Student Alert

[dking2]

Does the student who is marked absent (and who is using the Canvas app with alerts enabled) immediately get an alert that they have just been marked absent?  I teach a 6-hour series of Saturday classes and it seems like as soon as I take roll about 20-30 minutes later an "absent" student shows up.  I'm wondering if they see that they are being held accountable and so they scurry to show up.  Just a curiosity.

[KristinL]

Hi Donna -

Wonderful question! 

I am pretty sure that attendance sends an alert if a student has turned on notifications for graded items. (How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?) Unfortunately, I don't think that there is a way to separate Roll Call from other graded items. I know that some instructors choose to mute or hide the grade for this single assignment in the gradebook to eliminate the notification, but the 'nudge' could be really good for some students too.

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Just to follow up on what Kristin said; it's actually a grade notification since Roll Call Attendance is linked to the gradebook.  In addition to a notification they also will see a little dot next to Grades each time letting them know there is a new grade.  One thing I've noticed is that there tends to be a delay for grade notifications of about 20 minutes.  I don't think I've seen it documented, but in my own experimenting this is the case.  I only point it out here because of your comment about students showing up 20-30 minutes later.  That matches pretty close to my observed delay of grade notifications.

Rick