Using iClicker for Attendance

Audience

This article is intended for faculty using the iClicker platform to take attendance.

Platform

iClicker

How to Set Up Attendance in Your iClicker Course

You can use iClicker to take attendance in your courses. No daily Attendance activity is required by you as an instructor - students check in themselves.

You can enter your course meeting times and let attendance run automatically, requiring students to check in from their device. Location settings can be set so students can only check in from a small radius around the classroom to prevent cheating concerns. Attendance data can be easily viewed and exported.

This article will focus on setting up your attendance settings in iClicker and using it to conduct attendance in class.

Before setting up attendance in iClicker, you will need to link your Canvas roster. Visit the following article for more information about linking your roster to Canvas: Article - Getting Started with iClicker for Faculty

Begin by accessing your course settings on the instructor website or in your desktop software.

Screenshot of course settings at instructor.iclicker.com

Screenshot of desktop software course settings

Now, navigate to the Attendance tab in your iClicker settings.

Setting Meeting Times and Auto-Running Attendance

First, to take attendance in your class, toggle on the 'Take Attendance with Class Sessions' setting. With this setting toggled on, each student using the iClicker student app will be marked present as they join your class session.

If you do not wish to take attendance, you can toggle this setting off and iClicker Cloud will not collect Attendance data, nor will students see Attendance information in their iClicker accounts.

Use the "Meeting Times" checkbox to add the course meeting times for your course. Although most instructors set this for the beginning of their courses, alternatively, you can set the check-in time for the end of your course and require students to check in at the end of class.

Auto-Run

If you do not set Attendance to auto-run, iClicker Cloud will still take attendance as students join your active class session. (If you do not use iClicker during a class session, attendance will not be taken.) Auto-running attendance can be useful for allowing students the option to check in before class starts. They will receive a notification to their devices that it is time to check in for class.

If you set attendance to auto-run before class starts, you may see that your class session is already "in progress" when you launch the desktop software, and you'll need to resume the session to run a poll or quiz.

Keep in mind that Attendance may auto-run on holidays or other days off, so you may need to delete those auto-run sessions from your Attendance data to keep your Attendance grades accurate.
 

Location Settings

If you are concerned about students physically attending class, you can use the Location requirement to require students to check in to class within a certain radius of the classroom. Keep in mind that the feature relies on your accurate setting of the location parameter, and students will have to enable location services for iClicker. (More on that in this article - iClicker Student App Attendance Geolocation Tips)

This feature prevents students from participating in iClicker activities from their dorm rooms, apartments, or other locations. If you do not set a location requirement, students will be able to join and participate in your class sessions from anywhere.
Note: You can only access and change your location settings via the instructor website.
 

How to Set Location Settings for Attendance

1. First, physically go to the location in which you will be taking attendance.
2. In the Attendance tab of your iClicker Course Settings, under the Mobile Device Settings header, click the bubble next to "Require and Set Location for Attendance." If this bubble is greyed out, try Saving your settings and returning to the same screen.
3. You will see a map load with your location indicated. Your web browser may notify you that iClicker Cloud is requesting your geolocation information - if so, accept.
   
4. Your location is indicated by the blue dot on the map. Use the plus sign in the lower right-hand corner to zoom in to the map as far as you can. Move the blue dot to a position on the building outline that most closely matches the classroom, if you are not physically present.
   
5. Select your Attendance location Radius from the drop-down menu to the right above the map. A radius of 150 feet is recommended, but it can be made as small as 100 ft or as large as 500.

Note: If students who are physically in class report issues with their location being recognized, you can temporarily toggle off the location requirement to allow the student(s) to check in, then toggle the location requirement back on. This can be done from the iClicker Toolbar in the Roster section by clicking the blue dot icon on and off.
 

Exporting and Viewing Attendance Data

To see attendance data for your course, navigate to your course in instructor.iclicker.com and click the Attendance tab in the left-hand menu. A list of attendance is displayed for all students in your course.

To see attendance for an individual student as a percentage out of 100, click on the student's name to go to their People page. You can use the arrows in the upper right-hand corner to navigate through by person.

To export attendance data for your course, click the "Export" button and select the course sessions you would like to export data for (or click the box at the top to select all.) Then click "Export." Your attendance data file will be automatically downloaded as a .csv.

Running Attendance in Class

To keep an eye on your attendance data in class, you can view your attendance data in the iClicker Cloud software as it updates in real-time using the "Roster" button in the iClicker toolbar.

For more information about viewing attendance through iClicker Cloud, visit the following article: