Introduction
The Attendance tool in Canvas is available for all instructors and is found on the left course navigation menu. This is a simple tool with limited configurability. Please make sure to review the following list of limitations before deciding whether or not the attendance tool will work for you.
How does the attendance tool influence student grades?
- By default, being late is considered 80% of being present, so if a student arrives late, they receive 80% for the day instead of the full 100% attendance score. This value can be adjusted in the attendance tool.
- The Attendance tool does not allow you to start penalizing students after a certain number of absences.
- The default point value for attendance is 100 points. If you want to change the point value, you must take attendance on the first day when it's worth 100 points, and then change the point value before taking attendance on the next day.
Make sure you do not delete, rename or unpublish the Attendance assignment since doing so may cause calculation errors.
- You can also grade attendance based on a percentage toward the final grade using assignment groups without changing the point value of attenance. Here is a linked article with an embedded video describing how this works: How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
Resources
For detailed information about the Attendance tool please click on the title of the following article: How do I use the Roll Call Attendance tool in a course?
When you access this article you will also find other articles about the Attendance tool on the left side.