Seconds, not minutes
A cohort of two hundred is recorded in the time it takes to open the session. Calling a register at that scale is simply not done, which is why large classes usually have no attendance data at all.
Attendance
Student attendance, taken by QR code
Calling a register wastes ten minutes of a fifty-minute class and is trivially defeated by a friend answering for you. Wise Timetable takes attendance from a rotating QR code, in seconds, and reconciles it against the timetable automatically.
- Rotating code, so it cannot be shared
- No hardware to install
- Reconciled against the timetable
How it works
At the start of the session, a QR code is displayed — projected on the lecture room screen, shown on a room display, or simply on the lecturer's own laptop. Students scan it with their phone and are recorded as present.
The code changes continuously. That is the part that matters: a static QR code is photographed once and forwarded to everyone who did not turn up, which is why static-code attendance systems stop being believed within a term. A rotating code has to be scanned in the room, while the session is running.
Because attendance is captured against the timetable rather than against a separate register, every scan is already associated with the correct session, module, group, room and lecturer. There is nothing to reconcile afterwards.
Why this approach
Hard to defeat
The rotating code cannot be screenshotted and shared with someone sitting elsewhere. That is the difference between attendance data and attendance theatre.
No hardware
No card readers, no turnstiles, no terminals to buy and mount. A projector, a room display or a laptop screen is enough, and students already have the scanner in their pocket.
Timetable-aware
Every scan lands against the right session automatically, because the system already knows what is scheduled in that room at that moment.
Reportable
Attendance by student, module, group and lecturer, exportable alongside every other Wise Timetable report.
Compliance-ready
For institutions with attendance monitoring obligations — visa compliance, funding rules, professional accreditation — the record is systematic rather than anecdotal.
What the lecturer controls
Check-in windows are configurable: open at the start of the session, at the end, or both, so a student cannot scan and leave. The lecturer manages attendance and sees participation rates from a single web dashboard rather than a separate application.
The same mechanism works for online and hybrid teaching, where the code is shown in the shared screen rather than projected in a room.
- Check-in window configurable at the start of a session, the end, or both
- One web dashboard for course attendance and participation rates
- Works for in-person, online and hybrid sessions
- Students see their own attendance record in real time
- Students submit absence requests directly; staff approve or decline in the same tool, and the record updates immediately
- Attendance data exportable at any point
Where institutions use it
- Programmes with formal attendance requirements for accreditation or funding
- Institutions with international students subject to visa attendance monitoring
- Laboratory and practical sessions where safety briefing attendance must be evidenced
- Large first-year cohorts, where early disengagement predicts later withdrawal
- Any module where the lecturer wants to know whether the eight o'clock slot is working
Fully integrated with the timetable
Attendance is connected to the timetable through Wise Timetable's documented REST API — the same public interface your own developers would work against. Sessions, groups, rooms and staff flow one way; attendance records flow back.
So there is no separate register to maintain, no cohort list to keep in step, and no reconciliation at the end of term. See the API and integration.
The attendance component is delivered with our technology partner Studo, whose digital attendance documentation and demo covers the check-in mechanism in further detail. It is licensed, supported and billed by us as part of Wise Timetable — you deal with one supplier and one contract.
Licensing
Student attendance is the one substantial capability that sits outside the standard licence, because not every institution wants it and we would rather not charge everyone for something most will not switch on. It is quoted per institution.
Everything else on this site — generation, booking, exams, mobile apps, the API, reporting, publishing, automation — is included in one simple licence. See the pricing model.
See Wise Timetable on your own data
Book a 45-minute online presentation. We will walk through your institution's scheduling problem, show how Wise Timetable handles it, and answer anything your team wants to test.