aPlus+ Attendance is a tool built into Canvas that helps teaching teams track student check-ins and attendance. Instructors can either mark attendance manually with custom statuses or let students sign in using a code or QR code within a set time.
This article includes a basic aPlus+ Attendance overview plus configuration instructions. For details on using aPlus+ in your class sessions, see Navigating aPlus+ Attendance in Canvas (Instructors) as well as Using aPlus+ in the Classroom (Instructors) and Managing Student Absence Requests with aPlus+ Attendance in Canvas (Instructors).
You will need:
- Access to Canvas
- Instructor role in the Wharton course that will use aPlus+ Attendance
For help with either of these, contact your Wharton Computing representative.
aPlus+ Attendance Benefits
aPlus+ Attendance provides the following benefits:
- Rolling Code Check-in: Prevents fraudulent check-ins by displaying a unique code in class via Canvas.
- Direct Attendance Management: Lets you set schedules (also known as timetables), update records, and access tools in the aPlus+ Attendance tab within your course.
- Reporting: View and analyze attendance data in multiple formats (e.g., absences per student, types of absences).
- Canvas Gradebook Integration: Automatically includes attendance scores based on your policy.
- Centralized Absence Records: Students and faculty can review and update attendance and absence requests in one place negating the need for email correspondence regarding absences.
Configuring aPlus+ Attendance for your Course
Any teaching member with the role of Teacher or TA can follow these 3 steps to configure aPlus+ Attendance
1. Unhide the aPlus+ Attendance tab
- Log into Canvas and select the course that will be using the aPlus+ Attendance tab.
- Select the Settings tab from your course sidebar navigation.
- Click on the Navigation tab.
- Drag aPlus+ Attendance from the hidden section to your course navigation.
- Drop aPlus+ Attendance in the tab order. The other visible tabs will move out of the way as you place it.
- Scroll down and click the blue Save button.
- aPlus+ should be on your course navigation sidebar where you placed it. To hide it/move it just repeat the above steps.
2. Authorize Account (First-Time Use Only)
To authorize aPlus+ Attendance:
- Log into Canvas and go to the course you're interested in authorizing aPlus+ Attendance.
- Click on aPlus+ Attendance in the course navigation sidebar.
- The first time you access the tool, you will be prompted to authorize access to your account:
- Click the blue Authorize button.
- aPlus+ Attendance will load the Attendance Setup landing page (see the next section).
3. Set Up Attendance
After you click the Authorize button, or when you click the aPlus+ tab after authorizing the first time, you arrive at the Attendance Setup landing page. To set up attendance for this class:
- Check the Import attendance sessions from your information systems box and then choose a session weighting. The recommended weighting is "Equal sessions (1 point)," this section of the article explains weighting.
- Click the blue Apply button to save your changes.
You will now see the sessions populate on the course timetable, as shown in the screenshot below. This import should add all of your class meetings to your session timetables. The next section discusses some additional import options that you can use to add more/different entries to your timetable associated with other aspects of your course.
If class start times are not available after you click the Sections drop-down selection menu, please contact a Wharton Computing representative for assistance.
Additional Import Options
Typically, the attendance sessions will be imported from our information systems as detailed above; however, it is possible to import from course-calendar events, assignments, or even quizzes. This section details those options and why you might want to use them.
The additional import options are:
| 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 sites are typically configured using assignments rather than populating calendar events, so this may not be necessary for your course. |
| 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):
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| 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+:
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Recording 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 (you can give it a name other than Attendance) will calculate as an aggregate attendance score based on the specific calculations you configure via the Calculations dropdown menu:
| Calculation | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 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 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 - percentage impact on final grade | The instructor defines a set of attendance rules and once these are breached, this triggers a percentage penalty against the student's final 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 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. |
| Penalty Rules - points impact on weighted attendance | 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). |
Managing 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.
Note that the default is currently set so that all TAs will have access to aPlus+, but you can always uncheck this box for any users with this role if you do not want TAs to have access.
Canvas users with the proper permissions in your course will be listed. Check the box next to all that you want to add and click Apply.
Accessibility Concerns
Wharton Computing works to ensure that all digital tools available for students meet current accessibility standards. Occasionally, especially when using 3rd party vendors, we may recommend using the tools but include suggestions for workarounds that will benefit those who need these provisions.
As mentioned above, aPlus+ Attendance is NOT completely accessible for low-vision students due to the way the numeric code is displayed. If you use this code, we recommend asking one of the teaching team members to read out the numbers during each class.
Questions?
Troubleshooting tip: If you are using Safari and encounter any access issues, please refer to our Using web browsers with Learning Tools article regarding using Safari with Canvas learning tools. If you have trouble in Chrome, try using a different browser, like Firefox.
Please contact the Courseware Team for support if you need more assistance.