Online Attendance is a Blackboard Building Block that provides instructors a way to record their students' attendance records. Their student will then be able to view them through their Blackboard "Tools".
Finding the Attendance Tool
To find the Online Attendance Tool, navigate to your Control Panel. Open the Course Tools Heading. Select Online Attendance.
Getting Started
Before using online attendance you will need to go to the "Dates Setup" option and configure the days your class meets. After clicking on "Dates Setup" you will be asked for the start and end dates of the class as well as the days of the week the class meets. It is important to enter this information correctly before you begin taking attendance (some data could be lost if you later make changes to these dates). If you plan to use attendance by seating chart, you will want to go to Seating Setup and configure the number of rows and columns in your classroom.
Taking Attendance
When you first choose "Online Attendance" from your Blackboard "Tools", if you have configured the dates, the date in the drop list should be the most recent class date. The radio buttons below that date allow you to choose P (Present), A (Absent), L (Late), E (Excused), or U (Unexcused) for each of the students in your class. When you are finished select "Save Attendance" and you will get a message letting you know that the attendance has been saved for that date.
You can take attendance for a past date by selecting another date from the drop list above the radio buttons. You can also change the attendance records at any time by selecting the date you would like to change from the drop list, changing the radio buttons and clicking "Save Attendance". Next to the radio button are the attendance records that have been recorded for that student for up to five dates prior to the date selected in the drop list. A dash indicates that you have not yet taken attendance on that date.
Report
The "Report" option allows you to quickly see the total days the students have been present, absent, late, excused and unexcused. If you click on the name of one of your students the attendance values for each day will be listed for that student.
Seating Chart
The "Seating Chart" option allows you to assign students to seats in your classroom. Before using this you will need to go to "Setup" and set the number of rows and columns in your classroom. For each "seat" in your classroom you can assign one of the students, Empty or Aisle from the drop list. Once you have assigned all the seats, choose "Save Seating Chart" to save your selections.
Attendance By Seat
For large classed it might be quicker to take attendance from the seating chart rather then from a list of students' names. The "Attendance By Seat" option requires you to set up the seating chart using the "Seating Chart" option. The seats that have students assigned will have a drop list containing P (Present), A (Absent), L (Late), E (Excused), or U (Unexcused). Above the drop list is the last name of the student assigned to that seat for verification. After you have selected the attendance values for each seat choose "Save Attendance" to save your selections.
Export
Selecting this option will allow you to save an Excel document containing the attendance records for each of your students to your computer.
