TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Genesis' Turnstile Module
• Turnstile Check-in Check-out Screen
• Turnstile Event Check-In Check-Out
• Turnstile The Events
• Turnstile and Students
• Turnstile Options
  • Use Lunch Pin instead of Student ID for Manual Entry
  • Displaying or Hiding the On-Screen Keyboard:
  • Display Student's Photos at Check-In and Check-Out:
  • Display Today's Attendance Status in the Search List or with the Student's Photo
  • Daily Attendance Status displayed in the Search list.
• Turnstile Version 2.0

The Turnstile Facility

Genesis' Turnstile Module

"Turnstile" is Genesis' general purpose check-in / check-out tool.  

It is designed to track the up-to-the-minute whereabouts of both students and staff members.

What is Turnstile designed to do?

Turnstile is designed to check students both into and out of "Events".  "Events", which must be pre-created before Turnstile can be turned on to check students in and out, fall into several categories.  

The category or 'type' of an Event is indicated when the Event is created or updated (via the Turnstile>Setup>Turnstile Templates>List Turnstile Templates screen).

Genesis recognizes the following categories of Events:

• Cafeteria – For checking-into and out of lunchrooms.   This does not interface with Cafeteria POS systems.
• Detention – Records "Detention Attendance" and links to Detention actions on students' Infractions.  Specific types of detention (e.g. Central Detention) can be specified.
• ISS - Records "In School Suspension Attendance" and links to In School Suspension Actions actions on students' Infractions.
• Entrance – This is the general purpose "check-in/check-out" event. It does not link to any other feature/function in Genesis.
• Guidance –Tracks students' presence in the guidance office.  There is a "Students Waiting to See Me" built-in data panel for Guidance Counselors in WebDesk that displays waiting to see the current user.
• Library – Intended to track students as they enter and leave the school library or media center. This does not link to any other Genesis feature or function.
• Nurse – Designed to be used with the Nurse>Visits>Check-In screen to create Nurse visits and allow students to exit Nurse visits.
• SS - Like the "Guidance" event type, this tracks students waiting to see their Resource Teachers. There is a "Students Waiting to See Me" built-in data panel for Resource Teachers in WebDesk that displays waiting to see the current user.
  
  
  

Turnstile can be used for any kind of 'check-in/check-out' except Daily and Class Attendance.  

Districts have used it for dances, the Prom, field trips, bathroom entry and exit and a host of other events.

What isn't Turnstile designed to do?

Turnstile itself does not interface with either Daily Attendance - the Attendance module - or Class Attendance - the Class Attendance module.

Daily Attendance Check-in / Check-out is accomplished via the Attendance>Check-In screen and the Class Attendance Check In screen.

Turnstile is specifically designed not to interface with either Attendance module.

In addition, Turnstile is a "Check-in first" module:  Staff and students cannot 'check out' before they check-in.  

If a student or staff member does not check-in, then they cannot be said to have 'checked-out'.

How are Turnstile Events different from Attendance?

Both Attendance modules, daily Attendance and Class Attendance, exclusively use "exception reporting":  Students are assumed to be present unless they are marked absent, either for a whole day or for a single class period.  

Turnstile, in contrast, has a Check-in/Check-out "event" design.  

No "Event" exists for a student until they check into one.

They are considered to be "in" the Event unless they check-out, or are checked-out by an administrative action, or the day ends (literally, overnight).

In short, with Attendance/Class Attendance, a 'check-in' action must take place to indicate that a student is NOT there.  

With Turnstile, the initial action indicates the student IS there (where "there" is an Event).

Turnstile Check-in Check-out Screen

Top Portion of the Turnstile>Student Scanning screen, with "keyboard" turned on:

Turnstile Event Check-In Check-Out

The Genesis Turnstile Module's Student Scanning screen provides a streamlined, quick way to check students into an event or location.

The top portion of the screen is used to select the student – either by their student id or by their last name.

Once the student enters their name or id, either by typing or scanning an id card in a connected scanner, their id optionally pops up and is displayed.

Students can check in by typing their last name, or student ID (or optionally, lunch pin instead of student ID) directly in the Scanning screen, or a bar-coded ID card can be used along with a scanner to allows students to 'swipe' in and out.

Optional "Student located" display – click the "Check-In" button to fully check in or out:

Check-Out Buttons are Color-Coded for Ease of Identification:

Turnstile The Events

 Turnstile includes currently seven different built-in types of events. In alphabetical order:

1. Cafeteria – Intended to let students check-into and out of lunchrooms. This is not linked to any other feature/function in Genesis.
2. Detention – This is intended to act as "Detention Attendance" and links to Detention actions on student's Infractions.
3. ISS - This is intended to act as "In School Suspension Attendance" and links to the Conduct>Detention/ISS Screen.
4. Entrance – This is intended to link to entering and exiting some event. This is the general purpose "check-in/check-out" event. It does not link to any other feature/function in Genesis.
5. Guidance – Intended to track students' presence in the guidance office.  It does not link to any other feature/function in Genesis but it specifically tracks visits to Guidance offices.  There is a built-in WebDesk panel for Guidance Counselors that displays students waiting to see the current user.
6. Library – Intended to track students as they enter and leave the school library or media center. This does not link to any other Genesis feature or function.
7. Nurse – This can be linked to the Nurse check-in screen and tracks students as they enter and leave the Nurse's office.  It links to the Nurse>Visits>Check-In screen.
8. SS– Intended to track students' presence waiting to see their Resource Teachers.  It does not link to any other feature/function in Genesis but it specifically tracks visits to Resource Teachers' offices.  There is a built-in WebDesk panel for Resource Teachers that displays students waiting to see the current user.

