The new attendance verification process will be implemented for the Spring 2024 academic term and will automate the verification of student attendance by linking data from Canvas directly to Banner and the Financial Aid Office.
Below is an overview of how the process will work and answers to how this will impact faculty and students for this upcoming term.
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NEW Automatic Attendance Verification Process in Canvas Attendance Verification Faculty FAQs Can I opt out of the new Attendance Verification process? What if my homepage changed? What if I don’t use weighted category groups in my grading process? What if I use unweighted groups, and I don’t want 8 points added to my gradebook? Students are receiving an error message to ask for professor assistance; what should I do? Why can my students not use the Canvas mobile app to take the Attendance Verification quiz?
The Automatic Attendance Verification Process in Canvas
Federal financial aid regulations require that students who receive federal Title IV aid must complete an academically related activity in each course in which they are enrolled to show their academic engagement in the course before their financial aid disbursement. In compliance with federal regulations, FSW financial aid and scholarships will be disbursed only after all attendance (in every course) has been confirmed for the term of enrollment.
Starting in the Spring of 2024, attendance verification will be done through an Attendance Verification Assignment that will be added to every Canvas course at the start of every term. Each term, every course Canvas shell will come with an attendance verification syllabus quiz preloaded. The quiz will ask questions about the locked portions of the syllabus and end with a syllabus acknowledgment statement. The due date will be one week after the term starts. This quiz will be automatically graded in an Assignment Group worth 0% of the course grade. Students will be able to access the quiz through the Attendance Verification link in the course menu directly under the Simple Syllabus link. Once the student completes this assignment, attendance will be verified in Banner automatically.
Although the attendance verification portal in Banner will remain open and accessible for faculty and staff as needed, faculty will no longer be required to manually verify student attendance at the start of every semester.
1. These items will be added to your course navigation menu if not enabled already. Please note that when clicking the Attendance Verification link, there is a several-second delay in loading while the redirect script runs.
2. A locked quiz will be added to the course titled “‼️ First-Week Check-in: Confirm Attendance in This Course ‼️”
3. An assignment group named Attendance Verification is weighted at 0%, so it does not impact students’ final grades unless you move it to another group.
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Can I opt out of the new Attendance Verification process?
No. The assignment must remain published for students to receive their attendance verification in the system. Students will receive global messaging explaining the requirement, and if faculty self-opt-out, it will contradict the information students receive and cause confusion for them.
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What if my homepage changed?
The default push sets the homepage to the Modules page as a Canvas default. If you do not use the Modules view as your homepage, you can reset the Homepage using the “Course Home Page” button under the course status options. A modal will appear and you can make your selection to go back to a Page as the Front page or your preferred view.
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What if I don’t use weighted category groups in my grading process?
If you do not use weights in your grade book, you can set the grade book to use unweighted categories. Navigate to the “Assignments” page in the Canvas course; above the list of assignments and assignment groups, select the “Assignments Settings” icon (a vertical ellipsis). Then select “Assignment Groups Weight” from the available options.
In the “Assignment Groups Weight” modal, uncheck the option “Weight final grade based on assignment groups” and select the Save button.
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What if I use unweighted groups and don’t want 8 points added to my gradebook?
If you use unweighted categories and don’t want the 8 points in your grade book, you can edit the quiz points to make each question worth 0 points. First, be certain to disable the “Assignment Groups Weight” on the Assignments page within the course. Then, once the “Weight final grade based on assignment groups” option is unchecked and saved, navigate to the Attendance Verification quiz by selecting the “Attendance Verification” link on the course navigation. Select the “Edit” button for the quiz, then click the Questions tab. Edit each question bank group/question by clicking the pencil icon and changing the point value to 0, then click Update Group/Update Question. Once you have changed the point value for all eight questions click the Save button.
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Students are receiving an error message to ask for professor assistance; what should I do?
Please check your course navigation settings to ensure that “Assignments” or “Modules” are enabled. You can enable them by scrolling to the bottom of your course navigation menu and selecting the “Settings” link. Then, in course settings, select the “Navigation” tab. Locate the Assignments or Modules links in the lower list of options. Use the vertical ellipsis button to select enable or drag the item to the top list of options.
If this does not resolve the error message, the course may have a duplicate quiz. Delete the “‼️ First-Week Check-in: Confirm Attendance in This Course ‼️” quiz that does not have the “Locked” option enabled.
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Why can my students not use the Canvas mobile app to take the Attendance Verification quiz?
Students may use their mobile devices to take the quiz and use the link via a browser, not the Canvas mobile app.
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