Schools & Education2 October 20264 min read

The Fastest Way to Take Class Attendance Without Calling Names

Calling out forty names takes ten minutes of every lesson, and someone always answers for a friend. Here is how teachers take attendance in under a minute with a QR code on the board, or a few taps on their phone.

The register is the most repeated job in a school day and the least useful. It eats teaching time, it is easy to fake, and the paper ends up in a drawer. Teachers using mySmartAccessCard have two faster ways to do it.

Option 1: students scan your QR code

1Open your class QR code on your phone or the classroom screen.
2Students scan it with their own app as they come in.
3The code changes on a timer you choose, every 30 seconds by default, so a photo of the code sent to a friend at home stops working almost straight away.

Option 2: mark the class yourself

Open your class list and mark each student Present, Late or Absent. If you set your class start time, students who arrive after it are marked late automatically.

What happens after

Every mark is saved with the time, so the school has a real record, not a paper sheet.
Parents of students on SMS alerts are told when their child is marked absent or late.
You only see your own classes. See teacher class scoping.

Teachers can also grade by scanning. See tap-to-grade, or explore all school features.

Questions people ask

What is the fastest way to take attendance in class?

Show a rotating QR code and let students scan it as they walk in. With mySmartAccessCard the code changes every 30 seconds by default, so it cannot be shared with students who are not there.