A Survey for Information Technology Based Roll Call Methods in University Education

Abstract

Roll call is an important tool to keep the student presence in the university classroom, its a assistant way to improve the teaching quality though it is usually not welcome by the students and professors. This paper survey the existing popular roll call methods, especially for those that based on Information Technology (IT), and according information based technology is described. We also present a very simple, efficient and practical roll call method, "Excel based roll call", for teachers of different major background, what the teacher need to do is just preparing a certain format Excel table and using it on a right way, no other complex hardware, software and database required, the roll call speed can reach twice students one second and the professor can say nothing during the roll call, the roll call method is from our past 10 year teaching experience and is welcome by our students, the education quality and the student-teacher relation can be enhanced, and we hope more professors can share our experience.