The Attendance Activity allows Teachers to record the attendance status of a student. Use it to create sessions for specific times that your Students should be attending.

First, you'll add the Activity, similar to how you'd add any Activity in Moodle. You can decide if attendance will be graded or not, and what mark would be earned, etc.

Next, you'll create a new session for each attend-able event that you need to create. The "Add Session" tab is where you do that.
(The default setting for a new session will include all your Students.)

During either of these events, you will click the "green dot" button to take attendance, clicking on either "P" for Present, or "A" for Absent, next to each student's name.

This tutorial from the University of New South Wales provides a very good walk-through of how to set up and use the Attendance activity, with lots of annotated pictures:
https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/moodle-attendance-activity

This Moodle Docs page gives a very detailed explanation of this activity...
Attendance Module (Moodle.org):
https://docs.moodle.org/en/Attendance_activity#About_the_Attendance_activity

Tags: Moodle, Course

The Moodle Attendance Activity allows teachers to record and manage student attendance for classes, lectures, tutorials, and other scheduled activities. Teachers can create attendance sessions for specific dates and times when students are expected to attend.

1. Add the Attendance Activity

1. Open your Moodle course.
2. Turn editing on and select the Activity picker.
3. Add the Attendance activity.
4. Give the activity a descriptive name, such as Lecture Attendance or Tutorial Attendance.
5. Configure the activity settings, including whether attendance will be graded.

Important: If you plan to use groups to manage attendance, configure the appropriate Group mode when creating the activity. Selecting No groups will prevent you from using course groups within that Attendance activity, even if groups have already been created in the course.

2. Configure Attendance Categories

Before using the Attendance Activity, you must configure the attendance categories (called a Status set in Moodle).

These categories determine the attendance options available when marking students.

For example:

• Present
• Absent
• Late
• Excused

You must configure a Status set regardless of whether attendance is graded.

3. Enable Group Mode

Group mode allows tutors and other assigned teaching staff to record attendance for their allocated student groups.

To enable group mode:

1. Open the Attendance activity settings.
2. Locate the Group mode setting.
3. Select the appropriate group mode for your course.
4. Save the changes.

Important group permissions:

• Tutors must be members of a group to view and record attendance for students in that group.
• Tutors who are not assigned to a group may see the groups listed but cannot view or record attendance for their students.
• Instructors and Teaching Assistants can view and record attendance for all students, regardless of group membership.

Ensure that tutors have been assigned to the appropriate Moodle groups before they attempt to record attendance.

4. Create Attendance Sessions

After creating the Attendance activity, you need to create sessions for the classes or activities where attendance will be recorded.

1. Open the Attendance activity.
2. Select the Add Session tab.
3. Enter the session date and time.
4. Configure the session settings.
5. Save the session.

You can create individual sessions or multiple sessions at once for recurring classes.

By default, a new session includes all students, unless group or other session settings restrict participation.

5. Take Attendance

During or after the scheduled event:

1. Open the Attendance activity.
2. Locate the appropriate session.
3. Click the green dot button to record attendance.
4. Find each student in the attendance list.
5. Select the appropriate attendance status for each student.

For example:

• P – Present
• A – Absent

Other available statuses will depend on the Status set configured for the activity.

You can record attendance for individual students or apply the same status to multiple students at once.

6. Manage Attendance Sessions

From the main Attendance activity page, you can manage existing sessions using the action icons next to each session.

Depending on your permissions, you can:

• Record attendance.
• Edit session details.
• Delete sessions.
• Manage passwords for student self-recorded attendance.

7. View and Export Attendance Reports

The Attendance activity also provides reporting and export options.

• Reports: Review student attendance records and select students to send messages about their attendance.
• Export: Download attendance data in Excel, OpenOffice, or text format.

Additional Resources

For detailed instructions and annotated screenshots, refer to the following resources:

1. University of New South Wales – Moodle Attendance

A comprehensive walkthrough covering:

• Creating an Attendance activity.
• Setting attendance categories.
• Creating and managing sessions.
• Enabling Group mode.
• Marking attendance.

https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/moodle-attendance-activity

2. Moodle Documentation – Attendance Activity

Detailed Moodle documentation explaining the Attendance activity, its settings, and available features.

https://docs.moodle.org/en/Attendance_activity#About_the_Attendance_activity