Moodle Resources for Faculty

Attendance Tool

Instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) can use the Attendance activity in Moodle to track student attendance. You can customize the attendance marks (such as Present, Late, Excused, or Absent) and give each one a point value. Students' total attendance scores will appear in a single column in the Moodle gradebook. Students can also see their own attendance records and any comments from the instructor in the Attendance activity.

Important: TAs with the "Grading TA" role can mark attendance, but they cannot create new attendance sessions. Only instructors and users with the "Academic Administrator" role can set up new attendance sessions.

By default, it will be named "Attendance." Moodle will use this name on your course page and in the Gradebook.

1. On your course homepage, click the Edit Mode button in the top right corner.
2. In the section where you want to add the Attendance activity (the top section is recommended for easy access), click + Add an activity or resource. This will open the Activity chooser.
3. In the Activity chooser, select Attendance and click Add. This will open the "Adding a new Attendance" page.

   

4. (Optional) Change the Name of the activity.
5. Select the Grade section to expand the grade options. Set the maximum points for the attendance activity in the Gradebook. The default value is 100.
6.  Click the Common module settings section if you want to adjust group settings (Optional).
7.  Finally, click Save and return to course.

Change Status Sets

Note: If you want to use a customized Status set, make sure to edit those settings before creating new sessions. Once sessions are created, you cannot change the available status options.

1. On your course page, select the name of the Attendance activity. The Attendance activity page will open.
2. Select the More tab. From the drop down menu, select Status Set.

    

   

    

3.  On the Status Set page, you can customize the attendance marks and their point values. The default options are:
   • Present
   • Late
   • Excused
   • Absent
4. Each Attendance mark has an Acronym, a Description, and Points. To Make changes:

    

   

    

   • Edit the fields to update the Acronym, Description, or Points. 
   • Self-Marking availability - when students are marking their own attendance, restricts what options are available. 
   • Available before session start - when students are marking their own attendance, allows students to mark attendance before the session begins. 
   • Automatically set when not marked - If enabled during a session, automatically sets a status for students. 
   • To hide an option, select the Eye icon in the Action column on the right. 
   • To delete an option, select the Trash bin icon in the Action column.
   • To add a new option, type in the blank fields at the bottom and select Add. 
5. Select Update to save your changes.

Create Sessions

The Attendance activity tracks student attendance by recording marks for each session (such as a lecture, lab, or discussion). Before you can track attendance, you need to add sessions. If your class meets more than once a week or has multiple labs or discussions, you can include them all in the same Attendance activity. You will also have the option to add all regular meeting times at once.

Note: If you want to use a customized Status set, make sure to edit those settings before creating new sessions. Once sessions are created, you cannot change the available status options.

1. On your course page, select the Attendance activity.  The Attendance activity will open. 
2. Select the Add Session button. 

To Add a new session:

1.  Under Type, choose whether the session is for All students, or specific Groups of students. If you are using groups, verify that you have group mode enabled in Common Module Settings for the activity. 
2. Under Date, select the date and time of your first class meeting. 
3.  For Time, enter the start and end times in hours and minutes. 
4. (Optional) Enter a Description if you have different sessions for lectures, labs, or discussion meetings.

To set up recurring sessions:

1. Under Multiple sessions, select Repeat the session above as follows. 
2. Under Repeat on, choose the days of the week the session should repeat (you can select multiple days).
3. For Repeat every, choose how often the session should repeat (for example, every 1 week).
4. For Repeat until, select the last date the sessions should continue.
5. Example: If your class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, select Tuesday and Thursday, repeating every 1 week, until the last day of the semester.
6. Select Add at the bottom of the page. You’ll see a message confirming the sessions were successfully created, and you’ll return to the Session page.

Tip: If you have a large class, you can let TAs help take attendance or allow students to record their own attendance. If you allow students to record their own attendance, it’s a good idea to use a password for the session. This will require students to enter the password you provide to mark their attendance.

To add more sessions for other meeting times, repeat Steps 2 through 6.

Edit Existing Sessions

Once you’ve added sessions to an Attendance activity, you can change the meeting dates, times, or descriptions using the Sessions tab. This is helpful if you need to cancel or reschedule a class due to a campus emergency or holiday.

1.  On your course page, click the Attendance activity. The Attendance activity will open to the Sessions page.
2. On the Sessions page, use the buttons at the top right to filter sessions by All, All past, Months, Weeks, or Days. (The page will either show All or the last view you used.)

