Attendance Management

Epic summary

The Attendance Management epic owns the answer to one question: which eligible learners participated in an academic activity?

Timetable says what was planned
Delivery says what happened
Attendance says who participated

Attendance is opened from the faculty’s course workspace or Clinical Posting Workspace and Delivery, but its records and rules remain separate. This allows MedCES to apply the same controlled attendance service to lectures, practicals, tutorials, and dated clinical-posting activity.

Attendance supplies evidence to later eligibility and progression processes. It does not decide whether a learner may sit an examination or progress to the next phase.

Before you start

The following must already exist:

actual phase participants and effective learner-group memberships;
a scheduled course session or released clinical-posting occurrence;
a delivery outcome or permitted attendance-capture window;
the applicable curriculum attendance requirement and institute operating policy;
an eligible learner roster for the occurrence;
assigned faculty or supervisors; and
users assigned to attendance finalisation and correction roles.

Clinical attendance is recorded for dated posting days, shifts, or other configured occurrences. One four-week posting must not be represented by a single attendance mark.

Actors and access

Access source	Access in this epic
Assigned Faculty or clinical supervisor	Captures and submits attendance for assigned occurrences
Institute member with Course Coordinator role	Monitors course attendance completion and unresolved occurrences
Institute member with Clinical Posting Coordinator role	Monitors clinical attendance completion across postings and units
Department Admin, normally with HOD appointment	Reviews department-level completion and shortages within scope
Institute member with Attendance Approver role	Finalises submitted attendance and decides permitted correction requests
Institute member with Academic Registrar role	Oversees institute-wide completeness, exceptions, and certification
Student	Views only personal attendance details and submits a correction request with evidence where permitted
Phase Coordinator	Reviews phase-level attendance risk and missing records
Auditor role	Reads occurrences, rosters, marks, policies, submissions, finalisations, corrections, certificates, and history

An Institute Admin may assign the functional roles. The administrative role alone does not allow the user to mark or alter attendance.

Attendance lifecycle

Open
  -> Draft
  -> Submitted
  -> Finalised
  -> Corrected

An occurrence may be Voided when the underlying activity did not happen or was created in error. Voiding keeps the occurrence, reason, and marks in history but excludes them from current calculations.

Attendance statuses

The controlled list may include:

Present;
Absent;
Late;
Left Early;
Authorised Absence;
Not Required; and
Not Marked.

The raw status and its calculation treatment are stored separately. For example, an institute policy may include Late in the denominator but count only part of its duration in the numerator. Authorised Absence must not automatically become Present.

Workspace structure

The workspace contains:

Faculty Attendance Queue
Take and Submit Attendance
Attendance Finalisation
Student Attendance View
Corrections
Shortage Monitoring
Certification and History

Screen 1: Faculty Attendance Queue

The queue lists attendance work assigned to the faculty member or supervisor.

Each row shows:

course session or clinical-posting occurrence;
date, planned and actual time;
component or attendance category;
cohort, learner group, department, and unit where applicable;
expected learner count;
delivery state;
capture window;
attendance state;
missing marks; and
submission deadline.

The faculty member can filter by date, course, posting, group, Draft, overdue, or returned work.

A cancelled or not-conducted activity cannot accept ordinary attendance marks.

Screen 2: Take and Submit Attendance

The roster is created from learners eligible for that occurrence and the effective dates of their phase, group, or posting assignment.

Occurrence details

Field	Meaning
Source type and record	Course session, practical, tutorial, posting day, shift, or another approved occurrence
Attendance category	Theory, practical, clinical, tutorial, or another controlled category
Planned and actual interval	Scheduled time and accepted delivered time
Roster snapshot	Learners eligible when attendance was opened
Applicable policy	Exact policy and curriculum requirement used
Capture method	Manual roster, permitted device, verified import, or approved integration
Capture window	Time during which ordinary entry is allowed

Learner mark fields

Field	Required	Meaning
Learner	Inherited	Eligible phase participant
Status	Yes	Controlled raw attendance status
Recorded duration	Conditional	Minutes or periods attended when policy needs it
Arrival or departure time	Conditional	Used for Late or Left Early where required
Reason	Conditional	Required for specified statuses or changes
Evidence reference	No/Conditional	Permitted supporting record; not unrestricted medical information
Faculty note	No	Short operational note

The interface may provide Mark all Present and then allow exceptions. It must still require the faculty member to review the complete roster before submission.

Not Marked is an incomplete state. It is not the same as Absent.

Screen 3: Attendance Finalisation

The Attendance Approver reviews submitted occurrences.

The screen shows:

occurrence and delivery details;
roster count and all marks;
late, early-departure, authorised-absence, and unmarked exceptions;
applicable policy treatment;
edits made after first capture;
faculty submission declaration;
warnings about roster or delivery mismatch; and
earlier related corrections.

The approver can Finalise, Return for Correction, or Void with authority and a reason. Finalisation locks ordinary editing and posts the accepted marks to the learner attendance ledger.

