Working with Sessions
At times, you might need to do any of the following:
Mark a session as cancelled.
Create a session.
Modify a session by change its start or end time, adding a note to the calendar about it, and so forth.
This section describes how to complete all of these tasks.
When you create or modify a session, the portal displays a form that contains the following fields:
Status (required, default value is As Scheduled)
Start and End (required)
Duration time in minutes (optional)
Session note (optional)
A session can have any of the following statuses:
As Scheduled - Default
Cancelled - School Holiday
Cancelled - Instructor Out
Cancelled - Rescheduled
Cancelled
Cancelled - snow day
Use these fields to establish the date, time, and duration of the session.
You can optionally use the Minutes field by clicking the Enter different duration time drop-down arrow to configure the session to count for a value that is greater or less than its actual duration. Doing this is relevant only if both of the following are true:
You are using the Grade by entering time attendance marking method.
You have configured attendance to be able to affect students’ grades in the Gradebook.
You can optionally use this field to enter any notes that you want to record about the session. These notes will be visible solely to you.
When a user in the Faculty or Student role views the main Attendance screen, the default session is selected and displayed based on the following criteria:
If a session is currently occurring, then that session is selected by default.
Otherwise, if any sessions start later that same day, the first of those sessions is selected.
Otherwise, the most recent past session is selected.
If no sessions for the course have started yet, then the first session occurring in the future is selected.
If you decide to cancel a class, you might want to mark the session as cancelled in the Attendance feature. That is, if your system is configured to give students credit for attendance, you should cancel the class so that the system does not use it as part of the calculation of attendance credit.
In the table on the Manage sessions page, a graded status icon is shown next to the session date for all sessions that have a start date in the past. (Future sessions do not have any graded status icons on this page, only the speech bubble if applicable.)
The graded status icon next to the session date matches the icon in the message displayed at the top of the main grading page:
Fully graded (all active students)—checkmark
Partially graded (some active students)—letter "i"
Not graded at all (no active students)—warning "!" triangle
Cancelled (any reason)—speech bubble
The icon that appears next to the session matches what the session page looks like with both "Withdrawn students" and "Guest students" toggle buttons set to Hide.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Click Manage Sessions.
The Manage sessions page displays. This page lists all the sessions currently defined for the course section.
If you want to manually add one or more sessions to your course section, use this procedure. The new sessions are placed on the calendar for the course, which all students can display in their My Calendar feed.
As an alternative to creating a session for which you can track attendance, you can simply add an event to the course calendar. With that approach, you do not use the Attendance feature, and you cannot track attendance to the event.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Click Manage Sessions.
Click Add Session.
The Add attendance session page displays.
Fill out the form as appropriate. For help with any of the fields, see the About the Options that Define a Session section.
To create multiple sessions:
Select Multiple sessions.
Additional fields display.
Specify how often the session will repeat by entering a number and selecting Days, Weekdays, Weeks, or Months.
Select the specific day the session will occur.
Optionally, click a radio button and choose First, Second, Third, Fourth, or Last day of the week. Click the second drop-down arrow and choose the specific day of the week (Monday is the default).
Select the date on which the session will stop repeating.
All of the sessions in the series appear at the bottom of the page with the same start time and status you entered in step 4.
If necessary, edit the start time and status for any of the sessions.
Click Save.
At times you might need to modify a session by changing its scheduled date or time.
If you track attendance by minute or by hour, and if your Gradebook is configured to give value to students’ attendance, you also might want to change the value that it represents using the Minutes field.
Note that you can modify any session—including those that you create and those that are created automatically by the system as part of the regular schedule for the course section.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Click Manage sessions.
The Manage sessions page displays.
Locate the sessions that you want to modify and select the checkbox next to each one.
Click Edit at the top.
Edit the sessions as you see fit. For help with any of the fields, see the About the Options that Define a Session section.
Click Save.
If you want to delete a session that you have manually added, use this procedure.
Note
You cannot delete a session that is part of the regular schedule for the course section. If the session did not (or will not) occur, consider cancelling it instead.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Click Manage sessions.
The Manage sessions page displays.
Locate the sessions that you want to delete and select the checkbox next to each one.
Click Edit.
The Edit attendance sessions page displays.
Click Delete All at the bottom to delete all selected sessions simultaneously. To delete each session individually, click the trash-can icon in the Delete column.
Click OK in the confirmation pop-up window that displays.
Click Save.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Select the session from the timeline at the top of the page.
Click Edit Session.
The Edit attendance sessions page displays.
Click the drop-down arrow in the Status column and select one of the following options:
Cancelled (School Holiday)
Cancelled (Instructor Out)
Cancelled (Rescheduled)
Cancelled
Cancelled (snow day)
Click Save.
Navigate to the appropriate Attendance feature instance.
Click Manage Sessions.
Locate the sessions that you want to cancel and select the checkbox next to each one.
Click Edit at the top.
Click in the Status column and select one of the following statuses for each session:
Cancelled (School Holiday)
Cancelled (Instructor Out)
Cancelled (Rescheduled)
Cancelled
Cancelled (snow day)
Click Save.