Matching Microsoft Forms Attendance with Banner Attendance

Introduction

This tutorial guides you through the process of matching attendance records from Microsoft Forms with Banner attendance systems. Accurate attendance tracking is crucial for educational institutions, and this approach helps streamline the verification process, ensuring that records are aligned and discrepancies are minimized.

Step 1: Set Up Microsoft Forms for Attendance

To begin, you need to create a Microsoft Form specifically designed for attendance tracking. Follow these steps:

• Open Microsoft Forms and select "New Form."
• Title your form appropriately (e.g., "Class Attendance").
• Add the following fields:
  • Student Name (Short answer)
  • Student ID (Short answer)
  • Date (Date picker)
• Ensure that the form settings allow for responses to be collected without requiring a login, if necessary.

Practical Tip

Use clear instructions for students on how to fill out the form to avoid confusion.

Step 2: Collect Attendance Data

Once your form is set up, distribute it to your students during the class session.

• Share the form link via email, learning management systems, or other communication channels.
• Encourage students to fill it out immediately to ensure real-time data collection.

Common Pitfall

Ensure that students understand the importance of submitting their attendance forms promptly. Delays can lead to inaccuracies in attendance records.

Step 3: Export Microsoft Forms Responses

After the class, you will need to export the attendance data from Microsoft Forms.

• Go to the "Responses" tab in your form.
• Click on “Open in Excel” to download the attendance data.
• Save the Excel file to a known location on your device.

Step 4: Prepare Banner Attendance Data

Next, access your Banner attendance system to retrieve the corresponding attendance records.

• Log in to your Banner system and navigate to the attendance module.
• Filter the attendance records by the relevant class and date.
• Export this data, usually in CSV or Excel format.

Step 5: Match Attendance Records

Now that you have both sets of data, it's time to match them.

1. Open both the exported Microsoft Forms attendance and Banner attendance in Excel.
2. Use Excel functions to compare the two datasets:
   • Use VLOOKUP or INDEX-MATCH functions to align the student names and IDs between the two sets.
   • Create a new column to indicate whether each student is present in Banner records.

Example of a VLOOKUP Formula

=VLOOKUP(A2, 'BannerAttendance'!A:B, 2, FALSE)

This formula looks for the student ID in the Banner attendance and returns the corresponding attendance status.

Step 6: Analyze Discrepancies

After matching the records, review any discrepancies found.

• Highlight any mismatched entries for further investigation.
• Check for common issues such as typos in names or IDs.

Practical Tip

Consider creating a summary report of discrepancies to discuss with relevant staff or students.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can effectively match attendance from Microsoft Forms with Banner attendance records. This process not only enhances accuracy but also simplifies attendance management. As a next step, consider automating parts of this process using scripts or advanced Excel functions to save time in future sessions.