You must be authorized as a Gatekeeper before you can check in attendees for an event. The organization leader can authorize you to perform this function. Gatekeepers are optional for events having attendance settings configured for “self check in” (which lets attendees check themselves in using a special QR code).
If you are authorized, you can access the check-in module by clicking the “Dashboard” link at the top right of the Get Involved home page after logging in. Then click the “View Check In” button on the dashboard page. Any events for which you are authorized will be listed on the next page. A blue “Check In” button will be shown beside any events that occur in range of the present time. (Check in cannot be done more than 18 hours in advance of or 18 hours after the event start and end times.) Clicking the button will take you to the check-in page.
Two modes support a number of ways to record attendance. Use the mode that best suits your needs. You can easily switch between these modes depending on what identification is provided by the participant.
Keyboard Mode
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- Card swipe – If you attach a suitable USB magnetic card reader, you can scan university ID cards and driver licenses. The card reader will act like a keyboard, so the cursor needs to be blinking in the input field before initiating a card scan (just like the cursor needs to be blinking in a form input field before you can start to type a value into that field). Using data read from the card’s magnetic stripe, the system will try to match it to a known student or employee. Even if the data cannot be matched to a known person, some information can be directly known from the card such as which institution it was issued by and in some cases the person’s name.
- ID cards issued by several universities are recognized including several in the Texas A&M University System and Blinn College.
- Driver licenses issued by U.S. states and most of Mexico and Canada are recognizable. In most cases (but not all), if the cardholder is a Texas A&M student or employee, the card can be automatically matched to a university record for the person.
- UIN – You can manually enter the 9-digit university ID number issued by schools in the Texas A&M University System.
- Email address – You can manually enter the participant’s email address. Most email addresses hosted by Texas A&M can be matched to the person.
- Name (only for RSVPs) – If people have RSVPed for the event, you can enter part of their first or last name to find them on the RSVP list. Unless a person’s name is only two characters, you need to enter at least three characters to make a match. For example, if you are not sure if a person’s name is Rick or Richard, you can enter “ric” to find them. All matching names of those who RSVPed (including Erica, Richard, Rick, and Richardson) will be listed (with first and last names and email address) for you to select for check in.
- Card swipe – If you attach a suitable USB magnetic card reader, you can scan university ID cards and driver licenses. The card reader will act like a keyboard, so the cursor needs to be blinking in the input field before initiating a card scan (just like the cursor needs to be blinking in a form input field before you can start to type a value into that field). Using data read from the card’s magnetic stripe, the system will try to match it to a known student or employee. Even if the data cannot be matched to a known person, some information can be directly known from the card such as which institution it was issued by and in some cases the person’s name.
TIP: Searching by name also provides a convenient way to see if a person who has RSVPed has already checked in. Any name that is found to match will have “Already checked in” displayed by the name in the selection list.
Camera Mode
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- Personal QR code scan – If each gatekeeper has a device with a camera (such as a mobile smart phone or a laptop with webcam), you can use the device’s camera to scan personal QR codes of participants. If a participant does not have a university ID card, but can log into Get Involved, they can click the “My QR” link at the top of the page after login to generate a personal QR code that can be scanned by a gatekeeper for check in.
- Note: This QR code is specially formulated with encrypted data for check in. It can only be understood by the Get Involved check-in tool. It does not contain a URL, so it will not direct to a web page when scanned by your device’s camera app.
- Note: This personal QR code is different than the special QR code that may be used for self check-in.
- Name tag QR code – New Student Conferences (NSC) and other conferences supported by Get Involved may have a dual-purpose QR code printed on each conferee’s name tag. This QR code can be scanned in the same way as the personal QR code. However, these QR codes can also be used by the participant to view their personal conference schedule including their breakout session choices with links to maps to locate the venue for each event in the conference.
- Personal QR code scan – If each gatekeeper has a device with a camera (such as a mobile smart phone or a laptop with webcam), you can use the device’s camera to scan personal QR codes of participants. If a participant does not have a university ID card, but can log into Get Involved, they can click the “My QR” link at the top of the page after login to generate a personal QR code that can be scanned by a gatekeeper for check in.
TIP: Different models of mobile phones behave differently. It appears some phone models only auto-focus when the camera is first activated (when you click “Start Scanning”). This can make it difficult to get the camera in focus as you draw the camera nearer to the QR code. For example, if you click the “Start Scanning” button while the phone is pointed toward something that is some distance away, the focus will be automatically set for that long distance rather than the relatively short distance to the QR code.
We recommend trying the following to improve speed of effective scanning: Start with your phone pointed at the QR code from a distance appropriate for your camera. Then click the “Start Scanning” button so the camera initially auto-focuses for that distance. If the focus is not right, click “Stop Scanning”, then “Start Scanning” again while keeping the phone pointed at the QR code from an appropriate distance.
After the ID card, QR code, UIN, or email address has been submitted, the system will respond with the result in a notification box having a colored background.
- Green – Success. The person’s participation was recorded. If the person was identified by manually typing in a UIN or email address, verify the name of the person is correct. If not, click and confirm the “Undo Check-In” button before typing in a correct identifier.
- Yellow – The person’s participation was recorded, but the identifiers could not be fully matched to a person with contact information. You are given the option to provide a name or email address, if desired, to fill the data gap.
- Red – No attendance was recorded. The reason will be shown in the box. Reasons may be invalid data such as a bad card scan or improperly formatted email address, or that the person has already been checked in.
Offline Mode
To the right of the button to switch between Keyboard and Camera modes is a green or red indicator of your Internet connection status. All check-in methods are available when online. If your network connection is disrupted, the indicator will turn red and provide basic instructions for handling check-in while offline.
- Note: Check-in using the name of a person who RSVPed is not available for Offline Mode since this method requires a second step to select the correct person from a list of matching names.
Privacy
Identification cards may contain sensitive data. Although this system may receive data provided for check-in, it will not store identification numbers, addresses, and similarly sensitive data that may be embedded in the card data. If scanning data to a file while offline (with the intent to upload later when online), please do not scan driver licenses. Consider other options to record attendance such as self check-in or capturing only UINs or email addresses in the offline file.