Attendance - add an explanation / coment box?

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When takiing attendance you have the option of Present, Absent, or late or of course no selection at all.  When you view the individual students' attendance record,  all you get is a number. - let's say 90% attendance.  That Doesn't give an accurate representation. as to why the missed classes, and if the student had the option to make up missed work, or if missed work will relieve  0 points!

I feel, especially with Covid that we should have a comment box, to annotate why the student was absent?  I wont hold extenuating circumstances against my students.  (Covid confinement, hospitalization, etc.)  I don't want to just leave it blank, as we use attendance to endorse class and lab participation.

Also could there be a designation under the attendance tab of the type of class held. So when students note they missed 3 days, they may also note in the same instance what they missed, and if it can be made up?

I just looked under the student view, and the students don't get to see their attendance roster. It would be great if we had a comment box that they could read, under an attendance tab in their view.  They could look at the comments made in their absence, note what they missed, and if they can or cannot make up the work. 

Better student involvement in their class participation and better for assessment purposes. 

The comment box could be viewable by students, so they can reflect on their absence. 

 

 

5 Comments
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Open
 
beckster1999
Community Member

i like this idea! a classmate of mine gets a lot of absences due to cardiovascular issues, but she still communicates with the professor and gets the work done. Just looking at her absence percent wouldnt accurately say anything other than how many absences she has.
Also, similarly, potentially a way to have an "alternative" mark so if the student is absent but is there via zoom, facetime, etc or if they come in on a make-up day or do an assignment to make up for the missed class then it can say that

hvaughn
Community Contributor

When regularly scheduled classes are cancelled or unexpectedly do not meet for whatever reason, it would be helpful to have a way to annotate that in Roll Call. Marking all students present is inaccurate.  Marking all students with an X for unattended is also inaccurate.  Currently all we can do is not mark attendance for that date.  Problems occur when you try to remember several weeks later why a class session's attendance wasn't recorded.  Having an area in Roll Call tied to a specific date in which to notate an occurrence that resulted in a cancelled class (school holiday, snow day, hurricane day, electrical problems in the building, etc...) would be extremely helpful, especially later on in the term. 

Anyone else have this issue?  Has someone has figured out a workaround for this? Suggestions welcome. 🙂

 

steven_bianco
Community Explorer

I agree with the suggestion for the comment box to provide student information. It would also be nice to have an "Excused" status for some of the situations noted in the comments above. Those that are excused would still need to make up the work and not be penalized for being "Absent".

ProductPanda
Instructure
Instructure
Status changed to: Archived
Comments from Instructure

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