LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Attendance Monitoring: Evision User Guide

Introduction

  1. Attendance Monitoring of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Modules through Evision was introduced by the University in the Autumn Semester and allows teaching staff to communicate non-attendance and non-engagement to Undergraduate and Postgraduate Centres efficiently and in a timely fashion, and enables tracking, intervention and, where necessary, withdrawal of students.
  2. Evision is a web-based application that gives you direct access to the University student database (SITS). Information on seminar groups and student allocations to groups on SITS is based on data held on the University timetabling system (CMIS) and is uploaded into SITS on a weekly basis.
  3. Once you have logged into Evision you will find on-screen instructions that guide you through the student attendance monitoring task. This guide is intended to provide further assistance should you need it. At the end of this guide there is a list of contacts should you need further assistance.

Logging into Evision

  1. In order to log on to Evision you will need to have a University network login. If you do not have a University network login please see Help and Support below.
  2. You are able to use Evision inside or outside the University. Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above is the recommended browser for using Evision. Unfortunately, Evision cannot be guaranteed to work correctly with other browsers.The Evision login page can be found from the University home page ( by choosing ‘Evision’ from the ‘Quick Links’ menu on the right-hand-side. Selecting this will take you to the 'Student Evision Home' page ( Click on the link ‘EVISION LOGIN’ to be taken to the login prompt.
  1. Enter your University network username and password. If you are unable to login see Help and Support below.
  2. Once in Evision, your ‘Staff Home’ page will be displayed. The content of your home page will depend on the level of Evision access you have, but you will see some boxes (known as ‘containers’) that hold a series of links.All teaching staff should be able to see the container headed 'Student Engagement’.

  1. In order to begin entering student attendance click on the ‘Attendance Monitoring’ link within the Student Engagement container. This will open a new window from which you will be able to select your module. There is also a link in the Student Engagement container that allows your to print an attendance list (see paragraph 28).

Selecting a Module

  1. To enter student attendance you will need to specify a module code and a period (i.e. Autumn Semester, Term1, etc). The full module code should be entered, including the ‘C’ or ‘N’ suffix - for example AC1001N rather than AC1001.Optionally, you can specify a seminar or other group number. However, as group allocations can change early in the semester it might be necessary during that period for you to retrieve all students. If there is a single group for your module a group number should not be specified. If there is more than 1 type of group for your module, for example a workshop as well as a seminar, these groups will have been merged (please see Merged Groups paragraph 24 below).
  2. From the Spring Semester a ‘wildcard’ search is now automatically applied to the allocated group you specify in this screen. For example, specifying ‘2’ in this screen will retrieve the group ‘SEM2-LEC1’.
  3. From Spring Semester a new option to select an individual week or one of the grouped weeks (week 4 - 6 and week 7 - 9) has been introduced. Selecting an individual week or grouped week will mean that you are able to enter student attendance by clicking a ‘radio button’ rather than selecting from a drop-down list (see paragraph 16). Not specifying a week will mean you will have to enter data using the drop-down list (see paragraph 22).

  1. Once you have entered your selection click on the ‘Next’ button and you should be taken to a screen from which you select a sort order (paragraph 15). However, if there is a problem with your selection you will be taken to an error message.

Invalid Selections

  1. If you have specified a an invalid module code or period, or if you are not recorded as a tutor for the module, a message similar to the one below will be displayed. You should select the ‘Back’ button to return to the selection screen and re-enter the module code. If you are specifying the correct details but are still receiving the error message it is likely you need to be assigned to the module - see Help and Support below.
  2. If you have specified a group code in your selection and that code is invalid, the message below will be displayed. Please select the ‘Back’ button to return to the selection screen and re-enter the correct details. Alternatively, leave the group code field blank to retrieve all students and this will allow you to check your group code.

Selecting a Sort Order

  1. If your selection is a valid you will be asked to specify a sort order. You can sort students alphabetically by surname, or alternatively by group number and then alphabetically bysurname by selecting the sort order from the drop-down list. If you have specified an allocated group you will not need to specify a sort order.

Entering Student Attendance by Selected Week (new from Spring Semester 2008/9)

  1. If you specified a particular week in the selection screen you will be able to enter student attendance by simply clicking a ‘radio button’ on screen rather than using a drop-down list. This screen displays up to 25 students per page and so you may need to switch pages to view your students. To navigate between pages use the page navigation buttons at the top of the screen. To move beyond page 10 you will need to use the ‘Next’ button to retrieve the button for page 11 and upwards, and the ‘Previous’ button to return to pages 1 - 10.


  1. Student details are listed on the left side of the screen. Their enrolment status or overall status on their course is recorded in the Enrol Status column. By clicking on the ‘Enrolment Description' link you can download a list explaining the meaning of the enrolment status codes. Attendance monitoring is required for all students who have enrolled this year (Enrol Status beginning with E) and who are not withdrawn from the module (Module Status not W). Students who are not enrolled but are attending classes should also be recorded as their status needs to be updated.
  2. There is also a Module Status column that gives the student status on the module. A Module Status of ‘W’ indicates that the student has withdrawn from the module and so should not be attending. If a student has been withdrawn but is attending you should still record their attendance. The relevant Postgraduate or Undergraduate Centre will then investigate why they are attending.
  3. The seminar group number is recorded in the Allocated Group column (see 24 below regarding merged groups). If the module has no seminar group structure or if a student has not yet been allocated to a group ZZ-UNALLOCATED will be displayed.
  4. Record student attendance by clicking the ‘radio button’. Click in the column headed ‘Y’ to indicate attendance, and ‘N’ to indicate non-attendance. If a student absence has been authorised click ‘A’, and if attendance is not required in that particular week click ‘NR’. For weeks 4 – 6 and weeks 7 - 9 you should indicate the number of weeks the student attended within that 3 week period by selecting the columns headed ‘0’, ’1’, ’2’, or ’3’ as appropriate. Select ‘NR’ if attendance was not required in the 3 week period.
  5. IMPORTANT: You should save your work regularly by clicking the ‘Save changes’ button at the foot of the screen and in particularly you must save your work before switching to a new page. Failure to save before moving to a new page will result in you losing work. Please also note that for security reasons you may be logged out of Evision after a period of time has elapsed, and for that reason you are strongly advised to regularly save your work and not to retrieve students until you are ready to record attendance.

