Getting Started with aPlus+ Attendance in Canvas (Instructors)

Course Calendar Events

If you want events on your calendar for this course to show on the aPlus+ timetable, check the Import Canvas calendar events box on the aPlus+ Attendance setup screen.

Canvas Course Assignment Due Dates as Events

Check Import Canvas course assignment due dates as events on the aPlus+ setup screen to populate your course assignments as attendance sessions on an aPlus+ timetable. Any assignment that you add to the Canvas course (outside of aPlus+) will sync with the aPlus+ timetable as long as a due date is set. 

Once you check that box, an additional setting to count the submissions toward attendance for that day appears (Import Canvas assignment submissions as attendance). 

With Import Canvas assignment submissions as attendance checked, students will be automatically marked as attended for that session when they submit the assignment. 

Once a student successfully submits, their status will show as a green "Submission" (if they submitted on time): 

Canvas Course Quiz Due Dates as Events

You can also set quizzes (as long as they have due dates) to sync on the aPlus+ timetable. To take this a step further, if you want to create a quiz that only in-person attendees will know about for that day, you can check the box to Import Canvas quiz submissions as attendance, which will then mark them with the "Submission" status in aPlus+:

Imported Session Weighting

Typically, each attendance session will be equally weighted for the purposes of grading (see Record Attendance as Assignment Grades), but you can change this on the aPlus+ setup screen via the Imported session weighting dropdown:

• 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.
• Equal sessions (1 point): Every session is treated equally regardless of session duration. This is the recommended setting.

Merge Multiple Section Calendars into One

Most faculty will decide to have attendance timetables specific to each course section, but merging multiple section calendars into one calendar is possible. 

Record Attendance as Assignment Grades

Anything that is counted towards attendance on an aPlus+ timetable -- whether a calendar event, quiz, assignment, or just a basic session that's either imported or manually added -- can be synced with the Canvas gradebook. However, please note that this can only exist as one assignment in Canvas. 

Click the box next to Record attendance as assignment grades on the aPlus+ setup screen and some more settings will appear:

This one assignment will calculate as an aggregate attendance score based on the specific calculations you configure via the Calculations dropdown menu:

• Record attendance proportionally - The proportion of sessions attended vs. sessions taught (to date), is applied against a point value for the attendance assignment.
  • Example: If a student attends 8 out of 10 sessions and the total attendance points available is 100, the student would earn 80 points (8/10 x 100).
• Penalty Rules - percentage impact on final grade (not compatible with weighted assignments in gradebook) - The instructor defines a set of attendance rules and once these are breached, this triggers a percentage penalty against the student's total grade. The attendance column sent to the gradebook is set to zero, so attendance does not affect students unless they breach an attendance rule.
  • Example: If a student misses more than 3 classes, a 5% penalty is applied to their total grade. If the student's total grade was 90%, it would be reduced to 85%.
• Penalty Rules - points impact on weighted attendance (compatible with weighted assignments in gradebook) - The instructor defines a set of attendance rules and once these are breached, this triggers a point penalty against the student. The attendance column sent to the gradebook can be set to any point value, including 0. This gives the instructor the flexibility of giving positive points to a student based on attendance, as well as the option of only applying negative attendance points to the grades when a penalty is involved.
  • Example: If a student is late more than 5 times, a penalty of 10 points is applied. If the student's total attendance points were 85, it would be reduced to 75.
• Record attendance as raw points - The instructor can enter the number of sessions and define the point value of attendance overall so that each session attended makes up a proportion of that attendance. The attendance is shown as a proportion of sessions attended vs. all sessions (not just the ones that have passed).
  • Example: If there are 20 total sessions and attendance is worth 100 points, each session is worth 5 points (100/20). If a student attends 15 sessions, they would earn 75 points (15 x 5).

Select Additional Instructor Users

You can grant aPlus+ access to other Canvas users on the aPlus+ setup screen. You can only grant access to Canvas users that have the Teaching Assistant role (or roles based on it) in your course.

To grant access:

1. Log into your Canvas course.
2. Click aPlus Attendance on the course navigation.
3. Check the box next to Select additional instructor users.
   
4.  Canvas users with the proper permissions in your course will be listed. Check the box next to all that you want to add.
5. Click Apply.

