Canvas has an attendance feature called Roll Call Attendance. This tool can be used to track class attendance, run reports of an individual student’s attendance, and pass attendance grades directly to the Canvas gradebook.
About Roll Call Attendance
To locate Roll Call Attendance in the Canvas site for any course you teach, click “Attendance” from the left side navigation menu. The Roll Call screen displays a roster of all users enrolled as students, in either list or seating chart view. Students can be marked present (green check), late (yellow clock), absent (red x), or remain unmarked (gray circle-slash) for any date on which a class session is held.
Users enrolled in the Canvas site as a Teacher or TA can mark and view attendance for all students. Users enrolled as a Student can only view their own attendance record. Students cannot mark themselves present in class.
Teachers and TAs can also use Roll Call to generate attendance reports by clicking the Settings wheel in the upper right corner of the screen, then clicking “Attendance Reports”. Reports can be generated for an entire course or filtered to include only specific dates and/or students. Running a report will send a CSV file to your email.
Using Roll Call in your Course
Roll Call Attendance is an external Canvas plug-in, so individual Canvas users have less control over how it works. We recommend reviewing the section below before using Roll Call to make sure it suits your needs.
Attendance and Grades
Roll Call calculates students’ attendance grades by averaging all dates for which attendance is marked. If there is a date in the calendar when you did not take attendance, it is excluded from the calculation. Each time you take attendance, the entry for the new date is factored into the average and students’ scores in the gradebook adjust automatically.
- Present = full credit
- Late = partial credit (you choose how much)
- Absent = no credit
- Unmarked = date is excluded from grade calculation
The first time you mark attendance in Roll Call, it automatically generates a graded assignment called “Roll Call Attendance” worth 100 points. If that isn’t what you want, the tips below can help you make changes.
Adjust point value and grading category: By default, the attendance assignment is worth 100 points in a grading category called “Attendance”. To modify it, select “Assignments” from the left side navigation menu and locate “Roll Call Attendance”. Click the 3 dots, then select “Edit”. You will now see a settings page like any other Canvas assignment, where you can adjust the point value and grading category to match the policies in your syllabus.
Track attendance without grading: Click “Attendance” from the menu to access the Roll Call tool. In the top right corner, click the Settings wheel, then “Roll Call Settings”. Check the box for “Do not count attendance toward final grade”. Alternatively, you may adjust this in the assignment editing page described above and check the box for “Do not count this assignment toward the final grade”.
Set the amount of partial credit given for late: Click “Attendance” to access the Roll Call tool. In the top right corner, click the Settings wheel, then “Roll Call Settings”. Use the slider to adjust how much credit students should receive when they are marked late (only needed if attendance is graded). Note that this percentage must remain the same for all students, all semester.
Attendance Badges
Attendance badges can be used to provide notes or comments to yourself or other members of the instructional team. Students cannot see their attendance badges. To create a badge, view the roster in list view, and click the “More” button to the right of a student. Use the options to add a new badge or manage your existing badges. Once you create a badge, it will be available to add to any student on any date within the same course.
Existing badges will appear as options below the student’s attendance options, such as the badge in the photo above called “excused absence”. Click a badge to add it to a student for that date.
Excused absences are a common use for badges. To track, but not penalize, excused absences, you may leave the student unmarked for the excused attendance date, but create and add an “excused absence” badge. This will exclude the date from the student’s attendance grade, and you can generate an attendance report as needed to see a real-time overview of the number of excused absence badges assigned to that student throughout the course.
Troubleshooting
Some users have encountered bugs in the Roll Call tool. Below are solutions and workarounds for common issues.
Browsers blocking pop-ups or cookies. Some browsers try to prevent Roll Call from launching. You may receive a message indicating this; follow the prompts to allow the tool, or open it in a new tab or window. You may also add the tool to your browser’s list of trusted sites to allow cookies in the future.
Students receive excessive notifications when attendance is taken. In some cases, students receive excessive Canvas notifications to their phone or email each time attendance is marked or changed. If this is an issue, go to the Grades section of your site and set the Roll Call Attendance assignment to post grades manually. Alternatively, you may recommend that students adjust their Canvas notification settings to be less disruptive.
Get Help
If you have additional questions about using Roll Call, please reach out to your school’s instructional support providers or contact Canvas support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.
Last Updated: 6 Dec 2023