Taking seminar attendance
  • 05 Jul 2023
  • 3 minutes to read

Taking seminar attendance


Article summary

Once attendees are booked and confirmed for a seminar event and the selected Event attendance - Mark at time has arrived, a Site Administrator, Editing Trainer, or Trainer can take attendance.

The Take attendance area can be accessed via the corresponding Attendees link in the event or (where Session attendance tracking is enabled) via the Take attendance link on any relevant session in the events dashboard.

Navigating to the Attendees tab.

Taking event attendance

Mark event attendance for each individual by using the corresponding Current status dropdown to select:

  • No show
  • Unable to attend
  • Partially attended
  • Fully attended 

As soon as the Mark attendance at time has been reached you can update each learner's status.

Click Save attendance to save any changes or Cancel to clear all changes and return to the Attendees tab.

Note that if any learners in the event have the attendance status Not set, the events dashboard will still display the Take attendance link, even after saving the event attendance. The events dashboard will only display Attendance saved in the Event status and Session status columns once all learners have the Current status field set.

Where Session attendance tracking is enabled, the event Take attendance page will display additional information. Under each attendee, the total number of sessions marked with each attendance status will be displayed.  This allows trainers to consider the attendee's overall attendance before awarding an Event attendance.

When Manual event grading is enabled, the Take attendance tab for an event (not for a session) will include an Event grade column.

A trainer can manually grade learners by entering a number from 0 to 100 within each corresponding row.

If the grade of a learner is left blank (i.e. the input box displays Empty), no grade will set for the event, and the event will not be used to calculate the seminar activity grade.

The Take attendance tab for a seminar event.

Seminar Event grades are added to the course Grades area and will count towards a learner's course grade and Course completion (if set).

Taking session attendance

When Session attendance tracking is enabled, administrators and trainers can record learner attendance for individual seminar sessions. Session attendance tracking can be enabled in the activity defaults.

Use the Take attendance dropdown menu at the top of the Take attendance page to select the required session, then record the learner's attendance status within the Session attendance dropdown menu, selecting as required from:

  • No show
  • Unable to attend
  • Partially attended
  • Fully attended
Note that if any learners in the session have the attendance status Not set, the events dashboard will still display the Take attendance link, even after saving the session attendance. The events dashboard will only display Attendance saved in the Event status and Session status columns once all learners have the Current status field set.

Like events, session attendance can be marked individually or in bulk.

Sessions may be unavailable (dimmed) if attendance is not yet allowed, depending on the Mark attendance at setting. Please see Set up a seminar for more information.

Marking bulk attendance

Alternatively, Site Administrators and Trainers can mark attendance in bulk. Using the Select dropdown choose All, Set, or Not set then set the Mark all selected as dropdown to No show, Unable to attend, Partially attended, or Fully attended as required.

  • All: Select all learners
  • Set: Select all learners that have already been marked with an attendance status
  • Not set: Select all learners that have not yet been marked with an attendance status

Click the Save attendance button to save changes or Cancel to clear all changes and return to the Attendees tab.

A seminar activity can be marked as complete based on the user's attendance status (Partially attended and/or Fully attended). 

The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to Seminar Management in Totara Learn. Here you can learn more about how to use seminars, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

Can't find what you're looking for? Contact us at documentation@totara.com. Alternatively, book a call to have a chat about your Totara platform with a dedicated Customer Success Manager.

© Copyright 2024 Totara Learning Solutions. All rights reserved. Some content originally obtained via GPLv3 license and continues to be available under GPLv3. All other content is the sole copyright of Totara Learning Solutions. 

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