Roll Call Attendance

Table of Contents

Overview


The Roll Call Attendance feature in Canvas allows you to keep track of student absences for grading and accountability purposes. This page explains how to set up and use the Roll Call Attendance feature, including how to use the Roll Call Attendance assignment and how to designate someone to take attendance for your course.

Roll Call Attendance Assignment


After the first time you take attendance in your course, an assignment called Roll Call Attendance will appear in your course assignments page. If you weight the assignments in your course, you can create an assignment group for just this assignment and assign a weight to it. If you choose not to weight your assignments, you can adjust the point value of the assignment in assignment settings.

If you do not want to use Roll Call for grading purposes, but simply want to keep it as a resource, you have two options for doing so. First, you can delete the assignment from the gradebook entirely, by selecting Display Grade As→ Not Graded in the Assignment settings.

select to display grade as not graded

If you want to have the Roll Call grade still appear in the grade book, but not be calculated in the final grade for the course, check the "Do not count this assignment towards the final grade" checkbox in the assignment settings.

Roll Call Points added towards final grade option

Taking Attendance

Attendance can be taken from the Attendance tab of the course navigation. A list of your students will be displayed here each class day, giving you the opportunity to mark them as present, absent, or tardy. It may be easiest to initially select the "Mark All Present" option and then go back and mark certain students as absent through the Attendance Tool

Attendance Tool Screen

For large courses, it may be helpful to designate someone to take attendance. The Attendance course role allows an individual to have access to the attendance feature, but not view other student information, such as grades. Assigning someone this role, whether it be a TA, trusted student, or program coordinator, frees up the professor to use class time more efficiently without sacrificing the ability to keep record of student attendance.