Contact classes for distance, online and blended programmes
Plan dated contact sessions at study centres or online, and remind students the day before. Mark attendance on the web, from a meeting's joiners list or in the Campus app. Attendance is worked out by rule sets you set, and a short student's hall ticket can be held until the shortage is condoned.
PLANSScale only
Built, not yet installed and tested: checked in code only, and its tests are written and not yet run. We try it with you before go-live. Not built: the condonation fee, condoning through an approval chain, and rule sets for evening or weekend classes.
The problem it solves
- Contact-class schedules for each study centre are sent as PDFs, and a moved session reaches half the students.
- Attendance at outside centres comes back on paper weeks later, after hall tickets are printed.
- Every university counts contact attendance differently, and the rule lives in someone's head.
- A student short of attendance still gets a hall ticket, or one who was condoned is refused at the exam hall.
How it works
- Make a contact programme for a semester: the dates, the centres (empty means every centre of the programme) and the co-ordinator. The attendance rule set comes from the mode.
- Generate Sessions makes them in one go: dates, days, a centre and room or a meeting link, and each day's slots with subject and faculty.
- Publish. Students see the sessions on the portal and in the Campus app and get a message, then a reminder the day before each session.
- On the day, the faculty, the centre's or programme's co-ordinator, or the office marks attendance. Use Load Students on the web, Mark from Joiners List for an online session, or the Campus app.
- Marking works out each student's standing by the rule set: Eligible, Close to the minimum, Short (can be condoned), Short, or Condoned. Students are told once when they fall near or below the minimum.
- The person the rule set names condones a shortage in the condonable band, with the reason. Or the rule set sends it through your approval chain. A short student's hall ticket is held until then, when the rule set says so.
Everything it does
Contact programmes
- One per semester of a programme, for example B.A. Distance Sem 1 Contact Programme 2026-27
- From, To, Centres, Co-ordinator, Attendance Rule Set (changeable for this programme), Attendance Counted Until, Instructions for Students
- Draft, Published (students see it), Closed (attendance final); the administrator can Reopen; Back to Draft only while no session is held
- Work Out Attendance recalculates everyone; marking does it for the student anyway
Sessions
- Date, from and to, subject (empty for an orientation or general session), faculty or guest faculty
- Held in person at a centre and room, or online with a meeting link; Counts Towards Attendance on each session
- A faculty member cannot have two contact sessions, or a contact session and a weekly class, at once. A room at a centre cannot hold two sessions
- Cancel Session needs a Reason Cancelled; students are told
- Moving a published session to another date, time or place tells students too
- List and calendar views under Contact Sessions
Marking
- Present, Late, Absent, On leave, Medical leave, and in person or online
- Load Students: the semester's students at that centre, all marked present, to be corrected; Mark Held makes the session count
- Mark from Joiners List: paste the meeting's participants (email addresses or register numbers). A preview shows present, absent and not recognised. Others are marked absent unless you untick it
- Only the session's faculty, the centre's co-ordinator, the programme's co-ordinator or the office can mark
- Each mark records who marked it and when; a closed programme refuses changes
Attendance rule sets
- Measured By: sessions (default) or hours; Measured Over: the whole programme, each subject, or both (default)
- Minimum %: 75; Condonable From %: 65 (0: any shortage can be condoned); Rounding: none, down to a whole number, or up from .5
- Count Up to the Exam: on; with no cut-off date, sessions count up to the day before the semester's exam
- In Person Counts and Online Counts: on; Late Counts As: Present, Half or Absent (Present)
- Approved Leave and Medical Leave: counted as attended, left out of the total (default) or absent
- Orientation / General Sessions Count: on; Tell the Student within 5 % above the minimum: on
- Block the Hall Ticket: on; Condoned By: academic office (default), head of department, principal or approval chain; Reason Required on, Document Required off
- Changes to a rule set are kept in its history
Condonation through an approval chain
- Condoned By: Approval chain on the rule set sends a shortage to the chain Attendance condonation with Send for Condonation
- With no set-up the chain has one level: the academic office. Add levels as your college needs
- The last approval condones the shortage and frees the hall ticket; a refusal leaves it short, and it can be sent again
- If the student's attendance changes while it waits, the request is withdrawn
- Only the academic office can undo a condonation the chain decided
Not built yet
- Charge a Condonation Fee can be ticked but charges nothing yet
- A programme follows its rule set's current values on the next recalculation; there is no preview and no keeping of earlier values
- Rule sets apply only to contact classes, not to evening, weekend or part-time classes
Who uses it
Distance-education directorPlans contact programmes and sessions, follows who is short, and condones when the rule set names the office.
