How to record students attendance in Moodle

Create activity

  1. Using the standard Add an activity or resource link within your course, select the Attendance activity and click OK.
  2. Give your activity a Name and Description (to explain what the purpose of this activity is).
  3. Click on Save and display.

Add session(s)



  1. Set the DateTime and Description for your session.
  2. If this is a recurring session, you should:
  • Choose to Repeat the session (1)
  • Select the day of the week (2) for when you wish to add additional sessions; 
  • Specify for how many weeks (3) until a specific date (4).
(in this example, the sessions are set to repeat weekly on a Monday until 24th February 2020) 

There is also a setting which allows students to record their own attendance (5).


Record attendance

From the Sessions screen, click on the Take attendance icon next to the session for which you wish to record attendance.



Record same attendance status for all students

1. Select All in the ‘Set status for’ drop-down list (1), select the appropriate status* (2) then click on Save attendance (3).


*The current statuses are defined as (Present), (Late), (Excused), and (Absent). It is possible to define different statuses for your attendance reporting. 

Record attendance status for individual students

1. Select the attendance status* for each student by clicking on the appropriate radio button (highlighted below) next to their name:


2. Should you wish to record a comment relating to a specific student’s attendance status, there is a text-entry field under the Remarks column for each student.
3. Click on Save attendance to confirm the set statuses.