IT CENTER ATTENDANCE MONITORING SYSTEM USING RFID

Jay Ar L. Dultiao and Arsenia V. Duldulao

Quirino State University, Diffun Campus

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a student attendance system in a

university IT Center based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
The spurt of technologies to improve education services delivery has been
rampant, but some institutions fail to embrace this and prefer to live with the
traditions. The attendance monitoring system in some universities and schools
is still done manually. Thus, this study proposed an Attendance Monitoring
System using RFID aimed at managing students’ attendance recording and
ensuring easy monitoring of attendance in an IT Center. It is expected that upon
deployment of the system, faculty will benefit as students' attendance can be
efficiently monitored; thus, the quality of teaching and performance of students
may be improved.

Keywords: Monitoring System, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID),

technology, education system

INTRODUCTION

Attendance monitoring contributes to the development of organizations,

such as educational institutions, on the premise that better attendance leads to
higher remarks of a student (Muir, 2009). Student attendance monitoring
continues to be a fundamental and vital part of any educational institution
(Mothwa et al., 2018). Attendance monitoring is essential and has an enormous
contribution in determining the number of students unwilling to attend their
classes (Al-naima, 2016). However, monitoring a student's attendance is tedious
due its manual process (Sai Krisha et al., 2013). Thus, the use of computerized
systems to satisfy this purpose is important.

Computerized systems provide a more convenient way of monitoring the

students upon entering and leaving the school. RFID can be a powerful tool that
can help provide accurate records and monitor students' attendance from
classrooms, laboratories, and other facilities just with the help of RFID
technology (Patel & Priya, 2014).

In the IT center of the locale of the study, it was observed that they are still
practicing the traditional way of recording attendance of students, faculty and
other clientele by using logbook. This method is found to be inconvenient since
it is time-consuming and sometimes could cause long queues. There is more
effort done in monitoring the attendance and preparing log sheets. With this,
proposing an Attendance Monitoring System using RFID came up as a study to
provide solution to the current problem. This technology offers automation that
works on radio frequency, and it is used for the auto-identification for the
different objects wirelessly.

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 The students, faculty, and staff of Quirino State University can access the
internet for online research using the IT Center. Through the help of the IT
Center, the students’ needs can be catered through furnishing them vast amount
of learning resources and online instructions which are available in the IT center.
With the high number of users, the facilitator finds it difficult to manage and
monitor their attendance. As a solution to the existing problem, the researchers
designed the IT Center Attendance Monitoring System using RFID to monitor the
frequency of clients using the facility by simply tapping their IDs in the RFID
reader.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The figure below shows the conceptual paradigm of the study. The first
box contains the needed data to be processed, which includes the related
information of students, university faculty and staff, and visitors. The second
box shows the development of the system. Lastly, the Output contains a list of
system-generated reports which are printable and available upon request.

Figure 1
Conceptual Paradigm

118 QSU Research Journal, Volume 8, 2019

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Software Development Methodology

FDD (feature-driven design) is an iterative and incremental software

development approach based on the agile manifesto's concepts. The goal is to
create high-level features, scope, and a domain object model, which will be used
to plan, design, develop, and test individual needs and activities based on the
overarching feature to which they belong (Inflectra, 2019).

Feature Driven Development (FDD) was used in this study as it is well-

suited for long-term projects which may continually change overtime and can be
altered through adding features in regular, predictable iterations. With FDD, the
team understood the project’s scope and context very well.

As FDD has 5 phases, the researchers have undergone five steps in FDD.
The 5 phases are (1) developing the overall model, (2) building the features list,
(3) planning by feature, (4) designing by feature, and (5) building by feature.

Feature-Driven Development combines a variety of industry-recognized

best practices, such as domain object modeling, feature teams, and version
control, into a coherent whole (Evangelista et al., 2017). The researchers first
developed the overall model of the proposed attendance monitoring using RFID.
This procedure defined the domain model that was built and explained the
problem that needs to be solved by the software development project. The
researchers worked closely with the end-users and the chief programmer to limit
the scope and context of the proposed system. The second step was to build a
features list. The features of the proposed system were identified, especially the
features that were important to the end-users. These features considered
providing solutions to the problems identified. Next was the plan by feature.
During this phase, the order in which the features from the features list were
determined and were developed, and tested. Potential risks, dependencies,
individual workload of the features were considered, and any other obstacle that
could hinder feature development. The feature sets were assigned to the most
capable programmers who can do the tasks within the specified timeframe. The
design by feature step was the time when features that could be designed and
built in a two-week iteration were identified. The feature priorities were defined,
and the team leader determined who would be involved in the features that
needed to be developed and designed. Build by feature step implemented all of
the items necessary to support the feature design. The user interface was
designed, and the feature prototype was built and tested.

