Introduction to the Attendance plugin (mod_attendance) on Moodle

mod_attendance is a Moodle activity that lets teachers track and manage student attendance. It replaces or complements paper-based attendance sheets and is especially useful in blended-learning environments where students attend face-to-face classes, lectures, and tutorials.

The Attendance plugin is developed by Gemtech Education and is included in Gemtech's Moodle solutions.

Benefits

Save time: Teachers take attendance quickly on the web interface—no paper registers.
Transparent data: Reports by course, student, or session; easy Excel/CSV export.
Gradebook integration: Attendance grades feed directly into Moodle Gradebook.
Fewer errors: Clear statuses (P/A/L/E) reduce mistakes compared to paper attendance.
Automatic alerts: Email reminders when students exceed the allowed number of absences.
Blended learning: Track participation both online and in person.

Main features

1. Session management

Create attendance sessions with date and start/end time
Configure recurring sessions (days/weeks, course length)
Import sessions from CSV
Link with Moodle calendar

2. Attendance statuses

Default statuses can be customized. Teachers can define their own status set to match school policy.

Code	Status	Description
P	Present	Present
A	Absent	Absent
L	Late	Late
E	Excused	Excused

3. Taking attendance

Teacher: Click "Update Attendance" and set status per student
Self-report: Allow students to record their own attendance
Auto-mark: Optional auto-mark by IP, password, or other conditions

Attendance interface — session, status P/L/E/A, notes — Attendance interface — set status per student (Present, Late, Excused, Absent), quick stats and notes.

4. Reports and export

Reports by course, student, or session
Summary report
Export to Excel, CSV, text
Absentee report

Attendance report — stats, trend chart, diligence percentage — Student attendance report — summary cards, status trend analysis and diligence %, export report.

5. Grading

Assign grades based on attendance rate; integrates with Moodle Gradebook.

6. Alerts

Email alerts when a student exceeds a set number of absences; optional absence notifications.

Capabilities

attendance:addinstance — Add attendance activity
attendance:view — View attendance
attendance:takeattendances — Take attendance
attendance:changeattendances — Change attendance
attendance:manageattendances — Manage sessions
attendance:viewreports — View reports
attendance:export — Export reports
attendance:import — Import sessions from file

Main pages

view.php – Main page, redirects to Manage or Report
manage.php – Manage sessions (add, edit, delete)
take.php – Take attendance
report.php – Attendance report
preferences.php – Configure status set
export.php – Export data

Practical use cases

Face-to-face classes: Daily or per-session attendance
Blended learning: Track both online and in-person participation
Corporate training: Record attendance at training courses
Seminars and workshops: Attendance per session
Course assessment: Use attendance rate for participation grade