Please note, we do not recommend using this Canvas tool if you are teaching a large class of more than 50 students given the amount of time it will require for you to take attendance during class time.

Roll Call Attendance and Badges

You can use the Canvas attendance (Roll Call) tool to take attendance and post attendance grades into Canvas grades directly. Here are some items to keep in mind when using the Canvas Roll Call tool.

1. You will have to take attendance separately for each cross-listed section. 
2. Taking attendance will add a grade column in Canvas Grades with the following scores: Present = 100, Late = 80, Absent = 0
3. You may adjust the attendance assignment if you would like to assign different scores. Be sure to go back and retake attendance again if you adjust the assignment after using Roll Call Attendance.
4. You cannot leave students “unmarked.” For a large class, you would want to use the MARK ALL PRESENT button, and then go and mark the ones that are absent or late individually. (Keeping in mind this would have to be done individually for each cross-listed section.) 
5. If you want to excuse a student from class (thus not giving them a zero for the day) put EX in the grade book for that day’s attendance. 

You may also use it for First Day Attendance, but keep in mind it will not connect directly to Campus Solutions. You will still need to access the Attendance Roster Tool in Campus Solutions to enter first day attendance status.

You may also want to use the Badge feature in Canvas Roll Call to keep track of student classroom performance. Assigning badges through the Roll Call tool can help you keep track of which students are participating in class, and which ones are not. 

Before you assign a badge, consider this caveat:

• You can create your own badge labels and assign them to students, but an export of the attendance report will not include these badge assignments. If you would like a report of badges, they must be created at the sub-account (department) level.Only badges created at the sub-account level show on the attendance report. To view badges you have created at the course level, you would have to check each student on each day individually to see what badges you assigned to them. We suggest you enable badges for your department.

How to enable badges for your department

Badges can indicate both good and poor performance in class. The first step would be for your department to decide what badges they would like to have in place. Examples may be:

• Good Particpation
• Poor Particpation
• Leader in Groups
• Disengaged During Group Work
• On Phone
• Attentive in Class

After your department has decided what to name the badges, your Canvas "Sub-account Administrator" will can create these for your department or college. If you do not have a Canvas Sub-account Administrator, contact us and we can add them to your sub account.

Assigning badges

Remember, badges you add at the course level will not show up in the attendance report, so only use the badges created at the sub-account level.

 How to run an attendance report 

1. Go to Attendance in the course menu. 
2. Click on the gear icon at the top-right and select Attendance Report from the dropdown menu. 
   Choose the dates when you want to run the attendance report, check that the email where you want to send the report is correct, and then press the Run Report button at the bottom-right. You will receive an email momentarily from [email protected] labeled "Roll Call."
3. Click on the link provided in the email to download the spreadsheet. (Note: This link is only valid for 24 hours. You can always run another copy by going back into the Attendance menu and running a report for the same time frame.)
4. You will need to run a separate report for each cross-listed section.