhenUnexplainedFlag configuration setting in the System maintenance manual.

The second screen is displayed normally with the Absence Type and mode if:

A prior arrangement is made by adding an Expected in, or similar, absence event.
Student movements have been recorded with a default reason code (such as exam leave or bus late).

Inactivity

After a configurable amount of inactivity the screen displays a default screen.

See ClearFormAfterXMinutes configuration setting in the System maintenance manual.