Attendance, Credits & Demerits

Demerits (school version) is a 'points' system which enables school authorities to keep track of the behaviour of their students. It consists of HUDs, a Bank, and optional Phones and PA. It has been extensively trialled in an active SL school. Its chief advantage lies in the fact that demerits can be given where more serious sanctions are not warranted, and when it is not possible to take corrective action at the time that an offence is committed. It is then possible to take action at a later date, especially when more demerits have accumulated in the database, making it appropriate to do so.

The HUD is worn by authorities, and whenever its 'frowning face' icon is clicked, it scans the area and presents a dialogue box listing names of students. On selecting a student's name, 1 - 3 demerits are given, following which a brief statement of the reason is submitted in a text box. The details are sent to a database in a Demerit Bank in the form of an ATM, which can be located on a wall in a central place.

A single click on the Bank gives 4 automatic levels of access, depending on the status of the user (Student, Staff, Manager, or Owner). Each level up enables more facilities to be accessed by dialogue box, ranging from demerit total reports (level 1) to backup & restore (level 4). The point at which demerits have to be translated into corrective action is not defined by the system, leaving the authorities to make this decision. When action is taken, an offender's demerits can be individually cleared by anyone at level 2 and above.

The Phone is a device which allows reports to be obtained from the Bank from other parts of the sim.
The Demerit PA is an optional relay which will announce the giving of a demerit in an area beyond the chat range of the HUD.
The Demerit Bank also transmits totals to a noticeboard, sold separately (PrimEtext).

To cater for institutions which may host more than one student body, e.g. for different time zones, the Bank has two independent datasets, which may be swapped from the menu, and both datasets can be backed up and restored. It is also possible to have more than one system, each with its own communicating HUDs in the same sim. This is achieved by entering an integer in the object descriptions of both Bank & HUDs to define an offset for the communication channel.

Potential purchasers are welcome to IM Kharmen Spad for discussion and/or demonstration.