Setting up the kiosk for self check-in

The kiosk is a great upgrade for schools that take attendance the same way every class. Students walk in, tap their name, and the front desk does not have to be involved.

What hardware to buy

• A tablet. An iPad (any model from the last 5 years works) or a mid-range Android tablet is fine. Screen size: 10 inches or larger so students can find their face easily.
• A stand. A countertop or wall-mounted stand. Most schools spend 30 to 60 dollars on a sturdy stand. Avoid the ones with a hole in the middle that interrupt the touch area.
• A charging cable. Run a cable through the stand to the wall so the tablet never dies. A nice clean install hides the cable behind the stand.
• (Optional) A QR scanner or RFID reader. For schools using key tags. The kiosk reads a tag and checks the student in instantly, which is faster than tapping a face.

Setting up the tablet

1. Open the tablet's browser and go to {your-slug}.getrosterra.com/kiosk.
2. Sign in once with a staff account (the kiosk inherits that account's permissions, but only check-in is exposed).
3. On the tablet, lock the browser to that URL. On iPad: enable Guided Access and triple-click the home button. On Android: use the Pinned App feature.
4. Plug in. You should now see a grid of student faces with today's classes filtered to the active one.

Configuring the kiosk

At /settings/kiosk-devices you can:

• Name the device (helps if you run multiple kiosks).
• Filter to a single location.
• Pick which classes appear (today's only is the default).
• Show or hide photos (most schools show photos; some schools turn them off for privacy).
• Set the brand color and welcome message.

Day-to-day

The kiosk auto-refreshes the class list every minute, so it shows the right classes throughout the day. After a check-in, the student's tile shows a green check for 2 seconds and then the grid returns. If two students try to check in at the same moment, the kiosk queues both.

A frozen kiosk

The most common cause is the browser running out of memory after running for days. The fix is to refresh the page (drag down from the top on most tablets) or restart the tablet at the end of each week. Schedule a weekly restart in the tablet's settings if you want it automatic.

Why a tablet and not a kiosk app?

A standalone app would be locked to a specific app store. The browser approach works on any tablet, so you can switch hardware later without re-buying anything. It also gets updates instantly when Rosterra ships a new version.