The smart card slot

1
The smart card slot!

• Sara Eyre
• Head of IT Customer Services
• s.j.eyre_at_bradford.ac.uk

Or how to produce an attendance monitoring system
using the access control system
2
Why do you need attendance monitoring

• Need to monitor physical presence of
  undergraduates at lectures for borders agency
• Academic engagement identify students with
  potential to drop out
• Ensure attendance and engagement before bursaries
  paid
• For professional body approval Health, Social
  Work, Life Sciences courses
• Lots of paper based manual systems in operation
  at present

3
History of smart cards at Bradford

• Smart cards with MiFare 1K chip for photocopying
  and Library access introduced for students in
  Summer 2002
• Bar code for Library management system
• Also introduced cards for staff for Library
  access
• Amazing how few had them when we upgraded!

4
Access control system at Bradford

• Progeny (MiFare based) and Integra (mag stripe
  based) systems in use on separate cards
• Both highly labour intensive to support as each
  lock has to be visited and updated
• Salto project started summer 2005
• originally to protect new AV equipment in
  teaching rooms so staff only

5
Salto proved popular

• Soon students needed access to major buildings
• Salto database updated daily from student record
  and HR systems using Calopus
• All student cards programmed with Salto
  capability from Summer 2007 as part of enrolment
  process

6
Salto in April 2009

• On line locks 113
• Now on entrance to most buildings
• Many corridors
• Car park barriers linked to Salto system summer
  2008
• Off line locks 361
• On centrally timetabled teaching rooms
• On equipment cupboards in teaching rooms
• Staff only areas

• Card plus PIN locks installed for secure areas
• 100 awaiting installation

7
Key advantages of Salto

• Online locks interrogate central database in real
  time for appropriate access rights
• Online locks transfer audit trail to central
  database
• Black list of users transferred from online lock
  to every card

8
Key advantages - off line locks

• Receive updated black list from users cards
• Store audit trail of cards used and write it back
  to each card
• transferred to central database via next use of
  an on line lock
• An off line lock can be portable so can be passed
  round classroom
• Choose the SVN Virtual network option from Salto
  web site for a better explanation!
  www.saltosystems.com

9
So how does this help attendance monitoring?

• Salto database contains user id, date, time and
  lock id
• Plan to extract data into the attendance field of
  the student record system, SITS
• SITS will trigger text message and emails for
  non-attendance to student and, later, course
  administrators and UKBA administrator
• Attendance data can be extracted by anyone with
  SITS access

10
Assumptions made at Bradford

• That we can match a portable card reader to a
  particular lecture or lab session
• We do not want to issue new cards to all students
• If one student asks another one to swipe them
  in they are still engaged with the University
• Accessing the Library or other building entry
  point does not satisfy the UKBA
• Departments will extract their own class
  attendance data
• if any professional body requires this information

11
The issues!

• Do you want to use bio-metrics to ensure Person
  and not Card is being monitored?
• Has anyone done this yet in HE? Costs?
• How to stop one person swiping lots of cards?
• Who verifies the person and card match?
• How do you prevent queues down corridors at the
  start of lectures if you use door readers?
• How do you know student has then attended the
  lecture?
• Bradford aim to use portable readers in large
  classes
• What constitutes a Contact point?

12
Smart card futures at Bradford

• Mifare 4K plus JCOP for use with Sun Rays
• 22,000 just ordered as part of JISC project ITS 4
  SEA
• Still mag stripe for access control in old halls
• Still bar code for Library self- issue and
  self-return
• Printing and copying using Pharos purse NOT on
  card
• Sport Centre control purse NOT on card
• Possible cashless vending - ?????
• Legacy access control systems (100) nearly
  redundant
• but it has taken over 4 years and over 20,000

13
The end

• Subscribe to smartcards_at_jiscmail.ac.uk
• Join the Higher Education Smart Card Association
  www.hesca.com
• www.saltosystems.com
• ITS 4 SEA Integrating Thin client and Smart
  cards For Secure E-Assessment http//www.jisc.ac.u
  k/whatwedo/programmes/institutionalinnovation/its4
  sea.aspx
• Any questions?