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Figure 2
The FDD Phases

Data Gathering Tools

The data gathered to be able to push through with the study were collected
through interviews, library, and online research. Interview methods were used
to gather information by interviewing the facilitator about the current practices
implemented in the IT Center. Library and online research were used to read and
accumulate published related literature, related studies, and other journals to
have a good grasp about existing and available attendance monitoring systems.
The questions asked to the clients, which were both open and close-ended,
directed and helped the researchers pursue the development of the attendance
monitoring using RFID.

Data Analysis Tools

The Four Point Likert Scale Model was used to determine the reliability
and acceptability of the system. The conversions and descriptions of the scales
of evaluation are presented in the table.

Table 1
The Four Point Likert Scale Value and Conversion
VALUE CONVERSION DESCRIPTION
4 3.26 – 4.00 Strongly Agree
3 2.51 – 3.25 Agree
2 1.76 - 2.50 Disagree
1 1.00 – 1.75 Strongly Disagree

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Current System Problems and Proposed Solutions

Based on the result of the data gathered upon observation and interview,
the following problems of the current system were determined.

Problem 1. Manual attendance log-in and log-out monitoring process

When users go inside the IT Center, they need to write the required
information such as full name, course, date, and time, which takes a lot of time
to fill up the log book form.

Solution 1. Auto-identification using a Radio frequency identification system

The proposed system can monitor the frequency of students entering and
leaving the IT Center using the RFID card. The registered users access the system
by tapping the RFID card to the reader. It displays in the monitor who has tapped
their ID. This way, students, faculty and staff, and visitors do not need to write
in a logbook.

Figure 3
Sample Log-in form

Problem 2. Records were written in paper forms which create data security
problems

Since records were purely in paper format, the paper-based files kept in a
cabinet may lead to damaged records and may also be misplaced.

Solution 2. Provide computer-based records storage and reports generation

The information about students, faculty/staff, and visitors upon entering

and leaving the IT Center are recorded in the database. The proposed system
provides computerized records that can be retrieved and can be processed to
generate accurate reports.

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Figure 4
Sample Interface

Problem 3. Data redundancy on multiple log-in and log-out

Student information has been repeatedly written down in the attendance

paper forms upon entering and leaving the facility, which resulted in inaccurate
reports due to data redundancy.

Solution 3. Develop a system that eliminates data redundancy

The system has the sort and filter functions to arrange the required
information to retrieve and print required reports. This prevents redundancy and
inaccuracy of the reports generated.

Figure 5
Sample Interface for Sorting and Filtering

System Design

The two figures below are the major components of the RFID System. The
RFID in the first figure is composed of a microcontroller that connects to the
computer, the radio frequency generator, and a signal detector that receives the
signal from the RFID Tag. The RFID Tag does not have a power supply, and it

122 QSU Research Journal, Volume 8, 2019

relies on radio waves coming from RFID Reader. This tag is composed of a
transponder that receives radio waves which are sent back to the RFID Reader,
the rectifier circuit used to store the energy in the capacitor that supplies the
controller and memory element inside the RFID Tag. The working principle is
inductive coupling which radio frequency detects in a minimum range. The first
figure also shows the flow chart of the proposed system and the periodic functions
of the overall design and use. The second shows the connection of the Arduino
Uno to the RFID Reader using Dupont wires, USB Cable, and the buzzer.

Figure 6
Parts of RFID Reader

Operational Framework

The facilitator/administrator may have access to the system by logging in

using the correct username and password. The facilitator/administrator can
manage the registration processes of the users by inputting their personal
information and viewing all generated data; the RFID Card provided to each
faculty, staff, and student has a unique identification code recorded in the
database. End-users can access the system by tapping RFID Card in the RFID
Reader. When the RFID card is detected by the RFID reader, the logging time of
the users is saved and recorded in the system's database. Visitors can also access
the system through manual log-in. The facilitator/administrator can access and

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use all the functions and features of the system. They can access statistical
reports and monitor attendance through the system's database.

Figure 7
The Operational Framework of the Proposed System

Context Level Data Flow Diagram

This diagram shows the interaction between the users and the system. The
facilitator provides a unique RFID Card and inputs all information from the user
during the registration process. The facilitator manages and views all the records
in the system. The registered students, faculty, and staff can access the system
using an RFID card; in the absence of it, the users can access the system
manually.