Institute policy may allow low-risk occurrences to be finalised automatically after faculty submission. The policy, timer, and exception conditions must be explicit and auditable.

Screen 4: Student Attendance View

The student sees only personal attendance.

The view provides:

overall and category-specific attendance;
course, component, and clinical-posting breakdown;
attended and applicable hours, periods, or sessions;
Present, Absent, Late, authorised, pending, corrected, and excluded occurrences;
the policy used for each calculation;
the current threshold and shortage where one applies;
finalised occurrence detail; and
the correction-request route and deadline.

The calculation must be explainable. A percentage links to the occurrences included in its numerator and denominator.

Submitted but unfinalised attendance is shown as pending and must not be presented as a final certified percentage.

Screen 5: Corrections

A correction never edits a finalised mark directly.

The request records:

learner and occurrence;
current mark;
requested mark or factual correction;
reason and supporting evidence;
requester and request time;
applicable correction window; and
impact on current summaries or certificates.

A student may request a correction but cannot approve or apply it. Faculty may also report their own entry error. The Attendance Approver approves, rejects, or returns the request according to policy.

An approved correction creates a new ledger entry and changes the occurrence state to Corrected. The earlier finalised mark remains readable.

Screen 6: Shortage Monitoring

Shortage monitoring helps the institute act before a requirement becomes impossible to meet.

The dashboard can be filtered by:

cohort and phase;
course and delivery component;
clinical posting and department;
learner group;
learner;
attendance category; and
warning state.

For each learner it shows:

finalised numerator and denominator;
pending occurrences;
current percentage;
applicable threshold;
shortage amount;
remaining planned opportunity;
best possible projected percentage; and
warning or recovery state.

Warnings may be generated from configured thresholds. They do not impose an academic sanction. Faculty, mentors, and administrators may record follow-up separately when that functionality is defined.

Screen 7: Certification and History

An authorised user can produce a controlled attendance statement for a defined purpose and cutoff date.

Field	Required	Meaning
Learner or population	Yes	Student, cohort, phase, course, or posting in authorised scope
Reporting period	Yes	Exact start, end, and cutoff time
Categories	Yes	Theory, practical, clinical, or other categories included
Policy references	Yes	Requirements and calculation policies applied
Pending treatment	Yes	Whether pending records make the statement provisional or unable to certify
Purpose	Yes	Internal review, assessment eligibility input, regulatory report, or another controlled purpose
Certified by	Yes	Authorised role assignment and actor

The certificate stores the facts used rather than only a percentage. If a later approved correction changes the result, the system creates a successor certificate or correction statement and preserves the earlier one.

Attendance calculation

The institute’s policy decides whether attendance is measured in sessions, periods, minutes, or hours. The system applies that choice consistently within an attendance category.

Attendance percentage = counted participation / counted applicable delivery × 100

The denominator includes only:

activities that were actually conducted;
occurrences applicable to the learner;
dates within the learner’s effective phase, group, or posting assignment; and
statuses that the applicable policy includes.

Cancelled activities, Not Required learners, and time outside effective membership are excluded. Not Marked and unfinalised records remain pending rather than being silently treated as absence.

Theory, practical, and clinical attendance are calculated separately where the curriculum or policy requires separate thresholds.

Use case 1: Create an attendance occurrence

As the system
I want to create an eligible attendance roster from an academic occurrence
So that faculty mark the correct learners under the correct policy.

Acceptance criteria

The occurrence has one source record and attendance category.
The roster uses effective phase, group, and posting assignments.
The exact policy and curriculum requirement are retained.
Repeating creation returns the same occurrence rather than a duplicate.
A changed source or roster is reconciled visibly before finalisation.

Use case 2: Take and submit attendance

As an assigned Faculty member
I want to mark the eligible roster and submit it
So that learner participation is recorded promptly.

Acceptance criteria

Only an assigned and effective user can capture the occurrence.
Every eligible learner has a valid status before submission.
Conditional reason and duration fields are enforced.
Bulk entry remains reviewable learner by learner.
Submission records the actor, assignment, time, and declaration.

Use case 3: Finalise attendance

As an Attendance Approver
I want to confirm a submitted occurrence
So that accepted marks enter the official learner ledger.

Acceptance criteria

Unmarked learners and blocking roster mismatches prevent finalisation.
The approver sees the policy treatment and any changes made before submission.
Finalisation creates ledger facts for every applicable learner.
Ordinary editing is locked afterwards.
Maker-checker policy is applied where configured.

Use case 4: View personal attendance

As a Student
I want to understand my attendance and the occurrences behind it
So that I can identify a shortage or factual error early.

Acceptance criteria

The student sees no other learner’s marks.
Percentages show their numerator, denominator, unit, category, and policy.
Pending and finalised records are clearly separated.
Corrections are visible without erasing the earlier mark.
The view does not claim an examination or progression decision.

Use case 5: Correct finalised attendance

As a Student, Faculty member, or Attendance Approver
I want to request or decide a factual correction
So that an error can be fixed without losing the official history.

