Taking Attendance Online

For the past few years, I have been taking attendance in my online class and dropping students who do not take the attendance survey. I tried to promote this idea in person but it fell on deaf ears. As usual I was ahead of the times. Now it seems there are some students who sign up for online classes without any intention to participate for the purpose of collecting Financial Aid.
For any faculty interested in my method here it is again feel free to use it. If you improve on my idea please share it in the comment field.

First you will need an attendance button on your blackboard site.

To create a button go to the upper left hand side of the screen in blackboard and click on the + sign

Click on Create Content Area

Name the area as Attendance

In this area place two simple surveys for students to take as attendance.

 The survey will ask a very simple question
It is important to keep the survey short and to the point so students will participate without stressing.

Use the grade book to see who has and who has not participated in the survey.
If a student participates in the attendance survey they will have a check mark in the grade book.
I suggest to take attendance twice in case students miss the first attendance quiz.
In my class I drop students who have missed both attendance quizzes for week one and week two.

Another method to discover who is and who is not participating in the class is to use the performance dashboard.

1. Under control panel click on Evaluation
2. Under Evaluation click on Performance Dashboard

You can view which student has logged in and which student has not. Also you can view how many days since any student has accessed the course.