Project Overview:

This project addresses the issue of declining in-person class attendance by developing a classroom sign-in system designed to track attendance. Its unique approach to enhancing attendance using psychological principles sets this system apart. The system offers immediate rewards to motivate students, such as engaging 'trackmate' mascots and visual feedback like confetti. A standout feature is the ability for students to instantly track the number of classes they need to attend to earn bonus points—a task typically tedious and challenging to manage independently. This clear incentive encourages consistent attendance.

Additionally, the system significantly reduces the workload for professors by offering a one-click setup that eliminates the need for uploading student information, streamlining the entire attendance process. Integrity is maintained through the use of in-class QR codes and unique student identifiers, all while prioritizing student privacy. Professors can also effortlessly download attendance reports with a single click. The project was conducted using Agile methodologies, which improved communication and flexibility during development.

Reflection:

In this project, I was responsible for designing and implementing the MySQL database, tailoring it to meet project requirements and constraints. I developed the functionality and designed the HTML/CSS of the professor dashboard, enabling professors to add new classes that automatically integrate into the database using JavaScript, PHP, and SQL queries. Additionally, I implemented the functionality for downloading CSV attendance reports and created session management for user login, ensuring that each professor's dashboard was personalized. My responsibilities also included the design and development of the homepage.

With my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification, if I were to redo this project, I would deploy the website on an EC2 server and the database on Amazon RDS. This would increase the website's security and scalability, leveraging AWS's robust infrastructure at a low cost. Additionally, it would allow me to develop my cloud service delivery skills further.

Related Skills:

HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Database Design, Database Integration, MySQL, SQL Querying, Problem-Solving, Engineering Design Process, Agile Methodology, PHP