Tracking Attendance
There are various ways to track attendance with or without the use of technology. As attendance is a requirement for the programs at the Columbia Business School, attendance should be tracked but not necessarily associated with a grade.
Sign-In Sheet
Print a sheet of paper with the students’ names listed alphabetically. Ask students to sign next to their names to denote that they are present in class today.
Seating Chart
Create seating charts using SeatGen at the beginning of the term and print out a seating chart for each class session. Instruct students to sit in assigned seats, and at the beginning of each class, scan the room for empty chairs and mark the students who are absent that day. You (or your TA) can also mark attendance directly within the SeatGen application.
Roll Call
For smaller courses, you can call out the names of your students at the beginning of class and mark students as present or absent. This can be done by hand using a printed list of students’ names or using an excel spreadsheet with students’ names and all class session dates. You can also use the Roll Call tool in Canvas.
Poll Everywhere
It's strongly discouraged to use Poll Everywhere for attendance tracking, since students can answer polls without being physically present, and there have been widespread reports of this occurring in the past. However, Poll Everywhere’s reporting functionality could be used to track attendance. To learn more, review the CBS Poll Everywhere guide.