Towards developing an automated attendance management system using barcode reader: Hashemite University as a case study

In higher educational institutions such as colleges and universities, student attendance has a significant impact on the academic outcomes and thus on the overall educational process. Therefore, the need for an automatic attendance registration system is one of the most critical requirements in educational process nowadays; especially with the tremendous growth in technology sectors. This paper presents an automated attendance management system (AAMS) where the attendance of the students is recorded automatically to overcome the manual attendance tracking system flaws. The proposed system consists of two main components, a student identification number and a hand-held scanner. The AAMS system is mainly designed for the Hashemite University, one of the leading universities in Jordan, to replace the old and inefficient current manual attendance system with a portable, simple, easy and low-cost solution of attendance registration system. Details of a real implementation of AAMS system within the university are illustrated and presented.