Overview
Instructors use Attendance to mark learners present, absent, or excused for each meeting or lesson in a section. Administrators configure the section first, choosing whether attendance is tracked by meeting date or by lesson number, and instructors record status per session.
Attendance is stored for reporting only. It does not affect completion, grades, or credit, and the section’s Completion Formula does not read attendance data.
Setting Up the Section (Administrator)
Step 1: Choose how attendance is tracked
Navigation: Sections > select the Section > Edit
On the section edit form, find the Attendance Measure dropdown and pick one:
By Meeting Times (default). You will add each meeting the section holds. Instructors then pick a meeting date when they record attendance.
By Lesson Number. On the new Section page, Attendance Measure is in Attendance and Grading, and the lesson count field is named Lessons. It is required and must be at least 1. You will set a total lesson count in the Lessons # field that appears. Instructors pick a lesson number (Lesson 1, Lesson 2, and so on) instead of a date.
Save the section. If you picked By Lesson Number, you are done with setup, so skip Step 2.
Step 2: Add the section's meeting times
Scroll to Add a meeting time on the same edit form. In the modal, fill in Day of the week, Start, End, Timezone, and (optionally) Room Assignment, then click Add. On the new Section page, meeting times are in Dates and Meeting Info. Click Add a meeting time, choose When (the day), Start, and End, and optionally Time Zone and Room Assignment, then click Add.
Add one entry per recurring meeting. A section that meets Monday and Wednesday gets two entries. Your entries appear in the grid below with the When, Start, End, Time Zone, and Room Assignment you set.
Note: Instructors cannot record attendance for a By Meeting Times section until at least one meeting time exists.
Recording Attendance (Instructor)
Open the section, then click Attendance in the left menu.
Navigation: Sections > select the Section > Attendance
The Section is already filled in for you.
Pick a Day (or a Lesson #, if that is how the section is set up).
Click Show Attendance. The roster loads, one row per active learner, with each learner’s dropdown pre-filled to your organization’s default status.
Change the status for anyone who is an exception. Leave the rest alone.
Click Save.
Note: Only active enrollments show up here. Learners who dropped, withdrew, or already completed will not appear.
Available Statuses
Every organization starts with four: Present, Excused Absence, Unexcused Absence, and Exempt. Administrators can rename these, add new ones, or hide the ones they do not use. If your dropdown shows a different set, that is why.
Navigation: Administration > System Setup > Lists > Attendance Types
Changing the Pre-Selected Status
By default, every learner’s dropdown starts on Unexcused Absence, so the instructor only has to update the ones who were there or excused. Some organizations prefer starting on Present instead.
This default is set on the back end and is not editable in the admin interface. Contact Support and tell us which status you would like pre-selected, and we will switch it for you.
Attendance vs. Completion
Attendance and completion are separate systems in Genius CE & Enterprise.
When you save attendance, it goes into the attendance record and nothing else changes. A learner marked absent for every meeting can still complete the section. A learner marked present every time can still be incomplete. Completion is driven by the section’s Completion Formula, which looks at grades and assignments, not attendance.
Note: If your organization needs completion to depend on attendance (for example, "must attend 80% of meetings to complete"), that is a customization. Reach out to Support and we will help you scope it.