Qwickly Attendance for Instructors

This article gives an overview of how to add a Qwickly Attendance link in your course, how to manage your attendance after the session and some useful tips.

How to add a Qwickly Attendance tool link on your course

In your chosen course, under Settings> Navigation, ensure Qwickly Attendance is visible to your students.

If Qwickly Attendance will not open properly for you in a new browser window once installed, please check that the browser you are using has third party cookies enabled.  Qwickly offers guidance on this issue on their helpdesk

Now the Qwickly Attendance link will appear in your menu.

It is important to add Qwickly Attendance as a Navigation link, and click through to fully configure this, if you would like students to use the check-in feature. If you neglect to do so, it will not be available for them to access.

Configure your attendance settings

Click the new Tool Link you have added and you will be brought to an area where you will set up your attendance.

  1. Default Style: You can choose how your attendance will be formatted.
  2. View Preferences: Allows you to choose various options for how attendance is displayed.
  3. Gradebook Integration: You can choose to have your attendance appear in the Canvas Gradebook. 
  4. Check In: If you have large classes and would like students to check in via their own device, then you can choose this option and decide if you would like a four digit pin code to be generated. Students would have to physically be present in class to see this pin as it will only appear on the instructor’s screen.
  5. Absence Email: You can choose to email a student each time they are marked absent
  6. Attendance Statuses: The default choices are Present, Absent and Excused. You may create your own, but note that they cannot be applied retroactively.1.5, 2018 4 

Once your settings have been determined; you can Return to Attendance.

Groups

If you are using groups within Canvas, then option 1 will look slightly different. You can choose to take attendance using groups if you wish. Note that choosing this option will still allow you to take attendance for the full class.

This is how the Take Attendance window will appear for groups:

How to check in with Full List

If you decide to mark attendance manually yourself, selecting students one-by-one, you can opt to select Full List. Here you will see your list of students where you can choose to click on either Present, Absent or Excused, individually. You can also mark students present for the current or a custom time.

At the start of each event, when setting up the event on Qwickly you should include the room/venue name/location in the session title in the Session Details field on Qwickly.

How to start a check in (using a pin)

To start a check-in: 

A pin will then be generated, if you have chosen that option, and the time frame will also be posted for students. The pin will only display on the instructor’s screen, so you will need your projector on or have another method for sharing the pin with students.

Instructor’s View: 

Student View: 8 6 

The student will be notified that their check-in was successful:

If you chose to take attendance manually, you have four options as discussed previously:

1. Present

2. Absent

3. Excused

4. Comment 018 7 

When attendance is completed, you have the option of downloading the file as a .csv and opening it using Excel. 18 8 

If you have chosen to create a column in the Canvas Gradebook, it will appear as follows:

See a quick video overview of this on:

Managing Qwickly Attendance after the session

The attendance record can be edited by an instructor at any time by clicking into Qwickly Attendance and going to the Attendance Record section.

In this area, you can change a student’s status, rename sessions, and delete sessions. To edit or delete an entire session, click on the chevron under the column title. This will bring up a pop-up window that will allow you to (1) edit the title, or (2) delete the session altogether. This cannot be undone. It also contains a timestamp and the type of session. 5

At the start of each event, when setting up the event on Qwickly you should include the room/venue name/location in the session title in the Session Details field on Qwickly.

To change a student’s status, simply click on the cell you wish to edit and a pop-up window will appear. For instance, if I wish to mark Kate as absent on 9th September, I can choose 'Absent' instead and save the record.

How to synchronise Qwickly Attendance with your Canvas Gradebook
Studio
Useful Tips
  • Consider editing the default absence email that is sent to students (learn how). Direct them to their attendance record to check their absences before getting in contact. They might have received an email if they were checking in near the end of the time allotted.
  • Consistency is helpful for your students, and help staff to quickly set up their attendance. It is worth coming up with common settings and strategy within your school/discipline/programme.
  • If you are using the check-in function, then allow students the time to get used it. You might consider a trial run at the beginning of the semester that you later delete.
  • Please be aware a check-in can only be started at the time of check-in, there is no functionality to set them up ahead of time. Manual attendance can be timestamped as you wish so it can be backdated. However, there is still no functionality to set up the session ahead of time.

Need more help? See https://www.goqwickly.com