Attendance Monitoring
Flying Squad Instructions
Background
All Masters project and dissertation modules require that the supervisors record a
meeting with their students once a fortnight. This is mandatory for Tier 4 (overseas)
students. This is being done by adding an Attendance Monitory block in topic area 51 in
a similar way to adding an e-module block in topic 52.
The master copy of the Attendance Monitoring block is in the AMMX – Attendance
Monitoring Master module. Only import the Activities not any blocks or filters.
Faculties will provide a spreadsheet listing all the students showing their name, ID
number, first supervisor, second supervisor (optional) and whether or not they are Tier
4 students and the module code and cohort. Other information may be included but that
is not needed.
This spreadsheet needs to be ‘processed’ in several ways so that we group the students
according to their supervisor’s name and Tier 4. Note. If a Tier 4 student has 2
supervisors they will be in 3 groups, their first supervisor’s group, their second
supervisor’s group and in the Tier 4 group.
The module’s setting needs to be changed to Separate Groups and the supervisors added
as teachers if they are not already a teacher of the module.
Step 1 – Preparing the faculty spreadsheet
1. Make a copy of the spreadsheet and work on the copy.
2. Check that the module code and cohort are correctly formatted, correct if
necessary
3. Order the spreadsheet by the module code, make sure you do not jumble the
students
4. Locate the Tier 4 column. Edit the entries so that they are ‘Tier 4’ (or blank)
rather than a ‘Y’ or ‘Yes’ or anything else.
5. Use a different background colour to clearly identify the separate module
cohorts.
6. Save the spreadsheet.
Step 2 – Splitting the spreadsheet in to separate modules for uploading
The aim is to create a spreadsheet for each module that has only 2 columns, the first
being the student’s ID number and the second the group they are assigned to.
Remember the group names are the names of the supervisors and also Tier 4.
All students will have their ID numbers listed on the spreadsheet 3 times, once for their
first supervisor, once for their second supervisor and once for their Tier 4 status. If they
don’t have a second supervisor and are not a Tier 4 student then their ID number will
appear 3 times in the ID number column but they will have only have their first, and
only, supervisor listed in the group column. The other 2 column entries will be left
blank.
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(If you get a module where there are no second supervisors or no Tier 4 students then
adapt accordingly)
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Step 2, step by step
1. 1 Create a new blank spreadsheet with the title of one of the modules, e.g.
123ABC_1415AAA
2. Copy all the rows of 123ABC_1415AAA from the faculty spreadsheet and paste
them into the 123ABC_1415AAA spreadsheet.
3. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv (MS-DOS)
4. Remove all unnecessary columns so that on the ID number, Supervisor 1,
Supervisor 2 and Tier 4 columns remain. (Fig. 1)
5. Colour the columns(Fig. 2)
6. Copy all the rows and paste them underneath the last row twice, so that the
there are 3 copies of the rows. (Fig. 3)
7. Delete the entries in second and third copies of the first supervisor in the first
supervisor column and let the data move left. (Fig. 4)
8. Delete the entries in second copy of the second supervisor in the first supervisor
column and let the data move left. (Fig. 5)
9. Delete the Second Supervisor and Tier 4 columns (Fig. 6)
10. Save the spreadsheet as an .csv (MS-DOS) file with the name
Fig 1. Remove unnecessary colums
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Fig 2. Colour the columns
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Fig 3. Copy and paste to triplicate the entries.
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
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Fig 4. Delete the entries in second and third copies of the first supervisor in the first
supervisor column and let the data move left.
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Fig 5. Delete the entries in second copy of the second supervisor in the first supervisor
column and let the data move left.
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Tier 4
Fig 6. Delete the Second Supervisor and Tier 4 columns
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
12345
12346
12347
12348
Tom Brown
Bill Bailey
Fred Bloggs
Joe Soap
Tom Brown
Tier 4
Tier 4
Save the spreadsheet as an .csv (MS-DOS) file with the name
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Step 3 – Creating and populating the groups
The Administration/Users/Groups/Import Enrolls function allows the groups to be
created and populated from an upload of a .csv spreadsheet.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Login to module
Go to Import Enrolls
Set the User Identity User field: to ID number
Set the Enrollment Options Role: to No Enrolments
Set Group Options Assign to groups: to Yes
Set Group Options Use group: to Use file data
Set Group Options Create groups: to Yes
Import File Choose a file upload the appropriate .csv file for the module
Double check all the settings
Click the Import button
The next screen will report on the import, see below.
