A new attendance widget is now available to UGA Instructors within eLearning Commons (eLC) to help manage face-to-face and online class attendance. The eLC Attendance Preference widget was created by the Office of Online Learning to help better manage attendance for the Spring 2021 semester.

“The tool is meant to facilitate communication between faculty and students about attendance preferences. The widget doesn’t take attendance, it gives the faculty the opportunity to understand student preferences and the ability to assign options and attendance groups based on those preferences,” explains James Castle, Office Of Online Learning Assistant Director of Instructional Design.

It is an optional add-on for use by instructors and can be used to assign attendance options, or to let students submit their own attendance preferences. The instructor will be able to see an overview of the options the students have chosen over the course of the semester with the tool. The widget resides on the course homepage, where instructors can view student choices, and assign or reassign attendance options. The widget works with the eLC Quiz tool, with a single-question quiz for each class session. The Attendance Preference widget can also be used with the Gradebook. Using this, instructors are able to import the grades associated with attendance from the widget into their grade book. Instructions for implementing the tool are available on the eLC HELP site:
Instructors: https://help.elc.uga.edu/engaging_students/attendance_preference_widget/
Students: https://help.elc.uga.edu/for_students/attendance_preference_widget/

UGA faculty should see three new items in their list of eLC courses: 2021 Spring Attendance MWF, 2021 Spring Attendance TR, and 2021 Spring Attendance Blank. These “courses” offer another guide to help instructors and students use the new widget for instruction this Spring 2021 semester.