How can I use scanners to track event participation in myUMBC?
Choice of Scanner
As of 2023, the Motorola/Zebra CS3000 is no longer in production and the prices have significantly increased. The Motorola CS3000 was an example device chosen in 2014, and is solely an example that any batch barcode scanner can be used to collect data. A more modern scanner to use could be the Wasp wws250i. The concepts below otherwise apply regardless of what device is used.
Barcode scanners are an expedient way of scanning and collecting a large amount of information for the purposes of tracking who actually showed up at your event. The barcode on the front of an UMBC ID Card represents the LIMS number, which is also printed below the barcode. The LIMS ID is a unique identifier and is one of the four identity pieces that can work for the new feature of tracking event attendance in myUMBC. Those four identity pieces are: a person's Campus ID, a username, a PeopleSoft EmplID, or a LIMS ID.
The goal of using scanners, paper sign-in sheets, or any other collection method, is to collect an identifying characteristic for the purposes of matching to that person.
This tutorial will walk you through the setup and use of the Motorola CS3000 batch barcode scanner. This scanner is a useful model as it operates in batch mode, can be used independently of a computer, supports the CODABAR format that UMBC ID Cards are encoded with, and is easy to configure and use. In theory, any barcode scanner or future application should work, with the requirement that they need to be able to scan the CODABAR format. You should research and test your options to better understand the benefits of different types of barcode scanners.
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1. Initial Setup - One Time Setup to configure your scanner
The Motorola CS3000 by default does not read the CODABAR format used on ID Cards. You can configure your scanner appropriately by either downloading this already prepared configuration file, or following the steps in the instruction manual to configure CODABAR.
If you choose to load the preconfigured file, connect your scanner. Open the CS3000 device in My Computer, go to the Parameters folder, and replace the Config.ini file with the file you downloaded above.
If you choose to turn the setting on via the instruction manual, you need to find the right page to set Codabar and scan the corresponding barcodes.
Test your newly configured scanner - if you scan an ID Card and it beeps, you're good to go!
Timestamps must be set manually by scanning the corresponding barcodes in the instruction manual. Click here to download the pages specific to setting date and time. You'll need to use your scanner to scan the related barcodes.
2. Before an event
Set up your myUMBC event. To track participation, there must be a myUMBC event created to track it on. There are many benefits to creating a myUMBC event, including:
Visibility on the Events page of myUMBC, as well as the UMBC App
Use in advertising and allowing for comments
3. Scan at an event
Go and collect attendance!
4. After an event
Note: Only the Event Creator and/or a Group Admin can enter participation records on a myUMBC event.
Connect your scanner to a PC via USB cable.
Go to CS3000/Scanned Barcodes,
If your file is BARCODES.CSV as shown in the image below, double click on your file.
Alternatively, if your file is BARCODES.TXT, please see our page on How do I open BARCODES.TXT in Excel? for further instructions. It's preferable to change your scanner to save to BARCODES.csv.
Your excel sheet should look similar to the below:
Highlight Column D containing your LIMS IDs, and Copy.
Go to the myUMBC event that you'd like to track participation on. If you are the creator of the event or a group admin, you will see the Participants box as shown below.
Paste your list of LIMS IDs into the box. No changes are needed, click the Upload Participants button.
All pasted attendees will now show with their actual names, and are electronically recorded as Event Participants. In this example, you can see 14 people successfully uploaded (Redacted for privacy). Any errors will show in a red bar at the top of the screen.
After your data has been uploaded, go back to your excel sheet. You can now highlight all rows, delete those rows, and Save the file.
5. Future Analytics
Event participation records upload to the REX Data Warehouse on a nightly basis. If you're interested in developing REX reports using this data, please see http://rex.umbc.edu/ for more information.