Are you looking for efficient ways to take attendance in Microsoft Teams? Well… you have come to the right place!

3 easy ways to take attendance in Teams:

1. Microsoft Forms
2. Teams Post Reply
3. Insights

In this blog, we will do our best to explain each option. We encourage you to select the method that works best for you. Each option we will be explaining was discovered through exploring ideas and trial and error. Remember the beauty of learning and growing together is building upon each other’s ideas! We can’t wait to see how you utilize Teams to take attendance.

Alright, let’s dive in..

#1 Microsoft Forms

We love Microsoft Forms! Forms are efficient, easy to use, they are located in your Microsoft 365 account, and they work seamlessly with Teams. There are a few ways you can utilize Forms within Teams to take attendance:

• as a top tab in a channel
• as a post
• as a recurring post

As a Top Tab in a Channel

So how do we do this?

1. Create a Form in Microsoft 365 for taking attendance
2. Create a channel in Teams for attendance
3. Click the plus button at the top of the attendance channel and add either Forms or a Website
   • Forms tab – select the Form from your pre-created Forms list
   • Website – Click the share button at the top of your form, copy the link for only people in my organization, click copy. In Teams select website from the top tab, paste the Forms link.

Create a Teams Post with the Form

Another way to utilize Forms within Teams to take attendance is through a post. Once again, we suggest creating a channel for attendance then creating a post (we like announcements the best) and then hyperlink a Form into the post.

An Announcement makes the post stand out with a bold banner across the top and you can mark it as important. This is a great way to draw attention to a post. Need to know how to create a post? Check out this episode of the Jenallee Show for 5 tips for creating announcements in Teams.

Creating a Recurring Post with Microsoft Flow

Creating a top tab with a Form or creating a Post with a Form are both great ways to take attendance, but what about making things a little smoother by setting up a Flow?

Flow automates actions within Microsoft applications. What makes Flow important for attendance? Well… we can automate these Forms posts! Whoop! So that means we can set up a flow to automatically post the Attendance Form link every day within the Attendance channel. 💥Boom💥 So this means each day, all I have to do as a teacher is simply check my Microsoft Form to see the responses from the day. Oh yeah! We love efficient operations within the classroom and we think that utilizing Flow is a great option for attendance.

Okay so if you are like us, Flow looks scary and hard. No need to fear, we have created a quick video to walk you through creating a Flow in minutes to automatically post an attendance check each day. Check out this episode of the Jenallee Show to learn how 👇

#2 Create a Post

Now that we have looked at Forms, let’s take a look at utilizing Posts in Teams. A fun and engaging way to take attendance is through Teams Posts. Create a post (as you know we love announcements) and ask a question for the day, allow students to respond with a fun gif or emoji. What a great way to build community, do a quick SEL check, and encourage communication 👉 all while just taking attendance.

We do believe this is initially the easiest way to take attendance, however in the long run this could be the most time consuming way to take attendance. Each day you will easily create a post, then you will need to review the responses to take attendance. You can totally take attendance this way, however you might want to consider our third suggestion, Insights.

#3 Insights

We hope that one of these options will help you take attendance with ease during remote learning with Microsoft Teams. Let us know if you have a suggestion of another way to take attendance in Teams!

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