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After the import the screen will look something like the figure below.
The lines it is unable to parse are those that were blank, they would usually be for
students who were NOT Tier 4 or who did NOT have a second supervisor.
In this example lines 15, 17, 20 and 21 corresponded to students who were not Tier 4,
see the screenshot of the spreadsheet below. Check a few of these lines against the
uploaded spreadsheet.
This is the ImportEnrollsDemo.csv file that was uploaded
Note:Student 11113 has
 John Smith as their first supervisor,
 Will Wilson as their second supervisor
 Is NOT a Tier 4 student
Student 11114 has
 Jack Jones as their first supervisor,
 Andrew Syson as their second supervisor
 Is a Tier 4 student
This is so that you can quickly check the Import Enrolls
worked.
Now check that the groups are set up correctly by looking at the Tier 4 membership.
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Step 4 – Importing the Attendance Monitoring module
This is very similar to the importing of the e-module box. One difference is that there is
no need to hide it from the students, though the staff movies are hidden.
Once the import has been done is very important to change the settings so that the
module is set to Separate groups. If this is not doen then all the work in setting up the
groups would be wasted.
Sterp by step.
From the homepage of the module
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Click on the Import link
Search for AMMX
Select the AMMX radio button
Click the Continue button
Only the Include activities and resources box should be ticked, see below
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Click the Next button
Leave all the boxes ticked on the next screen and click the Next button
Then click the Perform import button
Click the Continue button and see that the links below have been added
11.
12. Click on the Edit settings link in the Administration block
13. Scroll down to the groups section and select Separate groups from the drop
down
14.
15. Click the Save changes button
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Step 5 – Marking the Tier 4 students in the grade book
Unfortunately although we have got a Tier 4 group the administrators require that we
have a column in the grade book that identifies the Tier 4 students. To do this we need
to go to the gradebook, set the group the Tier 4 and then export the gradebook as an
Excel file. Then we add a 1 to all students in the Tier 4 column and save the file as a .csv
file for importing back in to the gradebook.
Step by step part A, Exporting
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Click on Grades (Provisional) to open the gradebook
Select Tier 4 from the Separate groups drop down
Click on the Export tab
Click on Excel spreadsheet
Check that you have selected the Tier 4 group
Only the Tier 4 box should be ticked, see below
Click the Submit button
Then click the Download button
Save the file and open it in Excel
Put a 1 in the Tier 4 column for all the students (you only have the Tier 4
students)
12.
13. Save the file as a MS-DOS .csv file
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Step by step part B, Importing
1. Return to the grade book
2. Click on the Import tab
3. Click on Choose file and upload the .csv file, see below
4.
5. Click on the Upload grades button
6. Map the ID number to ID number and Tier 4 to Tier 4, ignore the rest
7.
8. Click the Upload grades button
9. The screen will show a success message, click the Continue button
10. Select All participants from the Separate groups drop down and see that only
the Tier 4 students have a 1.00 (100%) in the Tier 4 column, which is hidden.
11.
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Step 6 – Adding the supervisors as teachers
If you are lucky the supervisors will already be teachers of the module, but it is likely
that they will not be. Given that there are a lot of supervisors I will show you a quick
way to add staff. This involves having the same module open in 2 separate windows of
the browser.
This is best understood by viewing the movie.
1. Right click on the module’s code and click on Open Link in a New Window
2. Position the 2 windows with the one on the right overlapping, as below
3.
4. Now click on the Overview tab of the Groups function of the left hand widow
5.
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6. From the right hand window click Enrolment methods from the User/Enrolled
users
7.
8. Click on the
icon on the Manual enrolments of the right hand window and
the two windows will look like the figure below
9.
10. You can copy the supervisor’s name from the left hand window and paste into
the Search box of the Not enrolled users on the right hand window
11. Make sure you select Teacher from the Assign role drop down between the 2
boxes
12. Click the Add button to add them as teachers to the module
13. Continue to add all the supervisors as teachers
Note. You may find that the staff member is not found when you add them to the search
box. This may be because they are already on the module. You can check this by pasting
in the name into the Search box of the Enrolled users.
If you can’t find the staff, then note their name and module and contact them by email
asking them to login to Moodle. If you can’t find them on email or there are several staff
with the same name then contact the faculty registry for clarification.
_______________________________
These instructions and all the movies for steps 1 to 6 are at
http://cuonlinemoodlehelp.coventry.ac.uk/am-staff/
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