Acadly is a free platform for class participation and communication, with a LaTeX messenger.

While you can learn everything about the product on www.acadly.com, this post discusses a simple aspect — the Acadly “check in” to class.

The participation aspect of Acadly is in essence a Student Response System that enables professors to host live polls, quizzes, content and discussions during a lecture, and students to ask and vote on questions. You can learn everything about it here:

One of the in-class features of Acadly — and a particularly important one — is attendance. This is how it works:

Students “check in” to class. A student can do this without physically being inside the classroom. Professors have an option to verify students’ presence by tapping on a check mark against their name.

Professors see a list of students who check in to the class, and can tap on the check mark against their name to verify their presence

There are two big advantages to the check in method.

Firstly, it saves you precious lecture time

Consider the other way of joining a live session — entering a code or session name, as shown below. This is how most Student Response Systems currently work; but the time that’s used up in entering a code, occasionally getting it wrong, and re-entering it, is precious minutes off of every lecture. On Acadly, you add students to your course once at the beginning of the term, so validating participant identity every lecture isn’t required. This effectively saves you the time it takes for students to join your virtual session.

4 of the most popular Student Response Systems require entering a code

Secondly, a check in is a psychological win for the professor

What drives people to check in on Facebook? Luckily, research has been conducted on literally this question:

While Facebook is an open community where you choose your friends and who you disclose information to, Acadly is a mini social network of all your classmates. So while the two platforms aren’t the same, there are some lessons that can be extended to Acadly too.

The motivations to check in are inward-looking

Three factors drive check-in behaviour:

A principal components analysis revealed three dimensions of motivations: enjoyment ( α .92), commitment ( α .81), and a combination of self-development and reputation building ( α .96).

It should be added that among the top concerns that keep people from checking in is privacy — a non-issue in the context of a classroom.

Social behaviour drives willingness

It is well-documented that others’ behaviour on social networks influences users. Using this social tendency to the benefit of a classroom is a logical extension.

… people showed great willingness to check in on Facebook when they perceived that their friends had also checked in…

Student reliance of phones is channeled positively

Millennials’ reliance on phones is both a concern and a positive, depending upon one’s point of view. In the classroom, using this to the benefit of creating a learning experience could be beneficial for the professor.