Setting up registers

In order to track the students’ attendance, you will have to set-up Attendance Registers first. Attendance Registers are entries that you create to track attendance for activities in your course. For example, you can create attendance registers to track attendance for mandatory classes, weekly consultations, or talks and seminars .

1. Go to the Course and click Attendance from the navigation bar.

2. Click the New Register button. You will be redirected to the New Register page.

3. Enter a name for your register. It can be classes, consultations, or seminars. Add a description.

4. Select an Attendance Scheme. Attendance schemes provide the criteria for marking attendance in a register. By default, System Scheme is available, which only has the P (Present) and A (Absent) criteria. You can learn more about setting up Attendance Schemes here.

5. Set the Cause for Concern (%), which is the attendance percentage number which the register marks student attendance as being a concern. For example, if you set the Cause for Concern percentage at 75%, you will be notified if a student’s attendance percentage for this register falls below 75%.

6. Keep the Allow users to view this attendance register checked if you want the students to see their attendance record.

7. If you want the register to be applied to all the students enrolled in the course, keep the Include all users in the course option selected. You may choose to apply the register to specific groups only. In which case, select the Include all users in the following groups/sections: option and click on the Add Groups/Sections button

8. Enter the names of the Sessions you want listed under the register. It could be the name of activities, session numbers, or dates. You can add descriptions per session if needed.

9. By default, you can only input 3 sessions. If you want to add more, save the current register by clicking on the Save button. Once the register is saved, indicate the number of sessions you want to add on the empty field and click Add Sessions.

10. Click the Save button, and then the Close button to return to the Attendance Page.

Creating attendance schemes

Attendance schemes provide the criteria for marking attendance in an Attendance Register. By default, only the System Scheme is available, which only has the P (Present) and A (Absent) criteria. You can create custom attendance schemes to match your needs.

1. Go to the Course and click Attendance from the navigation bar. Go to the Attendance Schemes tab. Click the New Scheme button.

2. Enter a name for your scheme.

3. In the Symbol column, type in the value to give the student. In the Status Full Name column, type in the full name of the symbol. For example, you may use the symbols P, T, and A for the Present, Tardy, and Absent Status Full Names respectively.

4. In the Assigned % column, type in the amount of credit the student gets for the status. For example, you may assign 100, 50, and 0 for the Present, Tardy, and Absent statuses respectively.

5. By default, you can only input 3 statuses. If you want to add more, save the current Scheme by clicking on the Save button. Once the register is saved, indicate the number of statuses you want to add on the empty field, and click Add Statuses.

6. When you’re done, click the Save button, and then the Close button to return to the Attendance Page.

Using registers

Once you have set-up your Attendance Registers and Attendance Schemes, you are ready to record student attendance in your course.

1. Go to the Course and click Attendance from the navigation bar and. Note that you must already have an Attendance Register and an Attendance Scheme created to record attendance. You can learn more about setting up Attendance Registers here, and Attendance Schemes here.

2. From your list of registers, click on the register you want to use. This will redirect you to the Attendance Data page of that course using the selected register.

3. To edit the values for the student status, click on the Attendance Data icon next to the session name which you want to record student attendance. This will redirect you to the Set Attendance Data page of the selected session.

4. You may set the status of each student individually by using the drop down menu in the Attendance Status column.

5. If the majority of the students will be given the same status, use the Set Status for All Users button on the top left portion of the page. Click the drop down and pick the status for the whole group, and click the Save button.

6. If you want to change the status of particular students, click the checkbox beside their names, and click on Set Status above the student list. Click the drop down and pick the status for the selected students, and click the Save button.

If you are checking attendance by doing a roll-call, set the status of all students as Present. Call the students one-by-one, and if a student is absent, click the checkbox beside their names. When you’re done calling everyone, change the status of the selected students to Absent. If you are marking students as tardy, call do another roll-call of the students marked absent after your grace period. If they are present, click the checkbox beside their name. When you’re done calling all students previously marked absent, change the status of the selected students to Tardy.