Configure Attendance
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Configure Attendance

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Article Summary

Introduction

Campus Cafe includes an attendance feature that allows the input of hours/minutes attended for clock-hour schools. For credit-based schools the attendance roster may be utilized to mark students absent and/or confirm attendance was taken for the day. In both cases, reports will summarize hours attended and absences.

Permissions

The below permissions relate to the attendance module.

  • 728 hides the columns to show hours/minutes attended
  • 756 setting to NA prevents the user from entering an Attendance Note on the course roster
  • 765 setting to NA will hide the Attendance History Button on the Advisee Listing Page
  • 766 controls whether to show the attendance history button on the course roster
  • 767 setting to NA will hide the Attendance History Button on the Course Basket Page
  • 950 controls access to the Create the Attendance Schedule (Course Dates Creation) function
  • 990 controls access to the Attendance Date Exceptions function
  • 1069 controls whether the user can uncheck the absent checkbox once attendance notes entered
  • 1070 controls whether the user can change absent note to blank if note exists
  • 1147 controls whether the user can enter attendance for a date the class is not in session by overriding the Override Course Not in Session error message
  • 1148 setting to NA prevents the validation that the course is in session on the day attendance is taken

Configure Attendance 

Custom control ATTEND_VAL, in conjunction with permissions, allows institutions to determine how and when attendance is taken and shown.

  1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Control Maintenance
  2. Locate ProgramId ATTEND_VAL
  3. Click the pencil icon next to ATTEND_VAL
  4. In the Parameter Value boxes configure the following:
    Seq 1, Parm 1 - Enter Y to allow attendance only to be taken on days the course is scheduled to meet
    Seq 1, Parm 2 -  Not in use
    Seq 1, Parm 3 - List of semester status codes separated by commas that indicate attendance should not be taken for a student while the code applies. For example, a student may not have attendance recorded while on a leave of absence.
    Seq 1, Parm 4 - Enter Y to have the system assume attendance was taken only if all enrolled students have clock hours entered
    Seq 1, Parm 5 - Enter Y to have course rosters show the current date for attendance rather than the entire week
    Seq 1, Parm 6 - Enter Y to allow attendance to be taken multiple times on the same day. Note if N is entered, course exceptions may not be created with overlapping times.
    Seq 1, Parm 7 - Enter Y to view last date attended on the profile page
    Seq 1, Parm 8 - Enter Y to have the system calculate, for online courses only, the hours the student is expected to attend (scheduled hours) based on their enrollment data rather than the hours on the course screen
  5. Click Save
  6. Wait overnight for the server cache to clear or run the Refresh Data Cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache > reload data

Define Attendance Notes

Attendance notes are a defined lists of options presented to the instructor to complement an absence or tardiness. Notes could include explanations such as excused absence or uniform infraction. An instructor may select one note per student per meeting period.

  1. Navigate to Admin > STParm Maintenance
  2. In the Parameter Code box enter ATINFR
  3. In the Parameter Value box enter a code to correspond for the note. For example, for Excused you may enter E.
  4. Click Add
  5. In the description box, enter the note the instructor will see
  6. Click Save
  7. Wait overnight for the server cache to clear or run the Refresh Data Cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache > reload data

Set Attendance Date Exceptions

Your institution's academic calendar may include days a course will not meet, such as a holiday. Recording these dates will allow an accurate list of meeting times and accurate reports.

Permission #990 is required to access this function.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > Attendance Date Exceptions
  2. Choose whether to add an exception for one or more dates (to apply globally to all classes), to one or more classes or for a specific record (class)
    Note: To record an exception for all classes for an entire day (e.g. a snow day), you must select Add An Exception for 1 Or More Dates.
  3. Enter the exception dates
  4. Follow the prompts

Add a Scheduled Break (Occurs Daily)

To record an exception for a break that will occur every day, such as lunch break, for classes follow the steps below.

Permission #990 is required to access this function.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > Attendance Date Exceptions
  2. Select Add an Exception for 1 or More Classes
  3. Select the courses you wish to add the exception for
  4. Enter the exception dates - if it is for the entire semester, enter the start date of the semester for the start date and the last day of the semester for the end date.
  5. Enter the exception times (for example, 12:00pm - 12:30pm)
  6. Follow the prompts
  7. Save

Understand the Impact of Semester Status History

This applies if your institution allows a student to take a leave of absence during a portion of a semester in which the student is enrolled in classes. The period of time when the student is on leave may be excluded from the time the student is expected to attend class. For example, if student Geordi La Forge takes a two-week leave in the middle of the semester but otherwise has perfect attendance, the institution would consider his attendance rate 100%.

The attendance reports will exclude dates during which a student was on leave as noted by a semester status history applied to the student and configured as a leave of absence.

Create the Attendance Schedule (Course Dates Creation)

Permission #950 is required to access this function.

Once the class schedule is complete, run the attendance schedule process to populate meeting dates for individual classes.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > Course Dates Creation
  2. In the Semester drop down choose the semester
  3. Click Submit

The system runs this process nightly for the semester set in Reg. Control as well as any semesters with numerical codes +/- 100 from the semester set in Reg. Control.

Classes Without Scheduled Days

If the course location tab does not have any days of the week selected and the course dates creation process is run, the course will still have dates scheduled. Campus Cafe will first determine the day of the week corresponding to the course start date. Campus Cafe will then schedule a course date for the start date and one for the same day of the week for every week until the course end date. These records are ignored in the clock hour reports.

150% Date Attendance (Clock Hour Only)

There are several occasions in which a student may not complete a clock hour program in the expected time frame (100%) such as taking a Leave of Absence (LOA).  To accommodate this, Campus Cafe has two settings, one to adjust a course's end dates to 150% of the expected program length for attendance purposes and the other to adjust the degree's 150% Date Override when a degree row is created.

If MSPARM ATTEND_150 is set to Y:  

  1. When a course is created, either through the course copy function or add a course (if MSPARM CRSDATECPY is set to Y), then the end date of the course will be the program length 150% from the semester dates table.
  2. The Course Roster will look at the degree's 150% Date Override (not the original end date) when determining if attendance may be taken for that student on that date. [Please note, no attendance may be taken after the degree has ended.]
  3. All Clock Hour Reports will use the degree's 150% Date Override as the end date if 150% override date is filled out. If the 150% override is blank it will still use the degree's end date.  This means the default end date on the Clock Hour Report, as well as batch reports, will use that date. 

If MSPARM DEGREE_OVR = Y and ATTEND_150 = Y:  

When a degree row is created, the degree's 150% Date Override will be populated with the program length 150% from the semester date maintenance record. This only is true for degrees whose majors are clock hour majors.



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