Overview
Harmonize offers two methods for tracking attendance. Graded Polls can be used at the course level and requires little setup. The Harmonize Activity API can be used at the account level to collect attendance-related data from Harmonize discussions across all courses that use Harmonize.
Tracking Attendance with Graded Polls
Pros
- Easy to setup
- Available to any instructor using Harmonize
- Attendance automatically recorded in the grade book
- Flexibility on how long to count attendance by adjusting availability dates
Cons
- Setting up polling across multiple courses takes planning and coordination
- No syncing of data to attendance module or service
Setup
- Navigate to the section of your course where you can add graded Harmonize assignments
- Add a new assignment and create a new Poll
- Give your poll at title, select the number of points you'd like to award for attendance and save
- Set the availability and due dates on the graded poll so that students can only access it during a certain date and/or time range:
- Canvas: Edit the assignment settings and enter an Available From, Available To and (optionally) Due Date for the poll, located in the Assign section of the settings
- Blackboard Learn: Click on the drop down arrow next to the poll in Blackboard and select the Adaptive Release option. On the Adaptive Release settings page, enable the Display After and Display Until fields and enter dates and times
- Additionally, you can set a due date by clicking the drop down arrow next to the poll in Blackboard, selecting the Change Due Date option and setting a due date and time
- Blackboard Ultra: In the course content, click on the visibility drop down for the graded poll and select the Release conditions option
- Under Set additional conditions, check the Date/Time box then check the Show on and Hide after checkboxes, enter dates and times and click Save
- Optionally, you can set a due date by clicking edit on the graded poll listing in Blackboard and entering a due date and time
- Brightspace: In course content, click the drop down arrow next to the graded poll, select the Edit Properties In-Place option, click on the Add Dates and Restrictions... section and enter Start Date, Due Date and End Date and times
- If your course does not have these options, you can go to Course Administration - Site Resources - Manage Dates. There you can set a Start Date, Due Date and End Date for the graded poll
- Moodle: In course content, turn on editing, click on the Edit menu for the graded poll and select Edit settings. On the Settings page, expand the Restrict access section and add two date restrictions, one for date from and one for date until
- Access the graded poll and set your poll question and options.
- Once the graded poll becomes accessible to students, they will be able to answer the poll and will receive a grade immediately after answering.
- Note that a graded poll can include multiple poll questions if desired. Students will receive partial credit for each poll question answered, which will add up to full credit when all questions are answered.
Tracking Attendance with Harmonize Activity API
Pros
- Flexibility in what time frame you choose to look for attendance-worthy activity
- No additional setup required by instructors
- API is developer-friendly
- Designed to be used in conjunction with other data points from the LMS to create a holistic view of attendance
- Attendance data can be reported to any service or system your institution uses
- Works across any course using Harmonize regardless of how course is structured
Cons
- Requires an external program to be created and run to query for the data on a regular schedule
- Requires knowledge of external attendance reporting system, LMS and the attendance reporting requirements that apply to your institution
Setup
- Login as an LMS admin and navigate to Apps section where Harmonize is installed (root account, sub-account or course)
- Click on the gear icon next for the Harmonize app and select the Configure option
- Scroll down to the API Keys section
- If you do not see an API Key section, contact Harmonize Support to enable the Harmonize Activity API for your account
- Click the Add button and record the API key
- Review the API documentation at the link posted above the key row