TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1 Overview
- 2 Set-up
- 3 Taking attendance
- 4 Students
- 5 Attendance managers
- 6 Absence percentage
- 7 Date filters on attendance reports
1 Overview
This article covers the attendance system that is connected to calendar events. It describes how teachers take and manage attendance, how students view their attendance records, and how attendance managers access attendance data across courses.
Attendance reporting must be enabled by an administrator before it can be used in a course. Once enabled, teachers can take attendance on calendar events either created manually or set up automatically via an integration.
2 Set-up
2.1 Enable attendance reporting
To take attendance for a course, attendance reporting must first be enabled by the administrator. To verify or enable it:
- Go to the course and click the three-dot menu (...), then select Settings.
- Under Manage Course setting, select Course properties and features.
- Ensure that Attendance reporting is enabled.
2.2 Create a timetable
Attendance is taken on calendar events. Calendar events can be set up automatically from an integration, or created manually.
To create events manually:
- Go to Calendar.
- Select Add event, or click at the appropriate time in the calendar view.
- Select to create an individual event or a recurring event.
- Ensure Take attendance for this event is enabled. This is selected by default if the course has attendance reporting enabled.
- Click Save.
You can also assign events to specific course groups. Attendance will then only be taken for members of those groups.
Note: Events created through the API always have "Take attendance for this event" enabled. Once attendance has been recorded for an event, it is not possible to change the course or course groups associated with that event.
3 Taking attendance
Attendance opens 15 minutes before the event starts. There are several places where you can start taking attendance — look for the attendance icon:
| Event list on Home Page | Event list on Course dashboard |
| Calendar | Attendance overview in courses |
Click the attendance icon to open the Take attendance window. By default, all students are marked as present, so you only need to mark those who are absent.
It is also possible to record partial absence if a student is only present for part of the event, by changing the number of missed minutes.
Once saved, the attendance icon changes to reflect the status. For example, 29/2 means 29 students present and 2 absent.
3.1 Attendance in the calendar
The calendar provides an overview of events together with attendance status. The attendance icon indicates:
- Events where attendance has not been taken
- Present/absent count for events where attendance has been recorded
- Events that are excluded from attendance (for courses where attendance is normally taken)
Click the attendance icon on any event to take attendance or make changes.
3.2 Attendance overview for a course
Teachers can find an overview of attendance for their courses by navigating to Course > Status and follow-up > Attendance. Events are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent events shown first. Click Next to view attendance for earlier events.
The attendance report can be filtered by date. When filtered, the table only includes events from the selected date range, and total absence is recalculated for that period.
3.3 Changing attendance for an event
There are two ways to change attendance for an event:
- Open the Take attendance window and change the status of the student.
- Click the corresponding cell in the attendance overview in courses.
3.4 Removing attendance for an event
Teachers can remove all attendance records for an event:
- Go to Course > Status and follow-up > Attendance.
- Click the dropdown icon on the column header for the event you want to clear, and select Remove all attendance. Attendance is now removed for all participants.
3.5 View attendance for a single student
From the attendance overview page, click on a student's name to see their detailed attendance record. This view shows the overall average and the status for each event. You can also change attendance for an event from this page.
The attendance report can be filtered by date. When filtered, total absence is automatically recalculated for the selected time period.
3.6 Student self-registration of presence
Teachers can allow students to self-register their presence for an event. This is particularly useful in higher education settings with large numbers of students.
Teachers can choose between taking attendance themselves or letting students register their own presence. This can be configured per event, and the default can be set under the Attendance reporting section of course settings.
When the Take attendance window is open, teachers get the option to enable self-registration for the current event. Once enabled, teachers can open a new tab displaying a registration code. The code can be displayed on a projector or monitor. The code changes every 30 seconds to reduce the risk of students sharing it remotely.
Students open the current event from their calendar (or anywhere in itslearning where the event is displayed), click Register Presence, and enter the code. They are then marked as present for the event. Teachers can view and override self-registered attendance as normal.
The following diagram shows the complete self-registration workflow:
4 Students
4.1 View attendance
Students can find their attendance information from the top right-hand menu by clicking on their profile image or name.
Click on Attendance record to see all courses for which attendance is being tracked.
Click on a course to open the detailed attendance report. The report can be filtered by date. When filtered, total absence is automatically recalculated for the selected time period.
4.2 Self-registering presence
Self-registration is only available for events where the teacher has enabled it. To self-register:
- Open the current event from the calendar or anywhere in itslearning where the event is displayed.
- Click Register Presence.
- Enter the registration code displayed by the teacher.
You are now marked as present for the event.
5 Attendance managers
Attendance managers can access attendance information from Admin > Attendance.
5.1 Attendance overview
The overview shows attendance across all courses where attendance reporting has been enabled. Archived courses are not included.
The Registered attendance column shows how many events have had attendance recorded. For example, 6 of 29 means that of the 29 events that have taken place so far, attendance has been taken for 6 events. A "taught" event is an event that is marked for attendance and has already taken place.
5.2 Course details
Click on a course to open the attendance overview for that course. Attendance managers have the same rights as teachers and can take and change attendance, view detailed attendance for a student, and see who the teacher is for the course.
5.3 Detailed view for a student
The attendance manager can check recorded attendance for any student in a course by clicking on the student's name. From this page, the attendance manager can also change attendance by clicking on an event.
6 Absence percentage
The absence percentage for a student in a course is calculated automatically based on past events only. Future events are not included in the calculation.
The formula is: Absence percentage = (minutes absent / minutes registered) × 100%
- Minutes absent is the sum of minutes from all events where the student was absent, taking partial absence into account.
- Minutes registered is the sum of minutes from all events recorded for the student. Records marked as Not set are not included.
6.1 Partial absence
Partial absence means that a student was absent for part of an event — for example, 1 hour in a 4-hour event. The absent time is counted as absent minutes, while the remaining time is counted as present.
Partial absence is marked with an hourglass icon. The number of partially absent minutes is displayed below the icon. Minutes are not shown if the student was absent for the entire event.
7 Date filters on attendance reports
All attendance reports can be filtered by date. This is useful for tracking attendance on courses that run over multiple semesters. By default, reports are shown without date filtering.
When date filters are used:
- Report tables only show events from the selected time period.
- If only a start date is entered, the report is filtered from the start date to today.
- If only an end date is entered, the report is filtered from the first event to the given date.
- Total absence percentage is recalculated using only the events from the selected time period.
- Total absence minutes and total registered minutes are recalculated for the selected time period (individual student reports).
More Help Resources
Have more questions? Please start with asking your school administrator.
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