Statuses

"Status" refers to a student's different states of attendance (e.g. Attended, Absent, etc). There are a number of preset statuses within aPlus+ that can be applied to attendance sessions. In order to manually change a status, you will need to click on that day's session, which will then take you to a high-level view of that particular section timetable's student attendance statuses:

You, as the instructor, can select the status dropdown to make changes, supply comments specific to each student or as a general session comment seen by all, and also apply one status to all students by selecting the dropdown shown in the top left of the screenshot shown below:

After you make any changes here, remember to click the blue Save button.

To return to the Students tab after making any manual changes, select the blue timetable link in the upper left corner (in the screenshot above, this is Section 006).

Some options that exist for each session include:

• Enter Attendance: Click directly on the session to return to the same manual attendance entry screen depicted in the "Statuses" section of this article (above):
• Edit Session: Click on the dropdown arrow directly next to the timetable session in order to make any changes to the session date/time, location, duration, label (session name), and attendance weighting:
  

For details about additional options, please view the aPlus+ Canvas instructor guide's Session View article linked here.

Adding sessions

Although your sessions will typically already be populated and ready to go before a semester starts, you do have the ability to manually add any ad hoc sessions after the fact by selecting the Add sessions link shown below:

The timetable wizard allows you to create a single session or repeating sessions.

• Date: The date of the session or start date of a repeating pattern. This will default to the course start date.
• Time: The start time of the session. This is important if you are using code-based check-in.
• Repeat: The repeating session pattern (if applicable). You may need to come back into the wizard for more complex repeating schedules.
• Location: This can be left as default in most cases but is editable. 
• Label: Optional name for the session(s) being created.
• Attendance Weighting: Can be left as default unless you are setting up sessions that are weighted uniquely by session.

Click Validate to continue, and the system will show how many sessions will be created. After validation, click Create Sessions, and your sessions will be created.

For more information about reporting, please read the aPlus+ Canvas instructor guide's Course Attendance Reports article.

The available code options (and Button Click, which does not require the instructor to project anything, so is easily gameable by students) are shown below:

• Button Click: Students select a submit button within an allowed time window. There is no code required. Not recommended.
• Static Code: Students enter a session-specific alphanumeric code within an allowed time window.
• Rolling Code: Students enter a rolling code that changes every few seconds while the rolling code screen is shown.
• Static QR Code: Students use their device camera to scan a static QR code within an allowed time window.
• Rolling QR Code: Students use their device camera to scan a rolling QR code while the rolling QR screen is shown.
• Static Code or QR Code: Students enter the static code or use their device camera to scan the static QR code within an allowed time window.
• Rolling Code or QR Code: Students enter the rolling code or use their device camera to scan the static QR code while the rolling code/QR code is shown. This is the recommended option.

The most commonly used code option is the Rolling Code or QR Code. This way, students can choose one or the other if they encounter any issues with their device camera.

Once the desired code option is chosen, click the blue Start Rolling Code/QR button:

The rolling code is displayed. This page can be projected in the classroom.

You can also select the number of seconds the present code should remain active until it rotates:

Select the Stop Rolling Code/QR button in the upper right to stop displaying the code.

To view the most recent sync history from Canvas and diagnose any issues with the integration, click the icon highlighted in red below:

The quickest way for an instructor to view a student's absence request is to click on either the Students or Reports tab in aPlus+.

Using the Reports tab as an example, you'll see that clicking on it takes you to Attendance Summary by default:
 

Via the Attendance Summary, you'll see the various statuses resulting from student actions (in the case of absence requests and code-based check-ins) and those you manually assigned to students. Any status beginning with the word "Absent" has been submitted by the student. 

To alter a status (e.g. changing it from "unexcused" to "excused"), navigate to the Sessions tab and select a session by clicking on it.

 In the example below, the July 5th session is selected:

Now, in the session view for July 5th, you'll find various students and their accompanying statuses. If you click on a status for a student, you'll then see the option to choose a different one:

Once you make the status change selection, scroll back up to the top of the page and click the blue Save button to confirm:

For details on the student absence request workflow, please view our Getting started with aPlus+ in Canvas (Students) article .