The Attendance tool in eConestoga can be used to track your students’ class attendance over time, then view each student’s rate of attendance throughout the semester.

Part 1: Create an Attendance Scheme

The first thing you will need to configure is your Attendance Scheme, which determines the range of “attendance statuses” you’re interested in tracking for your class. For example, a very simple Attendance Scheme might only track Present and Absent, while a more complex scheme might track Present, Absent, Late, Left Early, and/or Excused Absence.

To create a new Attendance Scheme:

1. Go to Course Tools -> Attendance.
2. Open the Attendance Schemes tab at the top.
3. Click New Scheme.

For each status in your scheme, you will need to specify:

• Symbol - An abbreviation code for the status, usually one or two characters (e.g. “P”).
• Status Full Name - The full label for the status (e.g. “Present”).
• Assigned % - What percentage of a full attendance does this status represent? E.g., Present should be 100% and Absent should be 0%; Late might be 75% or 50%, depending on how concerning student lateness is for you. There is no “correct” value for these percentages; ultimately they will only be used to determine an overall attendance rate for each student, so use whichever numbers feel right to you.
• Order - Set the order in which the statuses should be listed when you assign attendance for the week.

By default, you will be presented three slots for statuses; if you need more, type the number you need in the box at the bottom and then click Add Statuses.

Once you’re satisfied with your Attendance Scheme, click Save at the bottom.

Part 2: Create an Attendance Register

Next, you’ll need to create an Attendance Register, which is a list of meetings for which you’ll be tracking attendance.

1. Go to Course Tools -> Attendance.
2. Click New Register at the top.
3. Fill out the following fields:
   1. Name
   2. Attendance Scheme - Choose the name of the Scheme you set up earlier
   3. Cause for Concern - Related to the “Assigned %” setting configured earlier. The system will track a student’s aggregate attendance based on the number of Present/Absent/Late/etc. statuses you assigned them. Then, you can have the system provide you a list of students who fell below the Cause for Concern threshold.
4. Specify the Sessions you wish to track.
   1. Before entering any other information, set up the number of Sessions you wish to have in your register. Three are provided; determine how many more you want, and type that number into the “Add Sessions” field. Then, click the Add Sessions link to add that many additional sessions to your Register.
   2. Once you have the correct number of Sessions, enter a Name for each one. Note that Attendance Registers are “permanent” content that copies between semesters, so we recommend using a more generic label (e.g., “Week 3”) rather than a date-specific one (e.g., “February 3rd”) to avoid needing to update the labels every semester.
5. Once you’re finished, click Save at the bottom.

Part 3: Track Attendance

Once your Register is set up, you can now track attendance for your class.

1. Go to Course Tools -> Attendance.
2. Click the name of your Attendance Register.
3. You will see a large table with your Classlist down the left side, and the list of Sessions in your Register across the top. In the top row, beside the week for which you’d like to track attendance, click the Pencil icon.
4. You will be taken to a screen where you can set the attendance status for each student in your class.
   1. Tip: Since most of your class should usually be Present, you can save some time by clicking Set Status for All Users at the top to set everyone as Present, and then only change the status for individual users who were absent or late.
5. When you’re finished, click Save at the bottom.