Park Street: The attendance register will soon become a thing of the past for a section of students at St Xavier's College, Calcutta.

The Park Street institution, which was one of the first colleges in the city to shift to paperless admission, is introducing an app for attendance management of students.

"Jesuits at St Xavier's College are known for their innovations, embracing new ideas, for looking ahead rather than looking behind. Following in the footsteps of Father Eugene Lafont, who set up modern India's first scientific observatory at St Xavier's, the core committee of administration is spearheading the effort towards e-management of the various functionalities of the college," principal Father Dominic Savio said.

The app, called Studyzappsxc, was developed by former physics student Rahul Sen and his wife Mala. It will be up from March 5.

The college will provide tabs to teachers to record the attendance of the first-year students of BCom and BBA. Using the mobile app, the attendance may be recorded through the graphic view or the class list view.

"In the graphic view, the classroom shows up with seats and a teacher can select a seat to draw up the name, roll number and photograph of a student. This is possible for the BCom and BBA classes since their seating arrangement is fixed. The class list view only shows the names, roll numbers and photographs of the students without the seating and is useful for joint classes or special classes where different sections come together," said Father Xavier Savarimuthu, the vice-principal of the commerce department (morning section), who is supervising the implementation of the app-based attendance management system.

"Attendance can be updated by a teacher till a certain time. After that the attendance data can only be altered by the authorised officer with the approval of a higher authority through the desktop/laptop interface," added Father Dominic.

The app will also put an end to proxy attendance as the teachers will be able to match a student's name and roll number with his or her picture.

The app, which will allow students to stay abreast of their attendance figures, can also be used to send notifications to the students. Hand-delivered notes from the principal's office to classrooms making an announcement will be replaced with notifications from the principal, which will reach all 8,000 students simultaneously.

The app will also enable sharing of class notes and diagrams with students.

"To make the attendance management process secure, the module for teachers shall work through the intranet and shall only work on tabs provided by the college, because the system matches the IMEI number of the device before recording any data," Father Dominic said.

In yet another innovative step, the college is developing a system to send admit cards through emails equipped with QR codes for enhanced security. "Many students forget to carry their admit cards on exam days. Now, they will have them on their phones. Also, they will not be required to sign on the attendance sheet in the exam hall; the teacher can just get the QR code scanned," said Father Xavier.

"This initiative is environment-friendly and reduces the carbon footprint of the college," Father Dominic said.

AT A GLANCE

• Recording of attendance by teachers through tabs provided by the college
• Attendance may be recorded through graphic view or class list view 
• To prevent proxies, a teacher has to match a student’s name and roll number with his or her photograph
•  Teachers can send notifications to the students through the app
• Teachers can share class notes with students through the app