Setting Up You-Attend

Overview

You-Attend widget is an attendance tool for Brightspace by D2L. This widget is the preferred method to track attendance in P.L.A.T.O.

• Manual You-Attend setup video
• Class You-Attend setup video

Settings

The You-Attend widget will load the Course Setting page until settings have been saved. In this section
we will go over each section of the settings.

• General Settings
• Attendance Codes
• Grade Book Integration
• Entry Method
• General Settings

1. Start Date – This is date you will start taking attendance. The You-Attend widget pulls this information from the Brightspace course settings if they are set. You may change this date to suit your needs.
2. End Date – This is the date you will stop taking attendance. The You-Attend widget pulls this information from the Brightspace course settings if they are set. You may change this date to suit your needs.
3. Record Type – This setting controls how entries are made in the system. There are three types of entries: Manual, In-Class and Online. See the section on Record Types for more information.
4. Days of the week this course meets – Select the days of the week your course meets that you wish to track attendance. This option is available when selecting Manual or In-Class record types.
5. Excluded Dates – Enter any dates you wish to exclude from the Attendance Grid. This option is available when selecting Manual or In-Class record types.
6. Number of Entries Per Week – When using the Online record type, enter the number of days per week you want your students to login into your online course.

Record Types

Manual

The Manual type works probably how you guessed it would. You simply go through a list of students and record their attendance.

In-Class

The In-Class type displays a PIN number, on days the class meets, to the instructor. The instructor then shares the pin with students. They in turn enter the pin into a form on their view of the You-Attend widget which records their attendance.

Online

The last entry type is the Online method. As the name implies this setting is recommended for online courses. This is an automated method of tracking attendance. When a student loads the widget, if they have not already logged in for that day and they have not reached the attendance goal for that week then their attendance is recorded.

Meeting days, Excluded days and Entries Per Week

Depending upon which Record Type you select the next options will change. If using the Manual or In-Class option, the Meeting days and Excluded dates option will be visible. If using the Online type only the Entries Per Week option will be displayed.

Meeting Days

The Attendance Grid (which we’ll go over in the Overview of the You-Attend widget) displays the current week based on the Record Type setting. The Manual and In-Class type both limit the days of the week displayed to just the meeting days you select for the “Days of the week this course meets” setting.

Excluded Dates

Dates your course doesn’t meet due to holidays or days the school is closed, can be added here to exclude them from being displayed in the Attendance Grid. These dates are only used in the Manual and In-Class Record Types.

Entries Per Week

When using the Online Record Type, the Entries Per Week setting becomes available. This setting is used to set the number of times you want your online students to access the course. This is useful to when trying to create more engagement during the week with your online students.

Attendance Codes

1. Code Symbol - The symbol of the attendance code.
2. Code Name - The name of the attendance code. 
3. Percentage Value - The weight of the attendance code. You need at least one code with a weight of 100.
4. Add Code - Click this link to add another attendance code row to the form. To remove a code row simply leave all the boxes blank.

Attendance codes are completely customizable, with an exception. You need to have at least one code with a value of 100 and one code with a value of 0 to use the Grade Book Integration and the Mark All features (see the Overview of the You-Attend widget for more about the Mark All features). We’ve given you three to get started with, but feel free to change or remove them. 

Grade Book Integration

1.  Create Grade Book Entry - Toggles the Grade Book Integration on and off.
2. Grade Book Entry Name - The name that will be given to the Grade Book Item in the Brightspace Gradebook.
3. Point Per Entry - The number of points possible for an entry.
4. Max Grade Book Point - The maximum number of points the Grade Book Item will be worth.

The Grade Book Integration allows you to grade your students on their attendance. The Grade Book Entry Name is the link that connects the You-Attend widget to the Gradebook. If you change the name of the entry, you must change it in both places or the You-Attend widget will create a new Grade Item.

The Points Per entry field is tied to the Attendance Code Value field. The Attendance Code Value field is a percentage of the Points Per entry. In the examples given a Preset entry will give the student 2 point, while a Tardy entry will give the student 1 point and the Absent will give them zero points. 

Entry Method

1. Use Simple Entry Method  - Toggles the simple entry method on and off.
2. Save - Save the current settings

The Simple Entry Method affects how entries are made on the Instructor View. When the setting is off the user is prompted with a form to update or create an entry. When the value is on the form entry is replaced with an inline drop-down list of Attendance Codes and an “Ok” button to submit the entry. The simple entry method allows for quick updates to student entries without waiting for a form to load and process.