Presence System and Lecture Planning using QR Code with Mobile

Devices

Kasmir Tanjung

, Fahmi Fahmi

Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Almamater, Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Presence System, QR Code

Abstract: During lectures at the University of Sumatera Utara, student attendance is one of the important indicators for

achievement. Student attendance record in attending a lecture has a minimum limit of 80% of the total

meetings so that the student can take the final semester examination. Currently, the student attendance process

in the University of Sumatera Utara is still carried out with conventional methods. In this study, we developed

a web application for the student attendance system in University of Sumatera Utara using the Quick Response

(QR) Code technology that can process student attendance and permit student absence from lectures in the

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Sumatera Utara.

1 INTRODUCTION

Lecture activities are one of the main activities of

students that must be attended regularly when taking

a course. During lectures at the University of

Sumatera Utara, student attendance is one of the

important indicators for achievement. Student

attendance record in attending a lecture has a

minimum limit of 80% of the total meetings so that

the student can take the final semester examination.

Currently, the student attendance process in the

University of Sumatera Utara is still carried out with

conventional methods starting from taking attendance

sheets from department employees, carrying

attendance sheets in the ongoing class, giving

attendance signatures by each student, and collecting

the attendance sheets to the employee. In addition,

department employees still need to upload student

attendance data manually into academic information

systems so that they can be processed digitally.

This method has weaknesses such as the range of

student attendance, loss or damage to attendance

sheets, errors in entering attendance data by

employees, and the use of a relatively long time so

that the overall presence process becomes inefficient.

At present, there are several alternatives available for

these problems including the use of fingerprint

attendance tools, presence using RFID (Radio

Frequency Identification) technology, and biometric

presence tools. However, these alternatives are

perceived as impractical and economical, especially

for application on campus due to the high cost

required, the complexity of installation and

maintenance and the need to re-register the identities

of all students.

In this study, we developed a web application for

the student attendance system in University of

Sumatera Utara using the Quick Response (QR) Code

technology that can process student attendance and

permit student absence from lectures in the

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of

Sumatera Utara.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

In general, a system where lecturers and staff of the

Department of the Electrical Engineering University

of Sumatera Utara can provide access to attendance

to students by displaying or printing QR Codes

through web applications so that each student can

perform attendance processes by scanning the QR

Code immediately using the application on mobile

devices. Information obtained from the reading of the

QR Code and the location, and time of students do the

scans will then be sent to the database of student

attendance systems as a sign of student attendance.

384

Tanjunng, K. and Fahmi, .

Presence System and Lecture Planning using QR Code with Mobile Devices.

DOI: 10.5220/0010100703840388

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

384-388

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

2.1 Current Presence System

The presence means to indicate whether someone is

present in the class or not. Presence system is a

system used to record attendance lists of each

member of the agency. The presence system records

the identity of members of the agency and the time of

entry and exit of its members. Presence systems also

have the ability to provide accurate reports.

In lecturing activities in the Department of

Electrical Engineering, the University of Sumatera

Utara the system must be able to include an

attendance sheet which aims to obtain student

attendance data in each subject. Presence sheet is a

form of a paper containing the name, student number

(NIM), subject, signature date, and column. Presence

data will then be entered or sent manually one by one

to the USU information system database through the

information system website provided. The collected

data will be calculated and will be used as a condition

for whether students can take the semester final

examination with a minimum attendance limit of

80%.

2.2 Student Presence System using QR

Codes

Computerized presence systems have now been

developed with many different types of software and

methods. The system developed also varies from

web-based, fingerprint, android, and biometrics. In

research conducted by Ermatita et al. (2015),

explained that the presence system using a QR code

reader could improve the efficiency of student

attendance at Sriwijaya University with 56% of

respondents expressing agreement (Ermatita, 2016).

In addition to the presence, this system can also

display lecture schedules for lecturers and students.

By using the BYOD concept (Bring your own

device), this system has a high-efficiency value in the

use of hardware. This is evidenced by each student

being able to attend presence using their Android

mobile phone. Lecturers can enter the system using

NIP data and passwords that have been determined by

the developer. By entering the system, the lecturer

can display the QR Code for student attendance and

see a list of students who have attended attendance at

the lectures brought by the lecturer. While for

department employee users can only see the results of

student attendance recapitulation. Another study

conducted by Adi Purnama (2014), with the title

"Student Attendance System Using Mobile QR Code

(Case Study of Widyatama University)" explains the

presence system with QR Code technology can

shorten student attendance by 10 minutes 59 seconds

with a cost of zero rupiahs (Purnama, 2014). Both of

these studies have proven that there is an increase in

time and cost efficiency by using the QR Code on

student attendance systems, reducing the occurrence

of fraud in the student attendance process, and

alleviating the workload of department employees in

handling student attendance.

However, these two studies still have many

limitations so that they cannot be used in different

conditions, especially to be applied in the USU

Electrical Engineering Department. The limitations

include, among other things, in the authentication

system, it does not provide data security features in

the QR Code so that the range of duplication of the

QR Code can be done by students, as well as

limitations in semester processing and classes in the

student attendance system, so that it will be difficult

to reuse in the next semester with different class

arrangements and different courses.

