Moodle -
Attendance activity as a involving tool

With the Attendance activity, the teacher can collect participant lists on their course. The students can also see their own participation information on the Attendance list. The teacher can create several participation lists and mark students as "Present", "Absent", "Late" or "Excused" status or modify these statuses as desired in the activity settings. The activity also offers a downloadable report either for all participants or for a specific group. 

The Attendance activity can be added to a Moodle course by turning on Edit mode and selecting “Add an activity or resource”.  Using the activity requires the teacher to remember to add a new participant list to each lesson, which includes the time of the lesson (date and time) and a description of the topic of the lesson. Of course, the teacher can make several participant lists at once. After this, the teacher can allow the student to update their own status during the lesson. This can make the teacher's job easier.

Through the settings, you can also choose, for example, from recording attendance in advance, updates, passwords and QR codes, etc., but I have tried to keep tracking and recording as simple and as clear as possible.

With Moodle's Attendance activity, the teacher can collect data on students' participation in teaching. The activity is also very suitable for encouraging student commitment to the course, by reminding students of the importance of participation and marking it. The activity also makes it easy to monitor the inactivity of students who are at risk of failing the course.

As a teacher, I have used attendance monitoring especially in courses where attendance is required. In this case, the teacher’s supervisory responsibility for organizing the course in accordance with regulations has also been fulfilled. I have also organized additional teaching sessions to supplement the absences for students who, despite the absences, want to complete the course in accordance with the requirements.

I myself have renamed the activity "Teaching participation", because I think it describes participation better than "Attendance". In my experience, the activity has been helpful in supporting students and encouraging them to commit to the course from the beginning to the end.

Hannu Heikkilä, lecturer, SAK, Oamk, 21.3.2024