New analytics is a feature option that you can try turning on (or turning off if an admin turned it on for you already) in course settings. New analytics will have a delay to show results after a student's actions/views, and it will not show the entire semester, but I think it will break down student actions into a list of what pages they viewed or assignments they submitted. I haven't used new analytics, because I use analytics for real time responses to students, for which the delay gets in the way, and I also use it to identify the last day of participation for students who fail, which requires access to the whole semester.
It sounds like you are describing old analytics, and looking back at an old course, it does look like new quizzes might be recorded as a page view rather than an action. It is hard to tell, because old analytics does not break actions down into a list of what action was taken, and my quizzes are available to students for several days during which other actions are also expected of students. To use your quiz as attendance, scroll down below the table of page views and participations, and find the submission graph. Submissions are listed by due date from left to right. New quizzes will be recognized there, as will other assignments. On time submissions are green (present), missing submissions are red (absent) and late submissions are yellow with a line stretching out to the actual date of submission. Mousing over the green, red, or yellow icon displays a box with the assignment title, due date, submission date, and grade. If you give an individual student a revised due date, their icon will display on that date with nothing on the original date, and if you have assignments everyday for attendance purposes, you will see the gap followed by a stack of assignments due on the same day.
