Brightspace: Attendance
Brightspace's attendance tool tracks multiple types of attendance in one course. Please note: The tool does not tie directly in with the grade book.
Accessing Attendance
Go to the course and click on the Students & Grades option in the course navigation. From there, click on Attendance.
The attendance tool in Brightspace has two elements to it:
The first is schemes: et up the means for evaluation i.e. present, late, dismissed, absent, etc.
The second element is the register: set up entries to track i.e. weekly attendance vs. daily sessions, etc.
Schemes
On the Attendance page, select Attendance Schemes. By default, the System Scheme will be enabled, which is set up as Present is equal to 100% while Absent is set to 0%.
To make a new scheme, select the New Scheme button.
Give the scheme a name
Add the options for present, absent, excused, etc. in the Attendance Status table. For each status, add a symbol, status full name, assigned percentage, and order.
Click the Add Status link to get a single additional status, or type in the number of additional needed status options to the right, then click the Add Status link.
Click Save and on the next screen, Close. Go back to the Attendance Schemes page.
Attendance Registers
Attendance registers create and organize sessions to take attendance.
Click on Attendance Registers in the top left
Click on the New Register button
Give the register a name and add an optional description
Set the scheme. Select the scheme created above or choose the default
Set the cause for concern, which helps to track learners that fail to meet attendance requirements by placing the Cause for Concern icon beside their names on the Attendance Data page.
Set the visibility, which allows students to see (or not) see the register
Select the users to show up in this register
Set the sessions. This might be session 1, 2, 3, etc. or 1/11, 1/13, 1/18, 1/20, etc.
To add more sessions, click Save at the bottom of the page to create the register. Then, enter the number of additional sessions to add in the box to the right of the Add Sessions blue text. Then, click the Add Sessions link. Add in the additional sessions.
Click Save. Then, click close.
Using the Attendance Tool
On the Attendance Register page, click on the name of the register created above
From there, click on the pencil/chart icon to the right of the name of the session. Click on it and go to a page with a list of students and the ability to update their status for the session. Go through and update the statuses then click Save. Once it saves, click close.
After clicking close, go back to the attendance data for the whole course. This window will show the amount of each status for each student as well as their overall percentage of attendance. This will adjust each time attedance updates.
