Chinese university uses AI to check class attendance rates and find the reasons behind absenteeism

  • Early results have been positive, with attendance rates up in the two weeks since university adopted the system
  • University says main goal is to find deeper reasons behind why students miss class and categorise them accordingly to build a database

Sarah Daiin Beijing
This educational innovation comes amid efforts by the world’s second-largest economy to roll out AI into all walks of life. Photo: AFP

For harassed teachers and university staff struggling to keep tabs on which students have attended class, a new artificial intelligence-enabled system in China may be just what they have been looking for.

A Chinese university in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, has rolled out a class attendance system that enables students to sign in with verification codes via their mobile phones and issue auto-reminders to those who fail to show up on time, along with a warning about the risks of skipping class.

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