Methods of collecting and recording attendance of medical students in a classroom: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Recording the attendance of students is an important affair for schools, colleges, and universities. It is required to be compliant with the regulations set by the board or universities, as it helps to calculate cumulative attendance to determine the eligibility of a student for university examinations. Furthermore, it is crucial for the administration to have a record of who is on campus in case of an emergency. However, literature on various attendance methods that are in practice around the world is scarce. Hence, this review aimed to conduct a systematic literature review to find the current methods of recording attendance in a classroom. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Relevant literature was searched in PubMed using the keywords "attendance," "method," and "classroom," and cross-references were also checked. Gray literature was also searched. The studies were screened for their content to determine their relevance to this review. A total of eight articles were included in the final systematic review. RESULTS: The literature suggests that the methods of recording attendance in a classroom can be broadly divided into three categories: teacher-led, student-led, and automated methods. In teacher-led methods, the teacher takes the responsibility of recording the attendance by actively implementing the method, and students respond (e.g., roll call by a teacher). In the student-led methods, the students take the responsibility to record attendance, while the teacher may act as a facilitator (e.g., signing in on a paper circulated among students). The newly introduced automated method requires little intervention from the teacher or students (e.g., radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based attendance). CONCLUSION: This review discusses the attendance recording methods in a classroom and explores the characteristics of these methods, along with their major advantages and disadvantages. Prospective teachers can gain insight into these methods and adopt suitable ones appropriate for their classrooms after assessing their suitability using the evaluation method suggested in this review.