Use the Attendance tool in myCourses

The Attendance tool in myCourses allows you to create attendance schemes and registers to track your students' attendance and/or participation for course events.

Attendance scores cannot be automatically exported to the Grades tool. See Exporting attendance data and Import attendance data to grades for instructions on how to import the scores from Attendance to Grades using a spreadsheet.

Access the Attendance tool

1. Click Course Admin.

2. Under Learner Management, click Attendance.

To allow students to view their attendance, you must edit the navigation bar and add the Attendance link to it.

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Create an attendance scheme

1. On the main Attendance page, click Attendance Schemes.

2. Click New Scheme.

3. Enter a Name (e.g. LMS-101-001 Scheme).

4. In the Symbol column, enter the symbols you want to use for each status (e.g. P for present, L for late, etc.).

5. In the Status Full Name column, enter the name of each status (e.g. Present, Late, Absent, Excused).

6. In the Assigned % column, enter the percentage each student will achieve for each status (e.g. 100 for present, 75 for late, 0 for absent). Leave this field blank for a status if you want it to be averaged out of their attendance score (e.g. Excused).

7. Click Save.

8. Click Close to return to the Attendance Schemes page.

    

   

Add attendance statuses

1. Enter a number in the field beside Add Statuses.

2. Click Add Statuses.

3. Click Save.

Reorder attendance statuses

1. Select a number from the drop-down list in the Order column. These numbers represent the order the statuses will appear when you are taking attendance.

2. Click Save.

Delete attendance statuses

1. Click the trash can icon beside a status.

   

   The status won't disappear from the list immediately. You can click the plus icon to restore it before saving.

2. Click Save.

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Create an attendance register

1. On the main Attendance page, click New Register.

2. Enter a Name (e.g. Fall 2013 - LMS-101-001 - Lecture Attendance).

3. Select an Attendance Scheme.

4. In the Session Name column, enter names for each event or class you wish to take attendance for (e.g. Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Field Trip, etc.).

   

   All available fields in the Session Name column must be filled in before you can save.

5. To add additional sessions, enter the number of sessions to add in the field next to Add Sessions and then click Add Sessions. If you do not enter a number before clicking Add Sessions, the page will reload, but nothing will happen.

6. Click Save.

7. Click Close to return to the main Attendance page.

   

Optional settings

• Description: Enter a description for the Register.

• Cause for Concern (%): If you enter a number between 1 and 100 in this field and a student's attendance percentage falls below this number, their score will appear in red with a warning icon beside it.

• Visibility: Select the checkbox to allow students to view their attendance for this register.

• Users: select one of the following options:

  • Include all users in the course: All students in the course will appear in the list when you are taking attendance.

  • Include all users in the following groups sections: Only the students from the selected groups or sections will appear in the list when you are taking attendance. Click Add Groups/Sections to add a group or section.

• Session Description: Enter descriptions for each Session.

Add sessions

1. Enter a number in the field beside Add Sessions.

2. Click Add Sessions.

3. Click Save.

Reorder sessions

1. Select a number from the drop-down list in the Order column. These numbers represent the order the sessions will appear when you are taking attendance.

2. Click Save.

Delete sessions

1. Click the trash can icon beside a session.

   

   The session won't disappear from the list immediately. You can click the plus icon to restore it before saving.

2. Click Save.

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Edit or delete an attendance register

1. On the main Attendance page, click the arrow beside the name of the register you want to edit or delete.

2. Select Edit or Delete.

If you select a different Attendance Scheme after taking attendance, you will delete all attendance data for that register.

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Take attendance

1. On the main Attendance page, click the name of the Register you want to take attendance for.

2. Open the attendance sheet for a session by clicking the icon at the top of the column.

3. Select each student's attendance status from the drop-down lists in the Attendance Status column.

4. Click Save.

Set a status for multiple students

1. Select the checkbox beside the students' names in the list.

2. Click Set Status at the top of the list.

3. In the pop-up window that appears, select a Status (e.g. P for Present) to give the selected students.

4. Click Save to close the pop-up window.

5. Click Save on the Set Attendance Data page.

Set a status for all students

1. Click Set Status for All Users at the top of the page.

2. In the pop-up window that appears, select a Status (e.g. P for Present) to give all students.

3. Click Save to close the pop-up window and save all changes.

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Export attendance data to a spreadsheet

1. On the main Attendance page, click the name of the register you want to export.

2. Click Export All Data at the top of the page.

3. In the pop-up window that appears, click the link to open or save the .csv file with the exported attendance data.

4. Click Close to return to the Attendance Data page.

Import attendance data to grades

1. Open the exported .csv file with the attendance data.

2. Remove all columns except Username, % Attendance, and End-of-Line Indicator. If you use the Org Defined ID column, you must remove the spaces from this column heading.

3. Rename the middle column heading to Attendance Points Grade. Otherwise it will not import.

4. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv (Comma delimited).

5. Import the spreadsheet into Grades; follow the prompts to create a Numeric item, and enter 100 for the Max Points. This will create a new column in your grade book called Attendance that contains the attendance percentages from the exported register.

If you change any values in Attendance, you must repeat the above process to update the values in Grades.

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