Staff should also be aware that if two users retrieve the same student then only one person will be able to store data whilst the second will get an error message ‘Retrieved occurrence does not match occurrence in database’. This 'record looking' is essential to preserve data integrity and can be minimised by only retrieving the students you intend to log and recording/storing as soon as possible after retrieval.

Entering Student Attendance using the ‘All Weeks’ option

  1. If you did not specify a week or group of weeks in the screen when you specify your module you will be taken to a slightly different screen where all weeks are displayed on screen and data is entered by means of selecting from a drop-down list rather than a radio button. This is the old version of the data entry screen which you can still use should you wish. In this screen you enter data by selecting the appropriate values from a drop-down list.

  1. Record student attendance for week 1, 2, and 3 by selecting ‘Y’, ‘N’, ‘A’ or ‘NR’ from the drop-down (see paragraph 20 for an explanation of these codes). For weeks 4 – 6 and weeks 7 - 9 you should indicate the number of weeks the student attended within that 3 week period, or select ‘NR’ if attendance was not required in the 3 week period.

IMPORTANT: As specified in paragraph 21 above you should ensure that you save your work regularly by clicking the ‘Save changes’ button.

Merged Groups

  1. If students are allocated to more than 1 group - for example, a workshop or lecture as well as a seminar - the 2 group codes will have been merged on Evision. For example, if a student is allocated to lecture L1 and seminar group S1’, on Evision they will be allocated to group ‘L1-S1’. Module teams will need to identify which events are being used to trackattendance and some liaison may be necessary.

Students Attending But Not Listed in Evision

  1. You may have students attending your group who are not registered on the module and are therefore not listed in Evision. If this is the case you should print the form ‘Notification of Unregistered Student Attendance’ by clicking the appropriate on-screen link. You should complete this form and forward it to the Undergraduate or Postgraduate Centre who will record the student on the module. However, the students are still required to formalise their registration by visiting the Centre. Ultimately, the student’s assessment results will be withheld until such time as they have formally registered. Students who are attending as ‘Assessment Only’ in order to complete a Late Sit following mitigating circumstances will not appear on the lists for the current version of the module; if in doubt UG/PG Centres can determine whether a student attending but not registered should be added to the module.
  2. You may also have students attending your seminar when they are listed under a different group. These students should be advised to attend their allocated seminar group. Wherever possible attendance should still be recorded.Staff will be aware that lists taken from different systems can in some circumstances show variation. Lists of students for attendance monitoring WILL include non enrolled names which are not visible on CMIS generated registers, and the allocations of students to groups are only reconciled weekly so recently enrolled and fitted students may not appear immediately with a seminar group.

Exiting the Task

  1. When you have completed recording student attendance and have saved your work, select the ‘Quit (don’t save)’ button to exit this screen and to be taken to the final screen. From here you can either return to select another module by selecting ‘Yes’ from the drop-down and clicking the next button, or you can exit the task altogether by selecting 'No' and clicking ‘Next’ to be returned to the Staff Home page of Evision.

Printing an Attendance List

28.You can generate a printed listed of students that can be taken to the group and signed by those attending. If you require a printed version of the attendance list click on the ‘Printable attendance list’ link within the Student Engagement container on your Staff Home page. The method of selecting your module and group number is identical to the procedure for recording student attendance described above.

29.Please note, the printable attendance list may take some time to generate, depending on the number of students included in your selection. Please be patient and allow the task to complete. Once you have made your selection a list is displayed that you can print in the standard way for your browser. When you have printed the attendance list select ‘Next’ at the foot of the screen to exit.

Ending Your Evision Session

30.To log out of Evision altogether click on the ‘Logout’ link in the top left-hand corner of the Staff Home page.

Help and Support

Email / Extension / Direct Dial
ICT Service Desk / / 4444 / 020 7133 4444
Evision Helpdesk / / (69) 1220 / 020 7320 1220
UG PG Centres / (for UG Centres) or (for PG Centres)

Who to Contact in the Event of Problems

Problem / Solution
I do not have a University network username and password. / Initially you should contact the ICT Service Desk. Once you have a network account you should contact the Evision Helpdesk so your Evision account can be set up.
I have a University network account, but cannot log into Evision. / If you are new to Evision, you might need an Evision account setting up. Contact the Evision Helpdesk.
The ‘Student Engagement’ container is not on my Evision Staff Home page. / Contact the Evision Helpdesk.
I am not recorded as the ‘Marker’ for my module (see 12 above). / If you are absolutely sure you are entering a valid module code and period, you may need a ‘Marker’ record creating. Contact the Evision Helpdesk.
I need advice on students registered for the module and/or attending my group. / Contact the relevant UG or PG Centre.

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