Canvas Attendance Setup
When the Attend LTI is first opened for a course from inside of Canvas you will be prompted with the Attendance Setup screen. If you are not or need to return to it later, then you can access it by selecting Attendance Setup from the top menu.
Your view of this screen may differ based on the settings enabled for your implementation globally. Some of these settings may be locked on and/or set to global defaults.
In many cases the welcome message on this screen will outline whether you need to make any changes to this page.
In most cases, if your timetable data is coming from Canvas, or an SIS, then the appropriate selection will have been made in this screen and locked.
- To import sessions from the Canvas course calendar, see “Import Canvas course calendar events”
- To import sessions in the background from your SIS (or other source), see “Import attendance sessions from student information system”
- To manually create a timetable for course section, see “Create empty section timetables (Advanced)”. This option would only be used if you have sections that have a different timetable per section.
- To manually create one course timetable inside of the aPlus+ LTI leave these three checkboxes unchecked and see “Manual Timetable Creation”
This selection will pull sessions from the Canvas Course Calendar.
Imported session weighting: This allows you to select how your sessions are weighted. There are 3 options:
- Equal sessions (1 point): Every session is treated equally regardless of session duration (this is the most common option)
- Hours duration (fractional): Sessions are weighted relative to their duration with no rounding.
- Hours duration (rounded up): Sessions are weighted relative to their duration, but are rounded up to the next hour. For example a 95 minute session would have a weighting of 2.
Specify import label filter: This allows you to specify filters in order to ensure that only sessions that you wish to record attendance for come through from the Canvas Calendar. For example, you may have sessions titled as “exam”, “tutorial” and “lecture”. You may wish to collect attendance for “Lecture” sessions only, and exclude the other sessions.
- Include all events: No filtering is applied.
- Only include events with matching labels: Sessions that do not match the Comma separated list of session labels will be excluded.
- Exclude events with matching labels: Sessions that do match the Comma separated list of session labels will be excluded.
Notes:
- It is important that sessions are created against the calendar for the course and not your personal Canvas Calendar. The course calendar is accessed via the course settings.
- Sessions can also be made specific to a course section in Canvas. Section specific sessions will be reflected in the aPlus+ LTI.
Merging timetables (advanced)
This setting should be used with care as it is not possible to undo without some manual clean-up of attendance.
If you course has multiple sections with separate timetables, and you would like to merge them ALL into a single timetable for the course then select this option.
Sessions will be imported automatically from your timetabling system. You will not need to do anything to create your sessions if this option is pre-set.
Imported session weighting: This allows you to select how your sessions are weighted. There are 3 options:
- Equal sessions (1 point): Every session is treated equally regardless of session duration (this is the most common option)
- Hours duration (fractional): Sessions are weighted relative to their duration with no rounding.
- Hours duration (rounded up): Sessions are weighted relative to their duration, but are rounded up to the next hour. For example a 95 minute session would have a weighting of 2.
Specify import label filter: This allows you to specify filters in order to ensure that only sessions that you wish to record attendance for come through from the Canvas Calendar. For example, you may have sessions titled as “exam”, “tutorial” and “lecture”. You may wish to collect attendance for “Lecture” sessions only, and exclude the other sessions.
- Include all events: No filtering is applied.
- Only include events with matching labels: Sessions that do not match the Comma separated list of session labels will be excluded.
- Exclude events with matching labels: Sessions that do match the Comma separated list of session labels will be excluded.
Merging timetables (advanced)
This setting should be used with care as it is not possible to undo without some manual clean-up of attendance.
If you course has multiple sections with separate timetables, and you would like to merge them ALL into a single timetable for the course then select this option.
This option should be used if you are planning to setup you meeting schedule manually and would like a single timetable/schedule for your course (even if there are multiple Canvas course sections).
If your Canvas course has a single Section:
If your Canvas course has multiple sections:
This option should be used if you are planning to setup you meeting schedule manually and would like a single timetable/schedule for each Canvas course section.
This step can be setup in the future if you prefer. Select “Record attendance as assignment grade”, then complete the setup as outlined in section Record Attendance as Assignment Grades.
An overview of the options is as follows:
- Proportional - Where the proportion of sessions attended vs sessions taught (to date), is applied against a point value for the attendance assignment.
- Rule Based Percentage Penalty of Total Grade (not compatible with weighted assignments in gradebook) - Where the instructor defines a set of attendance rules, which once breached, trigger a percentage penalty against the students’ total grade.
- Rule Based Absolute Points Penalty - Where the instructor defines a set of attendance rules, which once breached, trigger a point’s penalty against the student.
- Raw Points By Session Attended - Where the instructor can enter the number of sessions, and define the points value of attendance overall, meaning each session attended makes up a proportion of that attendance. Attendance is shown as a proportion of sessions attended, vs all sessions (not just the ones that have passed).
In some situations, you may want to grant permission to a Teaching Assistant to assist with attendance collection. Users assigned Teaching Assistant roles (or roles based on Teaching Assistant), can be added by selecting this option and then the teaching assistants that you would like to add.
Once you are happy with your selections, select “Apply”.
You can come back to these settings in the future and make changes as needed. Simply select “Attendance Setup"
