Location Based Attendance (Geofencing)

Overview

Location-Based Attendance allows instructors to enforce a student's location while taking attendance from their SS&E Courses tab through a generated code that is entered in the Watermark Student mobile app.

• The course location is based on the building location that is associated with the specific course section imported from the institution's SIS system.
  • • The Building Id associated with each Course Section Id is imported on the Course Section Schedule Element data feed, 
    • The latitude and longitude values associated with each Building Id are imported on the Building data feed.
• The student location is based on the student's phone device's actual "location" when logged into the Watermark Student mobile app.
• The preset distance/location radius used to enforce attendance-based location is set in SS&E Administration -> Attendance Configuration -> Default Distance for Location Based Enforcement (in meters).
  • • This is the default distance that is enforced when instructors take attendance through Watermark Student.
    • Location detection is not always guaranteed as being precise, so please account for some margin of error.

Attendance Tracking

Instructors decide whether to enforce location-based attendance at each course meeting by clicking on "Open Attendance" in the secondary navigation bar.

From here, the following options may be selected:

1. 1. The duration the instructor will leave "open attendance" for.
   2. Whether or not the instructor wishes to enforce attendance-based location.
      • When checked, SS&E will only allow students that are within the distance/location radius preset in Attendance Configuration to submit their attendance. 
      • When left unchecked, students can enter attendance from any location distance.

While "Attendance is Open", the following highlighted items display on the instructor's course roster page's action menu items secondary navigation bar.

• Close Attendance - This allows the instructor to "close attendance" before the open attendance duration expires.
• Show Code - Clicking here will display the code that students need to enter in the SS&E Student app on their mobile device (useful if the "Code" screen closed before "open attendance" expired).
• Time Remaining - Displays how much times is left for students to submit their own attendance during the "Open Attendance" duration.

SS&E Student Mobile App

Click here to view the attendance screens that may display for students who are trying to submit attendance from their mobile device.

Attendance Configuration Administration

From Administration-Attendance Configuration, found here, Administrators are able to set or modify the radius distance used to enforce location-based attendance.

Course Section Location - Imported Data

• The class location is based on the building that is associated with the specific course section meeting schedule found here. This information is imported from the SIS on the Course Section Schedule Element data feed
• If a course section is missing a location in Course Section Administration, it does not have a course section schedule element record importing from the SIS with the "course location".
• If a course section is missing a location there will be only one option displayed after the instructor "Opens Attendance" to set the open attendance duration and the checkbox that allows instructors to enforce location-based attendance will not display as an option.
• For instructions on how to troubleshoot missing data, click here.

Building Location Configuration

Buildings Administration found here displays all buildings defined in SS&E.

• From here, SS&E Administrators can select to Edit a building and change the latitude/longitude, and choose whether these coordinates update from the SIS Import process on the Building data feed.
• If "Enable latitude and longitude updates from SIS" is left unchecked, then the building location latitude and longitude will not be overwritten by values imported from the SIS.

Troubleshooting Steps

If Geofencing/Location Based Attendance isn't working on a specific course section as expected, use the following steps to troubleshoot and verify that SS&E is configured properly:

1. Check the Course Section details in Course Section Administration.
   • Make sure the course section has a schedule that includes the meeting location, eg. classroom and building.
   • If the course section schedule is missing, check the Course Section Schedule Element data importing from the SIS to figure out why the schedule is missing.
     • • To view the SIS Import Data Definitions, click here.
       • To view the SIS Integration Troubleshooting Guide, click here.
   • Once the course section schedule imports successfully from the SIS, it will appear in the Course Section Schedule Element Imported Data View (SIS Integration -> Datafeeds Administration) and on the Course Section details in Course Section Administration.
2. Check the building details in Buildings Administration.
   • From Locations & Buildings Administration, select Buildings Administration and search for the building associated with the course section schedule found in step 1.
   • Verify that the building record details include the building latitude and longitude coordinates.
   • If the building coordinates are missing, check the Building data feed to make sure the coordinates are importing from the SIS.
     • • To view the SIS Import Data Definitions, click here.
       • To view the SIS Integration Troubleshooting Guide, click here.
   • Once the building coordinates import successfully from the SIS, they will appear in the Building Imported Data View and the Building record details in Buildings Administration.
3. If the course section includes a schedule, and the course section schedule includes a building that is importing from the SIS with latitude and longitude coordinates, verify that the building coordinates are accurate.
4. If the configuration looks good, and nothing is missing, please confirm with the instructor that "Enforce Location for Attendance" was checked while taking attendance.
   • If the instructor enforced location based attendance and attendance wasn't captured accurately, please open a support ticket including details of the specific course section, building, instructor, meeting, and student information.