Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) is expanding its location tracking technology to monitor the health and safety of its students and employees during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
UniMAP vice-chancellor Professor Dr R. Badlishah Ahmad said following the success of the previous global positioning system (GPS) technology to record the attendance of UniMAP employees, the university is using it as part of its efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“Previously, we have introduced the GPS technology to replace the biometric fingerprint attendance system to limit physical contact among our staff. This is one of our preventive measures to halt the spread of the virus.
“Following the ongoing discussions with the UniMAP Committee for Disaster Management, the university finds that it is necessary to extend this technology to facilitate the monitoring of its nearly 15,000 students and 2,000 employees,” he said.
To safeguard the privacy and personal information of the university’s community, Badlishah said, the data analysis was restricted to only a few individuals.
He said the university’s students and employees could update their locations regardless of where they were.
UniMAP could further analyse their whereabouts during the MCO period, he added.
“For employees who are working from home, they need to log into the system daily during the MCO period. Students, however, need only sign in once,” he said.
Badlishah said the technology allowed the university to track its students’ coordinates which would later be matched with data of areas with Covid-19 cases.
He said this would allow the university to conduct health screenings on those who were from areas which had Covid-19 cases once the MCO period ended.
This, he added, would lower the risk of the university’s students and employees from contracting the virus.
Meanwhile, UniMAP chief digital officer Professor Dr Anuar Mat Safar said the university might use the information gathered from the technology for academic purposes.
“We do not know how long the MCO period will be. The data collected can be used to identify students’ preparedness to participate in online learning platforms if the MCO period is extended.
As Internet access is crucial for those taking part in online lectures, he said, the technology would allow the university to identify its students’ broadband accessibility.