Bar coding was designed to enable the rapid input of data into a computer terminal. This eliminates slow, tedious, and error-prone human input. It works so well that the applications of bar codes have spread into many business and public endeavors. Perhaps most familiar are the Universal Product Codes (UPCs) printed on consumer goods which, when scanned, reference a data base for product identification, pricing, and inventory control. Airlines use bar codes to direct the movement of their clients' baggage. Libraries bar-code both collections and patrons. Rental outlets put bar-codes on a wide array of returnable items from videos to automobiles. Our mail is bar-coded as is every courier package. Researchers have even bar-coded honey bees to track their movements! In fact, an axiom for successful business is "If it moves, Bar-Code it!"

While students do not behave like automobiles or video cassettes, they DO move (sometimes like honey bees!). And as they move, schools wish to better track that movement and its attendant activities. Not only does bar-coding make sense for daily period-by-period attendance entry due to speed of input, it also makes sense for student activities in borrowing (library and elsewhere), option selection, and in other school activities where there is an enormous volume of data and/or the data entry time is very limited.

Many people think that reading bar codes requires elaborate and expensive equipment. Not True! For schools, we recommend a durable hand-held programmable CCD scanner that is connected to your data entry computer terminal. It is called a "wedge" device because it connects in between your keyboard and the computer. In effect, the scanner is a keyboard that converts bar code lines into numeric data as opposed to a regular keyboard which converts key strokes into numeric data.

How will your school, school board, or school district's educational system benefit from Bar-Coded Attendance?

There are financial and quality-of-service benefits to using bar coding for attendance. If your school's attendance data is currently entered by typing, the following benefits will accrue:

Rapid and accurate data input generates enormous savings for any employer. Employee time for data entry is sharply reduced. In a typical large secondary school, the entire school's attendance data can be entered in in as little as seventy minutes by one employee! This is down from a secretary and a half every day in a typical school entering data by typing.

The data-input employee is sane at the end of each day.

There is an improvement in the accuracy of the data. This is due, in part, to the fact that there are fewer days when attendance input is abandoned due to illness, or extraordinary events. Of course, there are no "typos".

Summary data is available sooner for administrators and teachers. It is difficult to have an end-of-day attendance report if data input goes beyond the end of a day's classes! With bar coding, data input is finished mid way through the last class of the day and summary reports are printed immediately.

Proper design of the bar-coded system will enable substantially improved attendance procedures among teachers and administrators. That is, teachers will record attendance more accurately, they will have better summary information available sooner, and they will be more likely to initiate attendance-related administrative procedures.

Once bar codes become an accepted fact of life within the system, there will be a flood of good ideas from employees about other uses. Your Board/District/LEA will likely adopt many of these. For instance, school libraries should be using bar codes on their collection as well as to identify their student borrowers. Plasticised photo-ID student cards with bar codes are readily available from commercial photographers. In secondary schools, the option selection process can be done using bar codes. Again, these bar code applications greatly speed up processes that were once agonizingly slow. And the accuracy is a bonus!

Finally, students attend better when bar codes are used. They have the mistaken impression that a computer is keeping track of them for the first time and they behave accordingly.

It is difficult to quantify the financial value of these numerous latter items but it is easy to estimate the monetary value of the savings on the data-input time reductions.

Financial Estimate on Data-Input Time Savings

Assume that each secondary school uses one "secretary-day" each day for attendance input. Also assume that the secretary is paid about $30,000 per annum including benefits. The bar-coded input will reduce the input time to one-third or less of the present time allotted. In fact, in a recent test in a large school district, the bar code input time measured less than one-fifth of the typing time for the same classes. The same calculation applies to any large senior elementary school that does period-by-period attendance. Some schools use a half-day attendance system which requires less input time.

For smaller elementary schools, assume that there are 1-2 hours of employee time saved each day. Fill in the following blanks to calculate your system's potential savings.

_____ secondary schools X $20,000 = $ ________________________


_____ senior elem. schools X $10,000 = $ ________________________


_____ elementary schools X $5,000 = $ ________________________



Total ANNUAL savings to the Board/District/LEA $ ________________________

The Bar Code

A number of "symbologies" are used in bar coding. Some are proprietary (e.g. the UPC codes). Others are completely inappropriate for the contemplated application (e.g. "Postnet" which is used exclusively by the US Postal Service). There are two codes that we recommend for schools - Codabar and Code 39. Both are public-domain and easily read by a variety of scanning equipment. Code 39 is suitable (and ideal!) for attendance forms because it can handle alpha-numeric characters. Codabar is a good choice for student cards, option sheets, library use, and other applications using numeric data only.

Each symbology comes in a variety of densities, heights, and "dithers" collectively called a bar code font. Should your Board/District produce the forms centrally on a high-speed printer, there may be a one-time font cost of $100 to $2000 depending on the supplier and the brand of printer. This font must be selected carefully so that it is within the range parameters of the scanners employed at each data-entry site. That is, the selected bar code must be of an appropriate size (length and density) to be read by the chosen hand-held scanner.

The Scanner

There are lots of technologies to scan codes. We recommend durable hand-held non-trigger "gun-style" scanners. For school libraries, we recommend a similar model with a trigger. These models come loaded with the appropriate software to read a dozen or more symbologies including Code 39 and Codabar. These scanners last for years and there are no hidden after-market costs. A typical employee takes about 30 seconds to learn how to use them, is accurate within ten minutes, and lightning fast within two days. While the novelty lasts, attendance entry is the most sought-after office job!

For a quotation on scanners, contact Don Cole of National Retail Technologies at dcole@nrtpos.com. Don has a variety of scanners available which will read any bar code. Don is very familiar with MarkBook's bar-coded attendance form and can make specific recommendations for your school or school district.

To see a sample of the bar-coded forms produced by MarkBook, go to section 6-4.

It is necessary in some applications to have commonly-scanned codes pre-printed on the attendance sheet so that the data-input user can quickly scan these. Such keyboard commands as "Enter", "Delete", or "Tab" may be required as bar codes at each terminal. Also, selected letters such as A for Absent, L for Late, or T for Tardy may be needed in bar code symbology. MarkBook prints any of these, as required, on each form. See section 6-1.

Implementation

Done properly, attendance data entry using bar-coded forms will rapidly spread throughout your board/district/LEA on a voluntary adoption basis. We recommend a selected school be chosen for implementation. After you are comfortable using your new system, bring the other schools' administrators and attendance secretaries into that site for a hands-on demo. Having seen it in action, the anticipation will be high and the acceptance will be improved.