Uploading Attendance in Moodle LMS

The Attendance activity module in Moodle LMS enables educators to monitor and record student attendance. Did you know you can import user attendance data using a CSV file? This process streamlines attendance tracking, especially for large classes or multiple sessions.

This article assumes that the Attendance activity module:

Is installed and configured in your Moodle environment.
Has been added to your course.

In addition, note that you can only take attendance for participants already enrolled in the course.

For information on installing and adding the Attendance module to your course, please refer to Using the Attendance Module in Moodle.

Steps to Import Attendance into Moodle LMS

Navigate to the Course:
- Log in to your Moodle site as a Moodle LMS Site Administrator, Manager or Teacher.
- Navigate to the course containing the Attendance activity.
Access the Attendance Activity:
- Within the course, click on the Attendance activity to open it.
Locate or Create a Session:
- To add a new session:
  - Click on the "Add session" button.
  - Fill in the session details, including date, start time, and end time. Note that the start date must be on or after the start date of the course.
  - Save the session.
- To import attendance for an existing session:
  - On the Attendance page, locate the desired session.
  - Use the Take attendance or Change attendance icon near the end of the line corresponding to the session date to open the session details.
Upload the Attendance CSV File:
- Within the session details, click the "Upload attendance by CSV" button at the top of the page.
- On the upload page, drag and drop your CSV file into the upload area or use the file picker to select the file.
- Ensure the CSV delimiter and encoding settings match your file's format.
- Click the "Upload attendance by CSV" button to proceed.
Map the Fields:
- In the field mapping step:
  - Verify that the "External user field" corresponds to "email."
  - Ensure the "Moodle user field" is set to "Email address."
  - Confirm that "Scan time" is appropriately set (usually "not set").
  - Check that the "Status field" aligns with "status."
- Adjust any mappings if necessary.
- Click the "Upload attendance by CSV" button to finalize the import.

CSV File Format

The first row of your CSV file contains the headers. This tells the Attendance plugin what information is being imported in subsequent rows. You can create this using a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel and exporting the data as a .csv file.

The first row

When importing attendance records into the Attendance activity module for Moodle LMS using a CSV file, you have a choice of how you want to identify users. It must include one of the following unique identifier fields:

User's Email Address - Note: Value must be unique to the user.
User's Username
User's ID
User's ID Number - Note: Value must be unique to the user.

To ensure the import process functions correctly, your CSV file must include one of these identifier fields.

You will also need a column for status.

The actual names of the column headers are not important as you will be able to connect the column names to their corresponding field in Moodle LMS. If your csv contains other columns, they will be ignored.

Subsequent data rows

The unique identifier column should contain the student's email address.
The status column should specify the attendance status using the following codes:
- P = Present
- L = Late
- E = Excused
- A = Absent

Example CSV File:

email,status
student1@example.com,p
student2@example.com,a
student3@example.com,l
student4@example.com,e

Separate groups

In courses with multiple groups or sections, such as perpetual courses, you may not want to see all course participants listed in every attendance session. Enabling separate groups in the course's settings and in the instance settings of the Attendance activity module enables you to organize attendance sessions by specific groups. This makes it easier to manage and view attendance records for particular subsets of students.

Conclusion

Importing attendance using a CSV file in the Attendance activity module for Moodle LMS simplifies the process of recording and managing attendance data. By following the steps outlined above and ensuring your CSV file is correctly formatted, you can efficiently update attendance records for your course sessions.

Hope you find this information useful.

Michael Milette