2.3 Web Application

A web application is an application that is accessed

using a web browser through a network such as the

internet or intranet. Web applications are computer

software applications that are encoded in languages

supported by web browsers (such as ASP, Perl, Java,

JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc.) and depend on

the browser to display applications. The ability to

update and maintain web applications without having

to distribute and install software on the possibility of

thousands of client computers is a key reason for its

popularity: Easy information access, Server setup is

easier, Information is easily distributed and free

platform, information can be presented by web

browsers on any operating system.

2.4 Quick Response (QR) Code

Quick Response Code often called QR Code or QR

Code is a kind of two-dimensional symbol developed

by Denso Wave which is a subsidiary of Toyota, a

Japanese company in 1994. The purpose of this QR

Code is to convey information quickly and also get

responses quickly. The QR Code was originally used

for tracking vehicle parts for manufacturing. But now,

it has been used for commercial purposes aimed at

mobile phone users. QR codes are developments from

barcodes or barcodes that are only able to store

information horizontally while the QR Code is able to

store more information, both horizontally and

vertically.

Presence System and Lecture Planning using QR Code with Mobile Devices

385

The QR code is usually a small white square with

black geometric shapes (can be seen in Figure 2),

even though now many have been color and used as

product brands. Information encoded in the QR Code

can be a URL, telephone number, SMS message, V-

Card, or any text. The QR code has obtained

international standard ISO / IEC18004 and Japan JIS-

X-0510 [QR Code, 2018; Ariadi, 2011; Muharram,

2009)

In general, this system is designed to process

student attendance when attending a lecture.

Lecturers or department employees can create QR

codes as student access to attendance using an

android application which then sends data to the

server using the API. The data obtained will then be

stored in the database that already exists on the

system. Student attendance data can then be seen by

lecturers and department employees using web

applications that have been designed. So that with this

system the student presence process is not done

conventionally anymore and can reduce the level of

errors caused by human error. In general, the presence

system diagram that will be designed can be seen in

Figure 1 and Figure 2 below:

Figure 1: Example of a QR Code

Figure 2: Anatomy of a QR Code

2.5 System Design

At this stage, the web application is designed for

authentication, processing semesters, classes, class

schedules, QR codes, student presences, and student

absentee permissions through a browser that can be

accessed by lecturers and department employees

(Figure 3) (Rama, 2013; Fielding, 2000)

3 RESULT

The user interface in a web application is used as an

intermediary for user communication with the

system. This user interface display is designed based

on a previously designed activity diagram. The design

of the user interface during log authentication can be

seen in the following Figure 4.

In the login interface, the user is required to enter

an email and password that has been registered

previously. If the user does not remember the

password they have, can use forget your password

feature which will send a password reset link to the

registered email. When the login process is

successful, then the main system page will appear

which can be seen in Figure 5.

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

386

Figure 3: Web Application Architecture and API for

Student Presence Systems Using QR Code

Figure 4: The Login Authentication Interface

Figure 5: Display of the Web Application Main Page

Interface

For the interface display to create a QR code can be

seen in the following figure 6. In this user interface,

the user can make a QR code and see the total QR

code that has been made previously in a particular

class.

The process of creating a QR code is done by

selecting the class, and the duration of the student's

attendance can be received by the system which is 15

minutes in default. Then the user can press the generic

button so the QR code will appear as shown in the

following figure 7.

The system will display the QR code along with

class information, lecturer and number of lecture

meetings. In addition, there are three buttons provided

including the full-screen button to display the QR

code on the full screen, the print button to change the

QR code into the format .pdf for further printing, and

the attendance list button to see the attendance results

performed by students in the class with the interface

display seen in figure 8.

In the student presence interface, there is a list of

students who attend a lecture and the results of their

attendance at each meeting. The results of student

attendance can be displayed in three colors, namely

red indicates absence, and yellow indicates

permission and green indicates attendance. Besides

being displayed on the screen, student attendance

results can also be displayed in the PDF image by

pressing the print button. Departmental employee

users will see a letter icon indicating that the user has

access to follow-up permits made by students. If

department employees press the icon, the student

permission interface will appear. Where on the

interface, department employees can accept or reject

the permission given by students. If the department

employee receives permission, the student will be

counted in attendance, while if he refuses permission,

the student will be counted absent. The interface to

follow up on the student's permission can be seen in

the following figure 9.

Figure 6: Display Interfaces for Creating QR Codes

Figure 7: Interface Display Result of QR Code Creation

Presence System and Lecture Planning using QR Code with Mobile Devices

387

Figure 8: Interface Display List of Student Presence

Figure 9: Display of Student Permission Interface

4 CONCLUSION

We have successfully developed a web application

for the student attendance system in University of

Sumatera Utara using the Quick Response (QR) Code

technology that can process student attendance and

permit student absence from lectures in the

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of

Sumatera Utara. The system allowed lecturers to

create QR code, distributed it among the student for

presence confirmation process. All result data then

will be stored in the server for further purpose and

analysis. Additional person locator feature (Fahmi,

2018) can be added to make the system become more

powerful.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by Lembaga Penelitian

Universitas Sumatera Utara and Kemenristekdikti

through USU TALENTA Funding 2018.

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