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.
To locate Roll Call Attendance in the Canvas site for your course, click Attendance from the left-side navigation menu. The screen displays a roster of all enrolled 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 as Teachers or TAs can mark and view attendance for all students. Users enrolled as Students can only view their own attendance records. Students cannot mark themselves present in class.
Teachers and TAs can also generate attendance reports by clicking the Settings wheel in the upper right corner, then clicking Attendance Reports. Reports can be generated for an entire course or filtered to include only specific dates and students. Running a report will send a CSV file to your email.
Using Roll Call Attendance
We recommend reviewing the section below before using Roll Call Attendance to ensure it suits your needs.
Attendance & grades
Roll Call calculates students’ attendance grades by averaging all dates on which attendance is marked for that student. If there is a date in the calendar when you did not take attendance for a particular student, it is excluded from their calculation. Each time you take attendance, the entry for the new date is factored into the average, and students’ scores in the gradebook are adjusted 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 & grading category
By default, the attendance assignment is worth 100 points in a grading category called “Attendance.” To modify it, select Assignments from the navigation menu and locate Roll Call Attendance. Click the three dots, then Edit. In the assignment editor, 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 on the assignment editing page described above and check the box for Do not count this assignment toward the final grade.
Set partial credit amount 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 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 provide notes or comments to yourself or other instructional team members. Students cannot view their attendance badges. To create a badge, view the roster in list format 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 is available to add to any student on any date within the same course. Existing badges appear below the student’s attendance options. 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 excludes the date from the student’s attendance grade calculation, 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 Attendance tool. Below are solutions and workarounds for known issues.
Browsers blocking pop-ups or cookies
Some browsers try to prevent Roll Call from launching. If you 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 enable cookies in the future.
Students receive excessive notifications when attendance is taken
Students may receive excessive Canvas notifications on their phones or emails each time attendance is marked. If you encounter this issue, go to Grades 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.
Attendance scores don’t update
Try the following steps to clear the tool’s cache:
- Click Attendance in the navigation menu.
- Click the Settings wheel in the top right corner.
- Select Roll Call Settings.
- Adjust ”A Lateness counts as what percent of a presence?” from your selected percentage to be 100%.
- Refresh your browser.
- Change ”A Lateness counts as what percent of a presence?” from 100% back to your selected percentage.
- Refresh your browser again.
- When you return to the Gradebook, the grades should be updated.
Additional Resources
Getting Help
Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.