AttendEase: Fraud-Resistant Attendance Tracking in Higher Education Using Dynamic Tokens and Geofencing

Preparing qualified specialists depends directly on student engagement during the educational process. For this reason, many higher education institutions (HEIs) view attendance as a key element of their educational policy and mandate strict requirements in internal regulatory documents. Traditional student attendance tracking is often time-consuming and susceptible to proxy-scanning fraud. Existing automated solutions, such as RFID or biometric systems, require expensive hardware infrastructure, while static QR-code approaches fail to prevent remote image sharing. This study proposes AttendEase, a cross-platform mobile application that secures and automates attendance management using a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) paradigm. The system introduces a four-layer validation mechanism that combines time-limited dynamic QR codes (UUIDv4), duplicate registration, device-binding verification (SSAID/IDFV) to prevent multi-account logging from a single smartphone, and location validation using a Haversine-based geofencing algorithm. Beyond automated check-in, AttendEase features an analytics module that enables educators and students to generate real-time visualisations and reports with aggregated data. The empirical evaluation at Plovdiv University across 5 courses involving 48 students demonstrates the system’s initial feasibility, usability, and potential to streamline attendance tracking, eliminate proxy check-ins, and reduce administrative overhead during lectures. The findings confirm that AttendEase has high potential to support effective attendance monitoring, operational management, and data-driven decision-making in HEIs.

@article{Gaftandzhieva2026,
  title     = {AttendEase: Fraud-Resistant Attendance Tracking in Higher Education Using Dynamic Tokens and Geofencing},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {17},
  number    = {9},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Silvia Gaftandzhieva and Gabriela Lyavova},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2026.0170923},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2026.0170923}
}