The Office of Spiritual Formation is moving into the third phase of the Quest credit system including a new mobile check-in feature for small group Chapels.
Jan Meyer, director of Spiritual Formation, said the transition has been in the works for more than 18 months. After visiting the team who developed Altimeter at Oklahoma Christian University in 2015, the chapel office began to transition into the system with the first phase of moving into a ‘spiritual formation credits’ which broadened the scope for what could count as a credit. After this, the office moved into phase two by having small group Chapels shift to a paperless check-in system. On Wednesday, Meyer announced the third phase which allows for check-in at small group events via smartphone or iPad.
“The overall plan is to simplify the attendance process so that students, faculty, and staff will be freed to dream and design all kinds of spiritual formation events that can happen any day or time during the week,” said Meyer.
The chapel office claims the number of small group Chapels have increased from 70 to 200 during the past year and hope the increasing trend continues to rise in 2017.
Although this new feature allows for students to check-in via smartphone or iPad, Meyer said the dilemma of chapel integrity or ‘sliding and dashing’ could continue to occur. Because the feature simply takes your location and checks-in, a student can leave once he/she acquires his/her credit. However, Meyer said that because they are aware students act in such a way, the sponsor or proctor can verify their attendance and remove them if such act is shown.
“If the student leaves during the event, this will show up on the system and the sponsor or proctor who verifies the event attendance can make sure they are removed for that event,” said Meyer. “While the Quest system will in some ways make it easier to tell if a student is trying to cheat the system, no system is fool-proof.”
Chapels conducted in Moody, Cullen and Chapel on the Hill will still require a slide in check-in system.