Faculty and guest facultyTake sessions and mark attendance on the web or in the Campus app.
Centre co-ordinatorMarks attendance for every session at their centre.
Head of department or principalCondones shortages when the rule set names them.
StudentSees sessions, the meeting link and their attendance overall and per subject, and gets reminders and changes.
Where you use it
- Web: Campus > Attendances > Contact Classes (Contact Programmes, Contact Sessions, Contact Attendance) and the Contact Classes dashboard
- Portal: the Contact Classes page per student, under Learning in the sidebar, with sessions, attendance per subject and the study centre
- The Campus app: Contact classes for students (sessions, Join link, attendance, centres) and for staff (sessions two days back to a week ahead, marking). Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Not in the app: marking from a joiners list, which is on the web
What you control
Settings
- Ready-made rule set Contact Classes (75 %): 75 % minimum, condonable from 65 %, late counts as present, approved and medical leave left out
- Short students: told once, hall ticket held, condoned by the academic office with a reason
- Generate Sessions: Saturday and Sunday ticked to start with
- Messages: students only, parents per event if you tick them
Approvals
- Attendance condonation: used when the rule set says Condoned By: Approval chain. With no set-up, one level: the academic office. Otherwise the person the rule set names condones, with no chain.
Notifications
- Contact Programme Published: to the students, by push, WhatsApp, SMS, email and in the app
- Contact Session Tomorrow: the day before each planned session, to its students, same channels
- Contact Session Cancelled and Contact Session Moved: to the students, with the reason or new time, same channels
- Contact Attendance Low: once, to a student who falls near or below the minimum, same channels
- Students only to start with; the college can tick parents on each event. A student can switch off a channel, such as SMS, for themselves; in-app notices always arrive
Questions
Is this ready to use today?
Not yet. It is built and checked in code, but not yet installed on a test system, and its tests are not yet run. We install and test it with you before go-live.Can we use our university's attendance rule?
Yes, within the rule set's settings: minimum, condonable band, sessions or hours, per subject or overall, how late and leave count, rounding and the cut-off. Each college makes its own rule sets.How is attendance taken for an online session?
Paste the meeting's participant list into Mark from Joiners List. Students are matched by email or register number, and the preview shows who was not recognised before you save.Can a condonation fee be charged?
Not yet. The setting is there, but no fee is charged when a shortage is condoned. Charge it at the fee counter for now.Can condonation go through our approval chain?
Yes. Choose Approval chain under Condoned By on the rule set. The office presses Send for Condonation, and the chain Attendance condonation decides. With no set-up it has one level, the academic office.What happens to a short student's hall ticket?
When the rule set blocks hall tickets, the student gets none until the shortage is condoned. The exam result shows why: Contact Classes Short.Related features
MODES OF STUDYModes of study: regular, evening, weekend, distance, onlineGive each programme its mode of study: regular, part-time, evening, weekend, distance, online or blended. Evening and weekend timetables stay inside the mode's days and hours, and distance and online programmes run on contact classes instead.MODES OF STUDYStudy centres and exam centresKeep the study and exam centres your distance programmes use, attach each student to a study centre, and allot exam centres for each exam. The hall ticket prints the exam centre, its address and the university registration number. Programmes whose exams the university runs take its marks; that part is partly built.EXAMS AND RESULTSHall tickets, held for dues or debarmentHall tickets are printed for the whole semester or one student, and students download them from the portal. A student who owes fees, is short of attendance or is debarred gets no hall ticket until the reason is cleared.APPS AND PORTALCampus app and web portal for students and parentsStudents sign in to the Campus app or the web portal and act for themselves: attendance, timetable, assignments, results, electives, leave, certificates, placements and fees. Parents get their own login and see the same pages, view only unless you decide otherwise.APPS AND PORTALFaculty view in the appThe faculty view of the Campus app puts the day on the phone: today's lectures and registers, assignments, marks, student leave and exam duties. The same app runs the library counter and the activity instructor's sessions, and each person sees only the pages their role allows.ACROSS SMARTMY COLLEGENotificationsSmartMy College tells students, parents, faculty and recruiters when something needs them: an elective window, a fee due, a result, a drive or an offer. Every message also lands in one inbox in the Campus app and on the portal. Each person chooses their channels and their informational messages.
See your own semester run in it.
Tell us how many students you have, which programmes you run, how you hold examinations and how electives are chosen today. We will show you SmartMy College set up that way.