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The Attendance tracker in DeanDesk lets instructors record and review student presence for each class session. Attendance data is stored per course, visible to instructors and admins, and feeds into student reports and end-of-course records. Open a course and click the Attendance tab. The attendance view shows all scheduled sessions for the course as rows and all enrolled students as columns. Each cell represents one student’s status for one session.

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Marking attendance for a session

1

Open the Attendance tab

Navigate to the course and click Attendance.
2

Find the session

Locate the session you want to mark — sessions are listed by date. Click the row to expand it, or click directly on a cell.
3

Set each student's status

For each student, click their cell and choose a status:
StatusWhen to use
PresentThe student attended the full session
AbsentThe student did not attend
LateThe student arrived after the session started
ExcusedThe student was absent with a valid excuse
4

Save

Attendance saves automatically as you mark each status. There is no separate save button.
Use the Mark All Present button at the top of a session row to mark every student present at once, then adjust the students who were absent or late individually. This is faster for most sessions.

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Viewing attendance records per student

To review a single student’s attendance history across all sessions:
1

Open the Attendance tab

Navigate to the course and click Attendance.
2

Click the student's name

Click the student’s name in the column header. This opens the Student Attendance Viewer, which shows a summary of that student’s status for every session in the course.
The Student Attendance Viewer displays:
  • A session-by-session breakdown of the student’s attendance status
  • A summary count of Present, Absent, Late, and Excused sessions
  • The student’s overall attendance rate as a percentage

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Attendance history and patterns

The Attendance tab shows the full history for a course at a glance. Use the following approaches to identify patterns:
  • Sort by student: Look down a student’s column to see streaks of absences or consistent lateness.
  • Sort by session: Look across a session row to identify sessions with unusually high absenteeism.
  • Filter by status: Use the Filter dropdown to show only absent or late records, making problem patterns easier to spot.
If you notice a student with frequent absences, you can reach out directly using DeanDesk’s messaging tools or post a course announcement to remind all students of attendance expectations.

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How attendance data flows into reports

Attendance records feed into two downstream areas:
  1. Student reports: Admin-level student reports include attendance summaries per course. Go to Admin Dashboard → Reports → Student Reports to view or export these. See Student Reports for details.
  2. Student Information System (SIS): Attendance data is accessible in each student’s record under Student Records, giving advisors and administrators a full picture of engagement across all courses.

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Best practices for accurate records

  • Mark attendance at the start of each session while the class is still assembled, rather than reconstructing it afterward.
  • Use Excused for documented absences rather than leaving the cell blank. An empty cell and an excused absence are treated differently in reports.
  • Review the previous session before class to catch any cells you may have left unmarked.
  • Communicate your policy clearly: Let students know how attendance is tracked and what each status means, so there are no surprises when they view their records.
Cells left blank are treated as unmarked — they do not count as present or absent in attendance summaries. Always mark a status for every student in every session to ensure accurate records.