eCampus Attendance
- Cassandra Rinker
Instructors can use the eCampus attendance tool to record student attendance. Options include present, late, absent, or excused. The first time an instructor takes attendance, an attendance column is added to the Grade Center column. The attendance column displays the overall attendance grade and is continuously aggregated and updated whenever the instructor enters attendance for a new class meeting. The attendance column score can be incorporated into the student’s overall grade based on the instructor’s preference.
Set up attendance in eCampus
In eCampus, navigate to the Control Panel and select Course Tools then Attendance.
If you want to add attendance to the Grade Center, select Add Attendance to open the Settings panel.
In the Settings panel, the instructor can alter the default settings for the Late attendance value and the grading scale for the overall grade. Present and Absent percentages cannot be altered at this time.
Present: Set at 100%. Instructors can't change the percentage at this time.
Late: Default is set at 50%. Instructors can adjust the percentage in the Settings panel.
Absent: Set at 0%. Instructors can't change the percentage at this time.
Excused: Counts as Present for scoring purposes. Instructors can choose whether to include Excused in calculations.
Take attendance in eCampus
Select Course Tools from the eCampus Control Panel then select Attendance. By default, you’ll see the Meeting view for the current day even if you haven't finished marking attendance for a previous meeting. You can mark or edit attendance from the Meeting view or Overall view options in the attendance tool.
Meeting view
The Meeting view allows you to mark individual student or whole class attendance, and create or edit class meetings. Select the date column header to open a menu and perform these actions:
Clear all student attendance for a meeting.
Choose another attendance status for all students. Note: If you mark all students with the same status and want to change it to another status, you’ll receive an override confirmation.
Exempt a meeting.
Edit a meeting.
Delete a meeting.
View the Meetings for eCampus Attendance page for more information about creating or editing meetings.
Overall View
The Overall view allows you to mark attendance, view attendance history and class summary statistics, and create new meetings. The most recent meeting that needs to be marked appears on the right side of the screen. The column is purple until the instructor marks attendance for all students. Instructors can use the menu in a column heading to mark all students present or absent. Then, they can change individual students' statuses from their cells as needed.
The Overall view displays course summary statistics about student attendance:
Course average displayed
Perfect attendance
Average or above average attendance (students with perfect attendance are included)
Below average attendance
If a student has only excused records, no records at all, or is removed from the course, the student's attendance isn't included in the course summary statistics. The number of students listed for each statistic might not equal the total student count.
If every student has an attendance record, the average/above average and below average statistics add up to all students.
View attendance in the eCampus Grade Center
Instructors can view attendance in the Grade Center, but can only mark attendance from the Overall or Meeting View of the attendance tool. Students' accumulative attendance scores always appear out of 100 points. You can’t delete the Attendance column, but it can be hidden from view.
The attendance column is added automatically to the attendance category, but you can change the category on the Edit Column page.
You can perform most of the same actions on the attendance column as other columns. For example, you can add a display name, change the settings, such as Primary Display, and use attendance in calculations.
Open a cell's menu and select Grade User Activity to view a summary of a student's overall attendance records. You can see how many class meetings the student has missed. Each student's Overall Score appears with the schema the instructor chooses in the attendance Settings panel. This view is read-only. At the bottom of the screen, select Return to Grade Center to return to the grid.
View eCampus Attendance Records and Reporting for information about exporting attendance data.
Known issues
Though instructors can edit students' overall attendance grades from their grade cells in the Grade Center, no changes appear for any meetings they have already marked. If a student was present for all meetings and the instructor edits the student's attendance grade cell and changes 100 to 75, 75 becomes the overall attendance grade. When the instructor opens attendance, 75 appears as the overall grade, yet the student was present for all meetings. It is recommended to make changes to individual meetings to change a student's overall score.
The attendance column will carry over to any course it is copied to, however, if the attendance tool is opened in the destination, then it will have two attendance columns. The instructor will need to delete the attendance column that was copied to avoid confusion. In the course grade center, open the menu for the extra attendance column and select Delete Column. The attendance column that is correctly associated with the destination course can only be deleted if all students’ attendance records are removed first.
The attendance tool in the current eCampus version is not displayed when using the Blackboard Learn App.
Resources
Blackboard attendance guides