For each session, there are Action icons on the right:

• A Play button means attendance has not been taken yet for that session.
• A Green arrow means attendance has already been recorded for that session.
• Click the Trash bin icon to delete a session

To delete or change multiple sessions at once:

1.  Select the checkbox next to the sessions you want to modify (or click the top checkbox to select all).
2. From the Choose... drop-down menu at the bottom right, select Delete or Change duration, then click OK.

Record Attendance

1. On your course page, click the name of the Attendance activity. The Attendance activity page will open to the Sessions page.
2. On the Sessions page, use the buttons at the top right to view sessions by Day, Weeks, Months, All past, or All. (The page will first open to All or the last view you used.
3. To take or edit attendance:

• Click the Play button to open an unrecorded session.
• Click the Green arrow to edit a session where attendance has already been recorded.

The Attendance page for that session will open.

Note: If you leave the Sessions page and return later, you may need to click All or All past to view previous sessions.

4. On the Attendance page, use the radio buttons to mark attendance based on the acronyms you set in the Status set (see Change Status Sets above).

Tip: If everyone is present, you can save time by clicking the column heading P to mark the whole class as present. If most students are present, mark them all as present, then go back to change the status for absent students.

5. To add notes for specific students, type your comments in the Remarks column.

Note: Both you and the student can view any comments recorded here.

6. When you’re done, click Save attendance at the bottom of the page. You will see a confirmation that attendance was successfully taken, and then you will be returned to the Sessions page.

Report View (Instructors)

The Report tab in the Attendance activity allows instructors to view attendance for the entire class. If you have many sessions, you might need to scroll sideways. To make it easier, you can filter the view by clicking Months or Weeks in the Sessions tab at the top right.

Individual Student View (Instructors)

Instructors can see an attendance summary for individual students, including any remarks about their attendance. To view this information, click on a student’s name in the Report tab of the Attendance activity.

Student View

Students can check their own attendance by clicking the Attendance activity link on the course page. They will see a summary of meetings where they were present, late, excused, etc., along with a list of all class sessions and any remarks you have entered about their attendance.

Exporting Attendance

For a comprehensive view of class attendance, especially in large classes, you may prefer to use the Export tab to download the attendance data. You can export the data in Excel, OpenOffice, or Text format.

You have three export options:

1. All students
2. Groups of students (if you use groups, select the group you want)
3. Specific students

Choose what to export:

• Student ID
• Sessions
• Start and End dates

Select your preferred format (Excel is recommended) and click OK. The export file will automatically download.

If not set up as recommended, the Attendance activity might show grades differently from the Gradebook:

In the Attendance activity, students see the Date, Description, Status, Points, and Remarks (see Change Status Sets, above). However, the Attendance percentage is applied to the maximum point value for the activity to calculate the score each student receives in the Gradebook.

Example: If a class meets 25 times and attendance is worth 2 points per meeting, the maximum Attendance grade would be 50 points. If a student has two absences, their Attendance grade might show as 46/50 and an Attendance percentage of 92% in the Attendance activity. However, in the Gradebook, the score depends on the settings for the attendance activity. Here are some examples:

• If the Attendance Grade is set to 100 points: The Gradebook will show a score of 92, which is 92% of the 100 possible points.
• If the Attendance Grade is set to 25 points: The Gradebook will show a score of 23, which is 92% of the 25 possible points.
• If the Attendance Grade is set to 10 points: The Gradebook will show a score of 9.2, which is 92% of the 10 possible points.

To avoid confusion for students, it is recommended to use one of the following settings to keep the experience consistent:

1. Set the Grade for the Attendance Activity to 100:

• On your course page, click the name of the Attendance activity. The Attendance activity page will open.
• Click the Actions menu (top right) and select Edit settings from the drop-down menu.
• In the Grade section, change the Maximum grade to 100. Moodle will automatically adjust the grades in the Gradebook to be out of 100, so students will see a consistent percentage in both the Attendance activity and the Gradebook.

2. Set the Gradebook to Display Both Percentage and Real Grade for the Attendance Activity:

• On your course page, select Grades from the Navigation tray (left side). The Grader report page will open.
• On the Grader report page, click Setup in the top navigation bar, then select Gradebook setup from the dropdown menu.
• Locate the Attendance activity in the list of grade items. Click the Edit icon (gear) next to it and select Edit settings.
• On the Grade item settings page, find the Grade display type section.
• Select Percentage (real) or Real (percentage) from the drop-down menu under Grade display type.
• Scroll down and click Save changes.

With these settings, students will see both their "Real" score (based on the Grade set for the activity) and a "Percentage" that matches the Attendance percentage they see in the Attendance activity.