Roll Call Attendance allows you to take and grade attendance right within Canvas.

Set Up Roll Call Attendance

To enable Roll Call Attendance, go to the desired course and click on the Settings section.

Open Settings

Select the Navigation tab.

Open Navigation

Click on the Gear icon next to Attendance. Select Enable. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Attendance tool into the enabled list.

Once the Roll Call Attendance tool is enabled, go to the desired course and click on the Attendance section. This section only appears to teachers, not students.

Open Attendance

Click on the Gear icon, then Roll Call Settings. Adjust the grade percentage that is given to students who arrive late.

Edit Value of Lateness

Take Roll

To take roll, go to the Attendance section of your course.You can view your class as a list (1) or as a seating chart (2).

View Attendance

Go to the desired date by using the arrows (1) or the calendar icon (2).

Switch to a Different Date

Check the circle next to each person's name to indicate attendance (1). A green check mark indicates that the student was present and on time. A red X indicates that the student was absent. An orange check mark means that the student was late to class. You can also mark all as present (2) or unmark all (3) to start over.

Take Attendance

Grade Attendance Using Roll Call

After the first time you take roll, Roll Call Attendance is given its own assignment group under the Assignments Section. You can edit the point value and move Roll Call into another assignment group if you wish.

Create Weighted Assignment Group

Change the weight of attendance by clicking on the Gear icon and adjusting the percentage weight (2). If you do not want the grades from Roll Call Attendance to count towards the final grade and wish to use it merely as a guide, get the weight to be 0%. Then click Save (3).

Edit and Save Percentage Value

Attendance is automatically graded as a percentage in the Gradebook as you use the Roll Call tool. You can mute the assignment to hide the attendance grade from students in their Gradebook.

Mute Attendance Assignment

You can download individual attendance grades by going to Attendance, clicking on the Gear icon, and selecting Attendance Report.

You can filter the report by date (1) and/or choose to only download a report for a specific student by entering their SIS student ID (2). The report will be sent to you via email (3).

Enter Report Criteria

Students can access their Attendance reports by going to the Gradebook and clicking on the Roll Call Attendance assignment. They will see the first date that the instructor took attendance in the course (1), an overview of their attendance record (2) in graph form and a graph key (3). Their total score (4) and a list of dates they were absent or late is also shown.

Guides

What is the Roll Call Attendance tool?

How do I configure the Roll Call Attendance tool?

How do I create a Roll Call seating chart?

How do I take roll call using the Attendance tool?

How do I edit the Roll Call Attendance Assignment?

How is Roll Call Attendance graded in Canvas?

How do I run Roll Call Attendance reports?

How do students view their Roll Call Attendance reports?

For more information on Roll Call Attendance, click here.