Set Up an Attendance Activity

An Engage attendance activity consists of a single (100-point) question that you release to your students, usually at the beginning of class. The activity can be geofenced, meaning that participants need to be within a defined geographic location to access the activity. Each student's score will recorded in Blackboard automatically (no-score in the column indicates absence).

To take attendance with Engage, you'll need to do the following:

  1. Create an attendance activity in Engage.
  2. Link the attendance activity to your Blackboard course site.
  3. Release the attendance activity to your class.

To get started, you'll need to access the Engage home page.

Find Engage - Create and Manage Polls Tool

From Outside Blackboard

Type the following into your web browser's address bar:

https://udmercy.engage.yuja.com

Click the LOGIN button and sign in using the same Detroit Mercy Microsoft 365 login you use to access your email, Blackboard, etc.

From Within a Blackboard Course Site

Click TOOLS in the course menu --

default course menu with Tools circled in red

 

Then select Engage - Create & Manage Polls from the alphabetical tool list --

selection of the alphabetical Tools list with Engage circled in red.

Create an Attendance Activity

Next, you'll create the attendance activity in Engage. If you're planning to use geofencing to limit participation to a specific area, and if you plan to create more than one attendance activity for that geofenced area, we strongly recommend you create a geofence preset (click here for instructions)

Engage Attendance activities consist of a single question with a single response. Attendance activities can also be "geofenced." This lets you limit participation in the attendance activity to a geographic location (checked via GPS).

To create an attendance activity, go to the Engage Home page (Create & Manage Polls in Blackboard).

From the left-hand menu, expand CREATE and choose Attendance

ENGAGE left hand menu, create expanded, attendance circled.

If you don't see a menu on the left, look for a menu (3-line) button in the upper left. Click that to expand the menu.

engage home page, show menu button circled

By default, attendance items are titled "Attendance - " followed by the current date. To rename the attendance item, click and type into the bar at the top.

When choosing a name for your attendance activity, keep the following in mind:

  • If you connect the activity to your Blackboard course site, you will need to select it by name from a list of all your unreleased activities on Engage.
  • The name will be used as the column (or assignment) name in Blackboard's Gradebook / Grade Center.
  • If you want to look up the activity in Engage's own Grades page, you'll need to identify it by its name.

 

Beneath the item name is the item question. It defaults to "What is the word of the day?" You may change this question if you like, but you are limited to 1000 characters. Then enter the correct response in the space below. The answer will not be case sensitive.

Attendance question and answer fields circled

Because, in most cases, the focus of an attendance activity is on presence, most faculty will project, whiteboard, or announce the Correct Answer in class, after releasing the attendance activity.

To add geofencing, check the appropriate box.

Engage attendance item, create gofence checkbox circled

When the geofencing option is selected, a map will appear on the right side of the screen.

To set the location of your geofence, click the map to drop the location marker in that new spot. You can move the map via click-and-drag (click down on your mouse's left-button and continue to hold it down while you move your mouse). The scroll-wheel on your mouse (or the equivalent gesture on a laptop touchpad) will allow you to zoom in or out. Use the radius slider or enter numbers in the Meters space directly to make the appropriate area larger or smaller. 

Once you have made all the appropriate changes to your attendance activity, click the SAVE AND CLOSE button at the bottom of the screen.

To collect attendance scores (100 points) to Blackboard, you will need to add the attendance activity to your course

An Engage attendance activity consists of a single (100-point) question that you release to your students, usually at the beginning of class. The activity can be geofenced, meaning that participants need to be within a defined geographic location to access the activity. Each student's score will recorded in Blackboard automatically (no-score in the column indicates absence).

To take attendance with Engage, you'll need to do the following:

  1. Create an attendance activity in Engage.
  2. Link the attendance activity to your Blackboard course site.
  3. Release the attendance activity to your class.

To get started, you'll need to access the Engage home page.

Find Engage - Create and Manage Polls Tool

From Outside Blackboard

Type the following into your web browser's address bar:

https://udmercy.engage.yuja.com

You'll log in using the same Detroit Mercy Microsoft 365 login you use to access your email, Blackboard, etc.

From Within a Blackboard Course Site

If you are in a Blackboard course, find the Details and Actions heading (on the left of the Course Content page), then choose "View course & institution tools" link on the left, under Books and Tools label.

