The Center for Teaching & Learning has a course in D2L with a selection of the most commonly-offered course attendance registers titled Attendance Only. Use the import/export/copy components option in the Edit Course menu to pull one of those pre-existing registers into yours to take attendance, or use the instructions below to create your own. 


To setup and take attendance in D2L version 10.3, follow these steps. The attachment below includes screen images with the same information.


Sign into D2L ([email protected]) and open your course.

Under the Assessments menu in the orange bar, click on Attendance.


Setting up Attendance the First Time


1. Click New Register.
2. Type in a name, e.g. “HST101 Attendance.”
3. Select an attendance scheme. The default attendance scheme is P, E, U, T.

 P = Present
E = Excused Absence
U = Unexcused Absence
T = Tardy
You can create your own custom “Scheme” in another step.
If you use the percentages that D2L lists for a student's attendance, understand that P = 100% for the day, U = 0%, T=50% and E = no count. 

4. Enter a Cause for Concern (%): Define the threshold at which absences are a concern to setup a warning flag for you to see. This is optional.
5. Set Visibility: Choose whether students can see this attendance register.
6. Select if this attendance register is for the whole class “all users” or certain sub groups within the class.
7. Define each class session by name or by date. Descriptions are optional.
8. After you name the first three sessions and save, you will need additional session fields. Enter the number of additional sessions you need, and click “Add Sessions.”

Common Examples of Session Names: 

“Week 1, Week 2, Week 3”

“Aug. 30, Sep 2, Sep 4”

“8/30, 9/2, 9/4”

Viewing & Entering Attendance


Under the Assessments menu in the orange bar, click on Attendance.


1. Click the title of the register OR the drop down arrow and choose “View Attendance Data.”

2. View data already entered in this spreadsheet style view.

3. Enter attendance for a session by clicking the calendar/pencil icon. (Clicking the session name will only resort the data by that column.)

4. Choose to enter attendance for all students at once with the “Set Status for All Users” (usually all present).
5. Mark any exceptions (those absent, tardy, etc.) in the individual list.
6. Save and close.