Figure 8
Context Level DFD

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Software Product Testing and Evaluation

There were two sets of questionnaires administered for software product

evaluation to determine the performance and acceptability of the proposed
system

Table 2
Performance and Acceptability of the System
No. Indicators Mean Description
1. The system offers solution to the problem of QSU
Strongly
Internet Laboratory in manual process of monitoring 3.80
Agree
and recording.
2. The system performs efficiently and accurately in Strongly
3.60
recording of files in attendance history. Agree
3. The interface of the system is appropriately designed Strongly
3.66
in purpose to serve QSU Internet Laboratory. Agree
4. The system provides a user-friendly environment that
Strongly
is easy to use even for an inexperienced computer 3.66
Agree
user.
5. The system offers efficiency and productivity on the Strongly
3.65
part of the QSU Internet Laboratory. Agree
6. The system plays a significant role as basis for future Strongly
3.62
innovations. Agree
7. The preference to the system resolves difficulties in Strongly
3.60
using manual process. Agree
8. Strongly
The system offers instant generation report. 3.57
Agree
9. Strongly
The system offers accessibility of students’ data. 3.65
Agree
10. The system responses faster and more accurately Strongly
3.68
using the RFID Card Agree
Strongly
Grand Mean 3.65
Agree

The results revealed that the system performed very well and is very well
accepted by the respondents as indicated in the grand mean of responses. This
means that the system can be an alternative to the traditional attendance
monitoring system used in the IT center of the university. It efficiently and
effectively records the attendance, keeps historical data in the database, offers
reports generation, responds quickly and accurately, provides a user-friendly
environment, among others.

It is important that educational institutions provide solutions to simplify

and increase data collection; and one way to do this is to provide an RFID-based
system that could log students (Patel et al., 2012). The use of RFID in attendance
monitoring is efficient since it uses electromagnetic fields that can identify and
track tags attached to objects automatically (Akash Kashiappa et al., 2017).
Further, its goal is to collect information automatically, quickly and without
errors (Johansson, 2004). This is not a new technology but it gained much
attention due to its current low cost and advance which can be used not only in
computing fields but it could extend to other areas (Arulogun et al., 2013).

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Table 3
Reliability and Acceptability of the System
No. Criteria Mean QD
1. User-Friendliness 3.60 Strongly Agree
2. Portability 3.60 Strongly Agree
3. Integrity 3.56 Strongly Agree
4. Efficiency 3.67 Strongly Agree
5. Accuracy 3.67 Strongly Agree
6. Usability 3.63 Strongly Agree
7. Presentation 3.68 Strongly Agree
Grand Mean 3.63 Strongly Agree

The results on the evaluation on the reliability and acceptability of the

system showed that the system is reliable and acceptable as to its user-
friendliness, portability, integrity, efficiency, accuracy, usability and
presentation.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS

The QSU IT Center used the manual process of monitoring the attendance
of those logging in and out the facility. This process generates problems as to
efficiency of monitoring, accuracy of generating report and adeptness of keeping
records. Thus, the development of an RFID-based attendance monitoring system
is but timely and necessary as this helps lessen the time and effort in gathering
and preparing the master lists and statistical reports. The system provides an
electronic database and graphical representation based on monthly log reports.
In using RFID, the proposed system was developed to provide an alternative
solution to the problem in attendance monitoring activities. Based on the results
of the evaluation from the target user, the system meets the requirements in
terms of reliability and acceptability.

However, it is highly recommended that the system requirements may

consider looking into the correct specifications and frequency of the RFID System.
The facilitator of the IT Center may provide the recommended hardware and
software requirements to prevent damage to the software. This proposed study
may be pilot tested in future studies to monitor attendance inside the classroom.
It is also recommended to conduct and implement the system so as to test its
efficiency and security. Integration of Short Message Service or SMS may be
included to notify users through announcements.

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Smart Student Monitoring System using RFID. International Research
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Al-Naima, F., & Ameen, H. (2016). Design of an RFID based Students/Employee
Attendance System. Majlesi Journal of Electrical Engineering, 10(1).
http://mjee.iaumajlesi.ac.ir/index/index.php/ee/article/view/1726

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Arulogun O. T., Olatunbosun, A., Fakolujo O. A., & Olaniyi, O. M. (2013). RFID-
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