Automated Attendance with Acadly
Simplifying Contact Tracing for in-person and hybrid classes
Acadly uses mesh network technology to capture attendance at the tap of a button for in-person and hybrid classes. Its proximity data provides timely and granular data for the contact tracing process. It also includes Zoom integration and can be used by instructors to deliver active learning in online and blended synchronous classes.
Attendance in
seconds
Acadly helps
instructors discover students in their proximity at the tap of a button. Its privacy-first technology does not track users'
geolocation. It works as a mobile app on the smartphones you and your students already have and can also be used for clicker
and peer-instruction activities.It's easy for instructors and students
It's instant and saves instruction time
It's reliable and allows manual attendance editing
It's fully integrated with Blackboard courses
Available for all UIC instructors now
Is
your course not set up on Blackboard?
Sign up on the Acadly website.
Acadly has been used by 12,000 UIC students
Dr. Martina Bode,
Director of Calculus, Dept. of Math, Stat, & Comp Sci
I've used Acadly for all my virtual courses since Spring 2021 and would recommend it to everyone for both pedagogical and administrative reasons. Acadly is a user-friendly tool, the set up is straightforward, and it easily takes and keeps track of attendance in our classes of 120+ students. I am looking forward to using Acadly in future in-person classes. It will not only track attendance, but also allow for engagement via open ended or multiple choice questions and allow students to participate at any time via the chat feature without having to speak up in person in a large classroom.
I've used Acadly for all my virtual courses since Spring 2021 and would recommend it to everyone for both pedagogical and administrative reasons. Acadly is a user-friendly tool, the set up is straightforward, and it easily takes and keeps track of attendance in our classes of 120+ students. I am looking forward to using Acadly in future in-person classes. It will not only track attendance, but also allow for engagement via open ended or multiple choice questions and allow students to participate at any time via the chat feature without having to speak up in person in a large classroom.
Dr. Selva
Nadarajah, UIC Business
Having used Acadly for both in-person as well as remote attendance automation and engagement, I am confident that it will be an asset for other instructors - no matter the department or discipline.
Having used Acadly for both in-person as well as remote attendance automation and engagement, I am confident that it will be an asset for other instructors - no matter the department or discipline.
Watch how the magic happens
Comparison with alternatives
Acadly saves you time
before, during, and after class. Even better - it can be used for in-class polls, quizzes, and discussions as well.
Getting started
Set up
your course from Blackboard
Creating a Blackboard-linked Acadly course takes just a few minutes and helps you throughout the term:✅ Keeps your Acadly roster updated at all times
✅ Reflects any changes in the course team
✅ Helps you copy data to the Blackboard gradebook for graded attendance
✅ Shows early alerts for at-risk students
▶️ Creating a Blackboard-linked Acadly course
📄 Creating a course w/o Blackboard integration
Create a mock
course for trials (optional)
Before your first lecture, you can test the product using a mock course as well.Mock courses can be set up directly within Acadly. The best way to try Acadly is to add yourself or someone you know as a "student" to the course.
📄 Creating a mock course for trials
Install the app
Students and instructors need the Acadly app installed on their devices to use the in-person automatic attendance feature.Other Acadly features like course scheduling, manual attendance, and activities work on the website too
Here's an email draft for your students
Download the Acadly iOS app
Download the Acadly Android app
Let the magic
begin!
During the lecture, all you need to do is tap a button. Here's all the information you need:
- Watch our demo video
- Read our guide for professors (optional)
- Share our guide for students with the class (recommended)
- Learn how to collaborate with your TAs
Export results to
Blackboard or to Excel!
If you want to keep a backup of the data or grade attendance, the records can be exported to the Blackboard gradebook or to CSV
files (Excel-compatible) after the lecture ends. You can export the data for each lecture individually or export a consolidated
file with the data for all lectures in one file.▶️ Exporting data to Blackboard
📄 Exporting data to CSV (Excel)
Tutorials and videos
Acadly courses can be set up with or without Blackboard integration. Similarly, they can be set up with or without Zoom integration too.
- Blackboard integration: Using Blackboard integration is recommended for instructors whose courses are set up on Blackboard. Doing so ensures that your Acadly course enrollment is always "synced" with your Blackboard course enrollment. If you do not use Blackboard integration, you will need to add and delete students from your course manually.
- Zoom integration: Using Zoom integration helps instructors add more engagement options for online attendees and automate attendance for them. Please refer to the demo video below.
Setting up an Acadly
course
Full demos for
advanced users
Learn more
Automatic attendance
basics
(recommended)
Other resources (do
reach out to us if you wish to use Acadly for more than just attendance)
Teaching a hybrid class?
Automate online
attendance too!
Acadly also includes a virtual classroom platform powered by integration with your existing Zoom account.In a hybrid class, instructors can use both the in-person attendance feature as well as the prompt-based online attendance feature for remote attendees.
The attendance records include information on students' location context (remote or in-person) as well. Learn more about hybrid attendance.
Supported by UIC's LTS team and Acadly
In-class and
other help resources
UIC and Acadly are teaming up to invest in your success. Here are all the ways to get help:
- In-class: Get help from UIC's LTS team. Email the team for more information.
- In-app: Use the in-app feedback option to reach out to the Acadly team. Mean response time: 6 hours.
- Email: Email support+uic@acadly.com with any questions. Mean response time: 6 hours.
- Acadly Help Center: Available here. Please note the chat is not manned for instant support, but the team responds to all messages received, just like emails.
Privacy Statement
Acadly has been reviewed by UIC for compliance with data privacy laws such as FERPA and GDPR. Moreover, the team has put in efforts to get a deeper understanding of how the attendance automation technology works and if it is likely to pose any risks from a security and privacy viewpoint. Some of the key aspects to note are as follows:
- Acadly does not collect any personally identifiable information except users' names and email addresses
- Acadly does not use GPS to capture attendance. Although the Acadly Android app asks for "location permissions", this is done in order to get access to Bluetooth and WiFi data and not GPS data. The apps do not track physical location at any time for any reason.
- Data centers used to store data are geographically inside the US
- The app does not include any kind of advertising
- Personally Identifiable Information is not used for commercial purposes such as targeting ads at users, or selling data to third parties.
- The Acadly platform does not earn revenue through any other means except charging university customers / user institutions for the software itself. In other words, the company does not have a business model such as sharing student data with possible recruiters.
- The app already hosts data for close to 12,000 UIC students (as of Dec 2021) and no security or privacy incidents have been reported to the administration since 2018 (when the app was first used in UIC).
