Creating selectbox grade items to take attendance

How do I create grade items to take attendance in D2L?

NOTE: Please see Starfish for Faculty and Staff webpage for information on how to maintain attendance in Starfish. Taking Attendance in D2L Grades as explained here does not impact recorded attendance in Starfish in any way.

Request I&TS copy an Attendance category and items into a course

Instructors may submit a help desk request to have an Attendance Grades category and a specific number of grade items/days copied into any D2L course shell. There is no need to create a Grade Category or Items as described here once you submit such a request. 

Contact the IT Help Desk to request copy of an Attendance Category to Grades in a D2L course. Provide to the IT Help Desk:

• your name
• the exact name of the course in D2L
• the semester under which the course may be found in D2L
• the number of grade items, equivalent to class sessions, for which you will be recording attendance.

To create an Attendance Category and an Item for each class session without assistance from I&TS:

Create an Attendance Grade Category

1. Click "Grades" in the navigation tool bar of your course
2. Click "Manage Grades" from the left hand menu.
3. Click blue "New" button
4. Select "Category"
5. Designate Category "Name" as "Attendance".
6. In a Weighted Grades setup
   1. Designate weight of Attendance Category, the weight of all class sessions combined in overall grade calculation. If you do not want the Attendance items to be calculated into the final grade set weight to "0", zero.
   2. Recommended: Select "Distribution" option to "Distribute weight evenly across all items".
7. In a Points Grades setup
   1. If you do not want the Attendance items to be calculated into the final grade check off option to "Exclude from Final Grade Calculation".
   2. Recommended: Fill in option to "Distribute points across all items". Then fill in number of points equivalent to a single class session.
8. Click "Save".

Create a Selectbox type grade item for each class session

1. Click "Grades" in the navigation tool bar of your course,
2. Click "Manage Grades" from the left hand menu.
3. Click blue "New" button
4. Select "Item".
5. Select "Selectbox" as Grade item type
6. Give item a "Name" of class session date or session number, 1, 2, 3 etc. 
7. Set Category dropdown to "Attendance"
8. Specify "Max Points", number of points achieved for single class session. Note: if you set "Distribution" when creating Category the Max Points field will be greyed out and you will be unable to edit the points manually.
9. Set Grade Scheme Dropdown to "Attendance Scheme"
10. Click "Save".
11. Repeat for each class session for which you will be recording attendance.

Take Attendance using a selectbox type grade item

1. Click "Grades" in the navigation tool bar of your course,
2. Click "Enter Grades" from the left hand menu.
3. Locate the column for the desired class session
4. Click the arrow next to the column/item title to select "Enter Grades"
5. For each student, set the dropdown in the "Grade" column to Present, Late or Absent
6. Click "Save and Close" button when done

Designate an excused absence for a student

1. Click "Grades" in the navigation tool bar of your course,
2. Click "Enter Grades" from the left hand menu.
3. Locate the column for the desired class session
4. Click the arrow next to the column/item title to select "Enter Grades"
5. For any student who should be excused from the class session
   1. Fill in the checkbox to the left of the student name
   2. Click "Exempt" from the options directly above the list of student names
6. Click "Save and Close" button when done