Using Attendance Tool

The Attendance (Roll Call) tool is an external app (LTI) used for taking attendance in Canvas courses. The Attendance tool can be used for online or face-to-face courses. Enabled at the account level, the Roll Call Attendance tool can be used by all courses in the Canvas account.

The Attendance tool always appears as a visible Course Navigation link, but it cannot be viewed by students, so hiding the link in Course Settings is not necessary. If instructors do not want to use the Attendance tool in their courses, no action is required. However, if you do use the Attendance tool, students can view their attendance report through the Roll Call Attendance submission details page.

What is the Attendance Tool?

With the Attendance tool, instructors can keep track of course attendance by taking roll electronically. Instructors can choose to view the tool in a list or grid format and can customize the placement of each student in the seating chart.

View Attendance Assignment

When you take attendance using Roll Call, Canvas automatically adds Attendance as an assignment. The default point value for attendance is 100 points.

To avoid Attendance calculation errors, never delete, rename, or unpublish the Attendance assignment.

Note: Although students cannot view the actual attendance tool, they can still view the attendance assignment in the Assignments page. This assignment cannot be hidden from students.

Take Attendance

The status set for each student is associated with a percentage value. Statuses include present and on time, not present, late, and unmarked (excused absence).

The Attendance tool also creates an assignment in the Gradebook and calculates attendance as a percentage of a student's grade.

View Lateness Value

By default, the value of being late is 80% of the present value. So if a student is late, the student will receive 80% for the day instead of the full 100%. The late value can be adjusted in Roll Call settings.

View Gradebook Scores

View Grade Book Scores Image

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.

Note: Although students cannot view the actual attendance tool, if you are using attendance for grading, they can still view their attendance score in their Grades page and view their attendance report. Attendance notifications can also be hidden by muting the assignment, which will prevent the assignment from triggering notifications.

Export Attendance Data

Export Attendance Data Image

At both the account and course levels, the Attendance tool allows users to create attendance reports.

Note: Admins can also filter reports by SIS Course ID.

Create and Manage Badges

Create and Manage Badges Image 1

At the account level, admins can create and manage badges used in the Attendance Tool.

Create and Manage Badges Image 2

At the course level, any badges added by a Canvas admin automatically appear for the course. However, instructors can also create additional badges for their course as needed.

How do I use the Attendance Tool?

Open Attendance

In Course Navigation, click the Attendance link.

Note: The Attendance link does not display to students, so you do not need to hide this link in the Navigation tab within Course Settings.

Edit Roll Call Settings

You can adjust the settings for Roll Call and adjust the lateness value. By default, Canvas marks a lateness as worth 80% of a presence. For example, a student with one presence (100%) and one lateness (80%) will have an average attendance score of 90%.

To edit Roll Call settings, click the Settings icon [1], then click the Roll Call Settings button [2].

View Lateness Value

View Lateness Value Image

To specify your preferred value of lateness, move the slider bar.

Create Seating Chart

Creating Seating Chart Image

When your course is published and students have accepted course invitations, you can create a seating chart Links to an external site. in the Class view.

Manage Badges

When your course is published and students have accepted course invitations, you can use a student to manage badges Links to an external site. in your course. Any badges added at the account level will automatically display as badges in your course. You can add additional badges for your course before you begin taking roll call.

Change Attendance Value

If you want to change the value of Attendance in your course, or if you want to remove Attendance from the Gradebook completely, currently you must take roll call for at least one student before you can make any changes in Roll Call.

Three Tips for Using Attendance Tool

In Canvas Links to an external site., the Attendance (Roll Call) tool allows instructors to record their students' attendance and automatically adds a "Roll Call Attendance" column to the Gradebook. The Attendance (Roll Call) tool is hidden by default.

To add a hidden tool to your course navigation menu:

In your course navigation menu, click Settings.
On the Navigation tab, in the list of hidden tools (under "Drag items here to hide them from students"), find the desired tool, and then click the corresponding Settings (gear) icon.
Select Enable and, if desired, drag and drop the enabled tool to change its position in the tool list.
Click Save.
For details on enabling and using this tool, consult the Attendance (Roll Call) guides Links to an external site. in the Canvas Guides.

Tip #1: Do not rename or remove the assignment named "Roll Call Attendance".

The Attendance tool will only send grades to the item named "Roll Call Attendance". If an item by this name does not exist, Canvas will create a new assignment and gradebook column named "Roll Call Attendance". If you accidentally renamed the "Roll Call Attendance" column, to correct the problem:
1. Mute both assignments, the original renamed item and the new "Roll Call Attendance" item.
2. Delete the original assignment, leaving only the item named "Roll Call Attendance". The scores for this item may be inaccurate at this time; however, it will be updated to include all previous attendance scores once a new score is recorded via the Attendance tool.
3. Take attendance via the Attendance tool at your next class. All scores will be updated based on the new point value.
4. Unmute the assignment so your students can see their attendance scores.
Tip #2: Set the point value for the "Roll Call Attendance" assignment before you use the Attendance tool.

If you change the point value after you take attendance for the first time, attendance grades will continue to reflect the original point value. To correct this problem:
1. Mute the gradebook item for the assignment named "Roll Call Attendance".
2. Change the points of the "Roll Call Attendance" assignment to the desired point value. Grades will not reflect the new point value until you take attendance as described in the next step.
3. Take attendance via the Attendance tool at your next class. All scores will be updated based on the new point value.
4. Unmute the new assignment so your students can see their attendance scores.
Tip #3: Do not set the point value to zero if you want the assignment to be ungraded.

If you wish to use the attendance tool but don't want to affect students' grades, it's better to explicitly make the "Roll Call Attendance" assignment ungraded than to change the point value to zero. If you set the point value to zero, the assignment will still appear in the gradebook, but if you make it ungraded, it will not. To make the assignment ungraded:
1. In the Assignments tool, click Roll Call Attendance.
2. In the top right, click Edit.
3. Check the box next to Do not count this assignment towards the final grade.
4. Click Save.