CELCAT Portal forum - Re SAT software

Posted:25-March-08
A very frequent comment from teaching staff  using PDA's to administer electronic registers at Leicester college is why do we not have 'historical data' displayed  for each student on the PDA. With the current SAT pocket software it is not possible for staff  to view past attendance or punctuality for a student (as with a paper register system) except through reports. If the SAT pocket allowed historical data (i.e. attendance from week 1 to present) to be shown a poor 'pattern'  of attendance or punctuality could be highlighted and discussed with the student during the lesson, rather than at a later date. Staff are of the opinion that if this issue can be dealt with in this way than the chances of improving attendance/punctuality are significantly greater.
Three other comments that consistently are made also  relate to SAT pocket these are:
It would help if the class/group total was shown once the register had been marked, this would be a useful double check to see if the register had been marked appropriately.
Also at present the start time is shown on electronic registers, it would be helpful if the end time was also shown.
At present on are system a user has full access to SAT pocket  and SAT client. From an administration point of view it would be better if user only had 'read only' rights to SAT client allowing them to print reports but not to change previously mark registers. Perhaps a check box could be used so this feature could be enable or disenabled by the system administrator.