Table of contents
NOTE: Users may experience performance issues with the Attendance (Roll Call) tool when courses contain over 2,000 students.
What is the Attendance (Roll Call) Tool?
Starting July 18, 2024, the Attendance (Roll Call) Tool will be made available in ELMS-Canvas. The Attendance (Roll Call) tool is an external app (LTI) used for taking attendance in Canvas courses. The Attendance (Roll Call) tool can be used for online or face-to-face courses.
NOTE: According to University of Maryland policy, attendance many not be used in the computation of students' grades. If you choose to use the Attendance (Roll Call) tool, you must edit the settings within the tool to exclude from students' final grades. For details, see Exclude from Final Grade.
Is the Attendance (Roll Call) tool right for me?
Note: The Attendance tool always appears as a visible Course Navigation link for instructors, but it cannot be viewed by students. Hiding the link in Course settings is not necessary.
If you are NOT interested in this tool
- If you do not want to use the attendance tool in your course, no action is required.
If you ARE interested in this tool
- Reasons for using this tool could be:
- to let students know that you recognize when they attend class, are tardy, or miss class.
- to communicate with a student that an absence has been marked as excused or unexcused.
- If you do use the Attendance tool, you must Exclude it from Final Grade.
- While attendance may not be used in the computation of students' grades, be sure to review our considerations when editing the attendance assignment.
- Students can view their attendance report through the Roll Call Attendance assignment submission details page.
How do I view or manage students in course sections in Attendance (Roll Call)?
To view or manage your students in ELMS-Canvas course sections:
- Open your course in ELMS-Canvas.
- Select the Attendance link in the Course Navigation [1].
- Select the section selector from the top left corner of the tool. You will see at least two sections. The class section is for the instructor and the instructor will not be visible in this tool. The other sections listed are the sections in your course that have students.
What is the difference between Class and List?
Class has a grid to be able to place students where they are in the in-person course. List shows a list of all of the students in your course.
Exclude from final grade
To exclude the Attendance (Roll Call) assignment form the final grade review this article and follow the steps below:
- Open your course in ELMS-Canvas.
- Select the Attendance link in the Course Navigation [1].
- Select the Settings icon, then select the Roll Call Settings button [2].
- Select Do not count attendance toward final grade checkbox.
Editing the Roll Call Attendance Assignment
NOTE: Once you have changed the assignment to Not Graded, you cannot change it back to a graded assignment. If you have already taken attendance once and then decide to no longer use the tool, change the status of the Attendance assignment to unpublished. Do not rename or delete the Roll Call Attendance assignment.
- After the first time you take Roll Call, Canvas automatically creates an assignment for Roll Call Attendance and adds a column to the Gradebook.
- By default, the Roll Call Attendance assignment is worth 100 points. To change the point value, review the Change Point Value, article.
- To remove the Attendance Roll Call Tool from the grade book, Remove from Gradebook.
Resources
To learn more about the Attendance (Roll Call) Tool, review the articles below: