Finding the Roll Call Tool

To see the Roll Call tool on your course, visit the Attendance item on your course menu.

Course Menu with items: Home, Annoucnements, Modules, Assignments, Syllabus, Attendance

Tip: If you don't see Attendance, you may need to add it to the navigation menu by clicking on 'Settings', then clicking on the Navigation tab. Read the Canvas guide for more information.

Students can’t see the Attendance menu item, so you don’t need to worry about hiding it from students.

If your course has many students enrolled, the Roll Call tool may take a few minutes to load.

Finding Your Way Around the Roll Call Tool

Once the Roll Call tool has loaded, there are a few key controls to get used to.

Roll Call Navigation.png

The 'List' option will show you a list of all students who are enrolled on your course.

Sections

If your course includes sections, you can select your section from the drop-down menu with the names of course sections. The default view may show the entire course cohort. Click the downward arrow to filter by section to take attendance for just one section on your course. This menu displays even if your course only contains one section.

By default, Roll Call will open on today's date. You can use the back and forward arrows next to the date to change the date, or you can click on the calendar icon. You can use the Roll Call tool on any calendar date, but attendance will be calculated based on days you have used the Roll Call tool, and not every calendar date.

Taking Attendance

Once you have selected your section, navigate to the date of the session you would like to record attendance for. Today's date is the default view.

If your session was hosted on Zoom or Virtual Classroom, you can generate an attendance report to find out which students were present:

How to get attendance reports in Zoom
How to get attendance reports in Virtual Classroom

To mark a student as present, click the icon next to their avatar once. The icon will turn into a green tick.

To mark a student as absent, click the icon next to their avator twice. The icon will turn into a red cross.

To mark a student as late, click the icon next to their avatar three times. The icon will turn into an orange clock. Marking a student as late will award them 80% of the points given to a student who was present. You might choose not to mark students as late.

To unmark a student, click the icon next to their avatar four times.

NB, if you want to mark a student as absent and the absence as unauthorised, select MORE and click the unauthorised button.

The 'Mark all present' and 'Unmark all' buttons may also help to speed up the process.

Roll Call Assignment

The first time you take attendance using the Roll Call tool, an assignment called Roll Call Assignment will appear on your course. Please don't delete, rename, or unpublish this assignment, as this is necessary to record attendance.

If students click on the Roll Call Assignment, they will be able to see a breakdown of their own attendance.

Roll Call in the Gradebook

Roll call will appear automatically in your course gradebook.

In the Gradebook Attendance column, by default Canvas displays the assignment based on percentage of the point value. For instance, if the point value is 100, and roll call has been taken twice, a student with one present value (100%) and one lateness value (calculated at 80%) will have a score of 90 points, or 90%.

The Attendance Gradebook column will update every time you take roll call in the Attendance tool.

Exporting Attendance Reports

To export an attendance report from Roll Call, click on the settings icon:

Then select 'Attendance Report'.

From here, you can choose to filter your report by date or by student. If you leave these options blank you will receive an attendance report for the entirety of your course to date.

attendance report.PNG

Enter your email and the report will be sent directly to you.