VIF.uwaterloo.ca
Student absence tracking
VIF.uwaterloo.ca
VIF.uwaterloo.ca is a useful tool for administrators and instructors to keep track of approved student absences, storing information such as absence length, affected courses, and absence type.
Upon record creation, the software is able to notify all instructors of affected courses, and allow instructors to review a fill list of approved absences for their courses each term.
The software is integrated into QUEST, and able to automatically keep in sync with self-declared absences made by students. This allows VIF.uwaterloo.ca to act as a single location for all approved absences.
Please note that at this time [December 2022], the software only functions for Instructors and faculty administration, and has no student-facing component.
As of January 2023, the software will be adopted by all faculties.
Software History
Science Computing has maintained this tool for several years. Before the current version of the tool existed, the Faculty of Science used a simple tool that wrapped MySQL to provide similar functionality.
The Science Computing Development Team later rebuilt the tool to include auto-populating student information, class lists, and added email notifications for instructors.
During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 QUEST added the ability for students to self-declare absences centrally for influenza-like symptoms. Working together with the Registrar's Office we added daily processes to mirror these records into VIF.uwaterloo.ca, enabling instructors to access all absences consistently in a single location.
Data Sources
VIF.uwaterloo.ca relies on data from the OAT web-api for student information, as well as from QUEST (via Data Lake) for self-declared absence. These data-sharing agreements are available via their respective data stewards.
Support
As a campus-wide tool, VIF.uwaterloo.ca is supported by FAST members to ensure no single point of failure. In the event that the primary maintainers or group is unable to provide service, contact a FAST representative to determine a backup support protocol.
Project Contacts
