- Do I need to take attendance?

Overview of Expectations

Teachers who are utilizing PLI's Canvas LMS are obligated to record student attendance every day that class meets, unless another attendance method is requested by the district. By utilizing Canvas, teachers can conveniently mark students present or absent, providing a reliable record for administrative purposes on both PLI's and the district's end. This feature not only streamlines the process but also enhances transparency and accountability in monitoring student participation and engagement within the PLI LMS environment.

Where is Attendance kept in my course?

Course Navigation

You can access Attendance in the lefthand menu of each course in Canvas.

Roll Call Attendance

The first time you take attendance in a course, an assignment will pop up in your Assignments tab labeled Roll Call Attendance. You can access the Attendance tool this way (although it's more work than just going to the tab in the Navigation menu). It's very important that you never rename or delete this assignment; If you do, all previous attendance recordings you took will be deleted.

Depending on how your school does things, you may or may not want their attendance records to count towards the student's grades. You may be asked to toggle on the option "Do not count this assignment towards the final grade" in the assignment settings, assign a due date, and so on. Check your school's Reference Sheet or reach out to your TLS to learn what would be best for your specific situation.

How to record attendance

Recording attendance is relatively simple in Canvas's Attendance tool. To quickly mark a student present, absent, or late, click the circle icon to the left of their name until the correct one shows.

The green checkmark means "present."

The red x means "absent."

The yellow clock means "late."

The gray no symbol means "unmarked." This is the default option, and means the day doesn't count.

If everyone is present, you can quickly mark all of them by selecting Mark All Present. This is also a good option to select if most students are present; You can then toggle the handful who are absent afterward.