Image of Details and Actions list with view course and institution tools link circled

Then Click the "Engage - Create & Manage Polls" button. 

Image of Engage -Create & Manage Polls button

Clicking the + left of the green-check icon will add Engage - Create & Manage Polls to your course content page. If you choose to do this (you may find it a useful shortcut in the future), we recommend leaving the item unavailable to students.

 

Create an Attendance Activity

Next, you'll create the attendance activity in Engage. If you're planning to use geofencing to limit participation to a specific area, and if you plan to create more than one attendance activity for that geofenced area, we strongly recommend you create a geofence preset (click here for instructions)

Engage Attendance activities consist of a single question with a single response. Attendance activities can also be "geofenced." This lets you limit participation in the attendance activity to a geographic location (checked via GPS).

To create an attendance activity, go to the Engage Home page (Create & Manage Polls in Blackboard).

From the left-hand menu, expand CREATE and choose Attendance

ENGAGE left hand menu, create expanded, attendance circled.

If you don't see a menu on the left, look for a menu (3-line) button in the upper left. Click that to expand the menu.

engage home page, show menu button circled

By default, attendance items are titled "Attendance - " followed by the current date. To rename the attendance item, click and type into the bar at the top.

When choosing a name for your attendance activity, keep the following in mind:

  • If you connect the activity to your Blackboard course site, you will need to select it by name from a list of all your unreleased activities on Engage.
  • The name will be used as the column (or assignment) name in Blackboard's Gradebook / Grade Center.
  • If you want to look up the activity in Engage's own Grades page, you'll need to identify it by its name.

 

Beneath the item name is the item question. It defaults to "What is the word of the day?" You may change this question if you like, but you are limited to 1000 characters. Then enter the correct response in the space below. The answer will not be case sensitive.

Attendance question and answer fields circled

Because, in most cases, the focus of an attendance activity is on presence, most faculty will project, whiteboard, or announce the Correct Answer in class, after releasing the attendance activity.

To add geofencing, check the appropriate box.

Engage attendance item, create gofence checkbox circled

When the geofencing option is selected, a map will appear on the right side of the screen.

To set the location of your geofence, click the map to drop the location marker in that new spot. You can move the map via click-and-drag (click down on your mouse's left-button and continue to hold it down while you move your mouse). The scroll-wheel on your mouse (or the equivalent gesture on a laptop touchpad) will allow you to zoom in or out. Use the radius slider or enter numbers in the Meters space directly to make the appropriate area larger or smaller. 

Once you have made all the appropriate changes to your attendance activity, click the SAVE AND CLOSE button at the bottom of the screen.

To collect attendance scores (100 points) to Blackboard, you will need to add the attendance activity to your course

Add an Engage Activity to a Course

Once your activity is all set up, you'll need to go back to your Blackboard course to add the activity. This is the step that creates the column in your Blackboard Gradebook for the session attendance.

A powerful feature of Engage is its ability to sync poll and attendance grades to your Blackboard course Gradebook. 

Note: You cannot add a poll to more than one course. If you want to re-use a poll, you'll need to duplicate it for each course that you want to use it in.

To connect the poll to a course, you'll need to add it to your Blackboard course site's content area. 

Once you add an Engage Activity to Blackboard, students will need to click the Engage Activity link in Blackboard to participate.

Click the ADD button in the content area, then choose CONTENT MARKET.

add menu content market circled

Locate and click the Engage - Add Activity to Course (red-check) button in the Content Market list. 

Add activity to course button in context, circled

 

The Add Activity page defaults to adding a poll. If you want to add an Attendance Check, click the ATTENDANCE CHECK tab at the top.

Top of add activity window, attendance check text circled

 

If necessary, use the search box to locate the activity you wish to add. The filter button left of the search box can be used to narrow the results displayed.

Top of add activity window, search box and filter button circled 

 

Click the + button on the far right of the row for the activity you wish to add.

activities list, add button circled.

This will add the item to your course's content list. If the item is scored, it will also add a 100-point column to the course Gradebook. Student scores will be added upon completion (if the item includes short-answer questions, you will need to score those items manually before the grade imports).

Scores are added as a percent (points out of 100).