{"id":398,"date":"2013-08-23T12:23:27","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T16:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rossweb.bus.umich.edu\/ross-it\/technology\/participation-and-attendance-tracking-seating-chart-tool\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:11:52","slug":"participation-and-attendance-tracking-seating-chart-tool","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rossweb.bus.umich.edu\/ross-it\/faculty-services\/classroom-software\/participation-and-attendance-tracking-seating-chart-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Participation and Attendance Tracking & Seating Chart Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the Classroom Seating Chart Tool, faculty can track student participation and attendance and generate names for cold calling with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface. This functionality builds upon the tool as it has always been, which means that when it comes to creating, building and accessing the seating charts, the process hasn’t changed. The Seating Chart Tool is accessible on any device from which you can connect to iMpact, and since it\u2019s web based it can be used on a variety of devices ranging from the desktop computers in the Ross classrooms to a laptop or even a tablet device like an iPad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Seating Chart Tool<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Below, click on the function you’d like to learn more about. If you’d like to read about how this project got started, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening the Seating Chart Tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Log in to the Seating Chart Tool in iMpact, under the Faculty Menu at the top (or under Faculty in mobile) then under the heading “Class & Course Information”<\/strong> and selecting Classroom Seating Charts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administrative assistants will see a different layout than faculty when pulling up a seating chart. Admin assistants are able to design and assemble the seating charts…<\/p>\n\n\n

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…whereas faculty will see the finalized, interactive layout. Administrative assistants can only create the charts, they cannot input the participation and attendance marks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tracking Participation and Attendance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When an individual student is clicked, a small window appears in which the professor may make a quick notation of the student\u2019s participation or attendance by using three large colorful buttons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student photos will appear regularly on the chart and are marked “Present” by default. Marking a student “Late” will not visibly change their photo, whereas marking a student “Absent” will cause their photo to be grayed-out on the chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For participation tracking, the green and white plus marks a positive class contribution, the red and white minus marks a negative class contribution, and the blue and yellow star is a kind of “wild card,” usually used to mark a contribution that goes above and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n

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These marks are shown as a running tally in the student\u2019s window. Clicking them will “Undo” the mark. To make a change in a student’s attendance status, simply click the correct button. It will show as highlighted and blue.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Moving Backward or Forward to View Different Class Sessions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When a professor opens a class, the most recent session will display, even if it is in the future. Each session is it’s own “chart,” and records separately in the final report (see below). You can move forward or backward in time by using the “Previous” and “Next” buttons, and clicking “Now” will return you to the most recent session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re able to record, edit, or undo marks at any time, for any session.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Random Name Generating and Cold Calling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The “Cold Call” button in the upper right can be used to randomly generate a student’s name. When it does, that student’s window will appear, making it easy to record a contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Participation levels can be taken into account when using the tool\u2019s cold call feature. For example, you can limit the pool of names the tool chooses from to those who haven\u2019t participated yet during the current class session or from those who haven\u2019t participated at any point during the entire semester. If you want to include everyone regardless of past participation, you can just click \u201cAll Present Students.\u201d Any of these options will generate a name and bring up the random student\u2019s window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you just want to use the cold call button to generate a name without recording the corresponding participation, simply click or tap outside of the student window to return to the chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-Reported Absences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some students, like MBAs, have the ability to self-report absences. When this happens, the student’s photo in the seating chart will will appear with a gray tint over it. If they’ve provided a reason for their absence, you can see what they’ve written by clicking or tapping their photo to bring up their student window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a student is unable or did not give any indication of an absence, you can mark the student absent manually, which will completely obscure the face on the chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Seating Chart Tool pulls this student self-reported data, it is not a two-way interaction. In other words, the Seating Chart Tool gives you a way to see that a student has self-reported an absence, and allows you to change the status in the Seating Chart tool itself, but does not change the data within the self-reported absence tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When student self-reporting is expanded to include all students, the Seating Chart Tool will update accordingly. At this time, not all students are able to use the self-reporting absence feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generating a Final Report<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re able to view a running tally of all marks recorded by clicking the \u201cReport\u201d button. From here, you can see at a glance the totals of all marks for the enter semester, or scroll right to see it broken down by date. A green plus, red minus, and yellow star represent the three different participation marks, a red and white U is an absence recorded by the professor while a red and white A indicates a self-reported absence. A yellow and white L represents a tardy as marked by the professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report window will open in a new browser tab. Simply close the tab to return to the seating chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, exporting the report into an Excel spreadsheet is not possible, although it is a feature we plan to add soon, as well as the ability to view the seating chart itself in different configurations such as an alphabetized list.<\/p>\n