Multiple Events of each type can be created. This lets you give similar events different names. Each event must be linked to a dedicated "Turnstile user login".

When this dedicated user is logged in and the Turnstile check-in/check-out screen displayed, students are logged into and out of the associated event.

Turnstile and Students

Students are intended to check-in to events – and check-out of events. Certain events – e.g. Nurse visits – have alternate means of checking students out.

When a Nurse visit is "Closed" the student is automatically checked out of the associated "nurse event" (if one has been created and linked to the Nurse check-in login).  

A log of a student's Events can be viewed on the student's Student Data>Modify Student>Turnstile screen:

The Student Data>Modify Student>Turnstile screen defaults to displaying "Today's" events for the student.

The dates can be changed to show any range of days and a particular event can be chosen.

Turnstile Options

The turnstile mechanism can be configured in several different ways. You can optionally choose to:

• Use Lunch Pin instead of Student ID for manual entry (not for swipe entry).  Display or hide the on-screen keyboard.
• Display a variably-sized student photo for several seconds – or longer – after check-in or check-out
• Optionally display the student's Attendance status for today either before check-in in the search list or after check-in with their photo.
• Optionally display a set of reason codes when a student checks into an Event.
• Optionally display a Student Pass for printing when a student checks out of an Event.
• Optionally limit the students or staff members who are allowed to check into an Event to those on a selected Student or Staff list (students or staff with reservations), or, for students, only those who are NOT on a selected list (exclude a list of students).
• Color Code the Student's Information Bar based upon their current location.
• Advance Check-In students to events, either completely, for a specified time, or, if no time is specified, then requiring students to manually check-in to confirm their arrival (and time of arrival) at the event.  This is another form of "students with reservations".
  
  

Use Lunch Pin instead of Student ID for Manual Entry

Turnstile can be configured to accept student's Lunch Pin instead of their Student ID on the Scanning screen.  Overall the functionality is the same - except that students must enter their Lunch Pin instead of their Student ID to check in or out.  Student IDs will not be recognized.

Displaying or Hiding the On-Screen Keyboard:

Display a "keyboard" on a touch screen terminal so that students could possibly "touch" the keys to enter their information (if you are not using a scanner or the student has no id card).

Check-In Screen with the Keyboard displayed:
 

Check-In Screen with no Keyboard:

In "no keyboard" mode, when you are using a scanner to check in and out, the second click of a "check-in" button (as shown in Figure 2 above) is unnecessary: the card swipe alone checks the student in or out.

Display Student's Photos at Check-In and Check-Out:

The student's photo can be displayed after they check-in or check-out of an event. The photo display can be configured to vanish after several seconds, or to simply remain until the next student checks-in or checks-out.

The length of time the photo is displayed – and the size of the photo on the screen – are both configurable.

The display can last several seconds – and then vanish - or remain "permanently" until the next student enters information.

Display Today's Attendance Status in the Search List or with the Student's Photo

The student's daily attendance status can be displayed in the search list or next to the student's photo when they check-in to an event.

Thus their status can be used to determine whether the student is allowed to check-in or not (e.g. to a dance, after-school event):

Daily Attendance Status displayed in the Search list.

After check-in the attendance status can be displayed next to the student's photo and check-in time:

Daily Attendance Status displayed with photo after student checks in.

Turnstile Can Color Code Students' Location in their Student Information Bar

The Student Information Bar is the "student summary" display that appears at the top of any screen that is dedicated to a single student's information:

It contains basic information about the student as well as their current attendance status:

Normally the student information bar top line has the standard light, almost white, neutral color. When a student checks into a location – E.g. Guidance or Nurse's Office – the resulting Turnstile event can be configured to change the top line of the Student Information Bar to an identifying color:

For Example, could identify the Guidance Office and the Nurse's Office:

Turnstile Setup

The current design of the Turnstile facility links an Event to a particular user login. That "turnstile user" is then used to allow students to either card swipe in or out or enter name or id and check in and out.

To use Turnstile you must:

1. Configure the Events – This is done via the Turnstile>Setup>Turnstile Templates>List Turnstile Templates screen. There needs to be an "Event" defined for each type of thing for which you would like to use Turnstile. See the list of built-in event types above. Each school creates its own events.
2. Create a "Turnstile Role" – Create a "kiosk" Role that limits the dedicated "Turnstile user logins" only to the Check-In/Check-out (Turnstile>Scanning) screen. This prevents the dedicated Turnstile users from being used for anything other than actually checking students into or out of events.
3. Create the "Turnstile 'Kiosk' User Login(s)" that you will dedicate to displaying the various check-in screens. Ideally, you will create a separate Turnstile login for each event. Having a dedicated Turnstile login for each event enhances security. Note that a dedicated user login can be logged in at multiple sites – E.g. if you have an "Attendance Check" at multiple doors. These dedicated users all are assigned only the single "Turnstile Role".
4. Link Turnstile Logins and Events - Configure the Turnstile user logins to link them to their Events.

The additional Turnstile articles walk you through the steps necessary to create Events, create a "Check-In" user, setup the Check-In user and start using Turnstile for students and staff members.

Turnstile Version 2.0

To learn more about using Turnstile 2 please visit: Turnstile 2.0