One option for tracking student attendance is to use a Canvas Quiz as a daily survey. Features of the Canvas graded Survey for Attendance option include:
- self-check in for students, not requiring instructor or TA intervention
- automatic or manual recording of attendance in Gradebook, depending on instructor preference
- geo-location can be enabled, requiring students to be at (or near) the classroom to check-in
- attendance tracking by course section
- exportable attendance reports for downloading to your computer
- students can track their attendance
There are other options for attendance.
Please see our Comparison of Attendance Options: iClicker, Poll Everywhere, and Canvas page.
Instructions for creating a Graded Survey for Attendance:
- In a Module, preferably a Module just for Attendance, create a Quiz. Select “New Quizzes” when given the choice.
- Name the quiz “Attendance: Lecture 1.”
- Click the name of the new quiz.
- Set Points to 1 (if you want to give points for attendance. Leave 0 if not.)
- Choose the appropriate Assignment Group. We recommend you create an Attendance Assignment group.
- Display Grade As: Points, but you might choose “Complete/Incomplete.”
- Leave the rest of the settings as is and click “Build” at the bottom of the page.
- Add Instructions if desired, or leave this area blank.
- Click the blue + icon and choose “True or False” question type
- For Question Title, type in “Today’s Attendance.”
- For Question Stem, type in something like the following: Are you in class today?
- The True choice should be already selected as the correct answer, but if not, click on the button to the left the word True to select it.
- The default points is set to 1, but you can change this if desired.
- Click “Done.”
- Click “Settings.”
- To restrict the location of the students, click “Filter IP Addresses” and enter the range of IP addresses allowed. You will need to contact the IT Service Desk to request this range for the classroom in which you are teaching.
- Another option than the IP filtering is to set a “student access code” which you can tell them in person while in the classroom.
- Set any other settings you desire and click “Return.”
- To set a limit on when your students can access this survey and check in, click the name of the quiz and click “Edit.”
- Set the “Available from” and “Until” Dates and Times for when you want to allow them to check in shortly before class and for a period of time into your class time.
- Click Save, or click “Save and Publish” to make this survey ready for your students when the date and time occurs.
You can duplicate the quiz as many times as you choose and can edit the name name of it to reflect to next class session, along with editing “Available from” and “Until” Dates and Times for each new survey.
Please contact the Center for Teaching Innovation to discuss how you can use the Graded Quiz for Attendance.