Acceptance criteria

The request identifies the occurrence, current value, requested change, reason, and evidence.
The requester cannot approve their own correction where maker-checker applies.
Approval creates a successor ledger entry rather than updating the earlier fact in place.
Summaries and affected certificates are recalculated or marked stale.
Rejection records a reason and leaves the current official mark unchanged.

Use case 6: Monitor attendance shortages

As a Course Coordinator, Clinical Posting Coordinator, Phase Coordinator, or Academic Registrar
I want to see current and projected shortages within my scope
So that the institute can act while teaching opportunities remain.

Acceptance criteria

Theory, practical, clinical, and other configured categories remain separate.
The dashboard uses finalised facts and identifies pending work.
Projections use only real remaining planned opportunities.
Every shortage links to its underlying occurrences.
A warning does not automatically change a learner’s lifecycle or eligibility.

Use case 7: Certify attendance facts

As an Academic Registrar or authorised attendance officer
I want to issue a dated attendance statement
So that another controlled process can use stable, explainable evidence.

Acceptance criteria

The statement has a defined population, period, categories, cutoff, policy, and purpose.
Pending or incomplete evidence prevents final certification where policy requires completeness.
The certificate includes or references the underlying numerator and denominator facts.
Later corrections create a successor rather than altering the issued record.
Consumers receive the certificate state and version, not an unexplained percentage.

Business rules

Attendance applies only to learners eligible for the occurrence.
A timetable allocation alone does not create counted attendance.
Cancelled teaching is excluded from the denominator.
Not Marked is pending, not Absent.
Authorised Absence is a raw status; policy decides its calculation treatment.
Finalised marks are corrected through successor records.
Theory, practical, and clinical categories remain separate when required.
Attendance stores the applied requirement and policy references.
Attendance supplies facts; it does not decide examination eligibility or phase progression.
Every capture, import, submission, finalisation, void, correction, calculation, and certification is auditable.

Exception paths

Activity was cancelled: void or close the occurrence and exclude it from the denominator.
Roster is wrong: reconcile against authoritative effective membership; do not add an ineligible learner casually.
Faculty forgot to submit: show overdue work and route late submission through the configured control.
Device or network was unavailable: allow an approved later entry or import with capture time, entry time, source, and reason.
Student disputes a mark: create a correction request; do not let the student edit attendance.
Policy changes: apply the new policy only from its approved effective scope; retain the policy used for earlier facts and certificates.
Incomplete evidence at cutoff: report the result as provisional or Unable to Certify rather than treating missing records as absence.

Conceptual schema

Record	Important fields
`attendance.attendance_occurrence`	source type and ID, category, planned and actual interval, capture window, policy reference, status
`attendance.attendance_roster_member`	occurrence, phase participant, eligibility source, effective dates, applicable state
`attendance.attendance_mark`	occurrence, learner, raw status, recorded duration, reason, capture source, captured by and at
`attendance.attendance_submission`	occurrence, submitting assignment, declaration, submitted at, return state
`attendance.attendance_finalisation`	occurrence, approver assignment, decision, policy snapshot, finalised at
`attendance.attendance_correction_request`	mark, requested value, reason, evidence, requester, deadline state
`attendance.attendance_correction_decision`	request, decision, approver, reason, decided at
`attendance.attendance_ledger_entry`	learner, category, occurrence, entry version, numerator value, denominator value, unit, effective state
`attendance.attendance_summary`	learner, scope, category, period, finalised values, pending values, threshold, calculated at
`attendance.attendance_certification`	population, scope, cutoff, categories, policy references, facts snapshot, status, certifier
`attendance.attendance_event`	affected record, action, actor, role assignment, source, previous and new values, time

Attendance requirements and thresholds remain part of the curriculum or other Setup policy. The Attendance module stores the exact references and applies them; it does not own their authoring.

Process-layer responsibilities

The process layer must:

create one occurrence from an eligible delivered or scheduled source according to policy;
build and retain an effective-dated roster snapshot;
reconcile legitimate roster changes without losing earlier capture history;
validate faculty and approver assignments;
enforce controlled statuses, conditional fields, capture windows, and submission rules;
keep raw attendance status separate from numerator and denominator treatment;
apply the correct curriculum requirement and operating policy version;
post immutable ledger entries on finalisation and successor entries on correction;
calculate explainable summaries by learner, category, course, posting, phase, and period;
distinguish pending, provisional, final, corrected, voided, and unable-to-certify states;
invalidate or supersede affected summaries and certificates after an approved correction;
prevent one learner from seeing another learner’s attendance;
expose stable certified facts to later assessment and progression processes; and
preserve the complete audit history.

Out of scope

This epic does not:

define curriculum attendance thresholds or institute operating policy;
create timetables, course sessions, postings, or learner groups;
record the topic, competencies, or faculty contribution delivered;
approve student leave;
record assessment marks or results;
decide examination eligibility; or
promote, hold back, or move a learner between phases or cohorts.