Google Sheets is one of the most sought-after tools for tracking digital attendance after webinars, live events, or online seminars. It is easily accessible from multiple devices and can be shared with just one click. In this article, I will show you how to create a digital attendance sheet using Google Sheets with examples and reveal a secret way to painlessly track online attendance. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Steps to Create a Free Digital Attendance Sheet with Google Sheets
Tips for Creating Attendance Tracking with Google Sheets for Online Trainings and Webinars
Some Challenges with Manual Attendance Tracking in Google Sheets
Alternative Ways to Track Attendance Online
What is Digital Attendance Tracking?
A digital attendance tracking is a system or application that you set up to monitor online attendance. Tracking attendance through digital means can help you maintain accurate records of student and participant attendance after conducting a training or live webinar. An accurate and up-to-date digital attendance tracking can serve as your reference source for sharing digital certificates with qualified participants.
Steps to Create a Free Digital Attendance Sheet with Google Sheets
Here are a few steps to create a digital attendance sheet using Google Sheets from scratch:
Step 1: Create a New Google Sheet
Go to Google Sheets and sign in to your Google account if you haven’t already. Then, click on the + icon to create a blank spreadsheet. Rename your spreadsheet. Go to File > Rename and enter “Digital Attendance Sheet for “.
Step 2: Prepare Your Attendance Sheet
Change the name of the sheet to something relevant to the title. You can find the sheet name in the bottom-right corner. Then, start adding the mandatory columns, such as date, student/participant name, email address, and attendance status. Here’s what we’ll add to our Google attendance sheet for a marketing webinar:
- Column A: Event Date
- Column B: Participant Name
- Column C: Participant ID
- Column D: Participant Email Address
- Column E: Attendance Status (A – Present, NA – Not Present)
You can add additional columns if you need more information about the participants. Don’t forget to add a “Participant ID” column to ensure there are no proxies and the right people receive their event certificates.
Step 3: Format Your Columns
By default, each cell in a Google spreadsheet is formatted as text. However, since you have date and attendance status columns, it’s more efficient to have them formatted as “Date” and “Drop-down menu”. This way, participants can easily mark their attendance without confusion.
Here are two simple steps to format the columns:
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Freeze the header row for better visibility while scrolling through the sheet. To do this, select View > Freeze > 1 row.
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Add a date format to the Event Date column and a drop-down menu to the Attendance Status column. For a date picker, select Data > Data Validation and click on “Add new rule”. Enter the range based on the number of participants and select “is a valid date” as the criteria. Click on Done.
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And there you have it! A date picker for the Event Date column.
Now, to add two options in the Attendance Status column, follow the same steps as above and enter the two options as shown below:
- Present
- Absent
You can also set a color validation, for example, green for present and red for absence.
Step 4: Start Entering Data and Share the Sheet
You can mark the attendance of participants yourself or share the Google sheet with participants for them to indicate their attendance status. For example, you can share the link to the Google digital attendance sheet in the online chat of your webinar or training and ask participants to mark their attendance. To share the sheet, click on Share, update “Anyone with the link” to “Editor”, and copy the link to paste it in the meeting chat or your emails.
This is what your Google digital attendance sheet will look like once the data is entered.
Tips for Creating Attendance Tracking with Google Sheets for Online Trainings and Webinars
You don’t want to send certificates to absent participants after a training or webinar just because there was a small error while recording attendance. So here are a few quick tips to get you started:
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Define your goal: Are you creating the attendance tracking to facilitate the distribution of digital certificates? Or are you creating a participant registry for future advanced training? Based on your goal, create a rough schema of the mandatory columns for your attendance sheet.
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Train participants on Google Sheets editing techniques: Make sure that the participants of your webinar or training are adequately trained on how and where to update the digital attendance sheet. Provide them with practical instructions and a demonstration to avoid any data issues.
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Ensure data confidentiality: Since you may collect sensitive information like participant IDs or signatures, make sure to share the sheet only with designated collaborators and control access.
Some Challenges with Manual Attendance Tracking in Google Sheets
While Google Sheets is free and generally secure for collaboration, there are a few potential challenges when using it for digital attendance tracking. Let’s discuss:
1. Increased potential for human errors
Manually entering data is more prone to input errors, incorrect IDs, wrong dates, and wrong statuses. Such errors make validation extremely time-consuming, especially for events with a large number of participants.
2. Data privacy issues
Since a single Google spreadsheet has to be shared with each participant for updates, you risk exposing sensitive information as you have no control over how most participants may use others’ data. On the other hand, marking attendance yourself can demand significant effort and time.
3. Lack of automation
Google spreadsheets cannot reflect real-time updates by participants and can only be updated manually. They are not extended to add automation features, such as automatically updating statuses based on participants’ actions during the online event.
4. Difficulty in tracking sheet changes
Tracking who made changes and when they made them can be challenging with Google Sheets. This could foster a culture of substitutions, which would undermine the credibility of your online training, course, or webinar.
Alternative Ways to Track Attendance Online
As creators/organizers of trainings and webinars, you know the challenges of managing numerous participants. Whether it’s answering their queries or marking their attendance, it’s no small task. So why not explore more efficient solutions for tracking attendance online during your digital trainings or webinars? Here are a few alternative ways to save time and track attendance:
1. Using scannable QR codes
Imagine participants simply scanning a QR code to mark their attendance at the end of a session. It’s painless, efficient, and accurate. Virtualbadge.io offers unique QR codes to display at the end of your online training or webinar, prompting participants to scan them to mark their attendance and receive their certificates. Explore how it works by scanning the QR code below:
Virtualbadge.io also displays a survey form after the scan to encourage participants to submit their feedback before receiving their certificates.
2. Using registration links
Some event management platforms and applications allow you to create unique registration links for each event, in our case, online trainings or webinars. Once a session is completed, you can send out these links in the meeting chat for active participants to instantly register themselves and mark their attendance.
3. Using biometrics
Biometric measures, such as facial recognition or fingerprint scanning, are widely used in businesses and educational institutions. You can automate attendance tracking using these biometric features to ensure that the right people register and access certificates.
In conclusion
Google Sheets is a reliable and affordable tool for creating a digital attendance sheet. However, it’s not the most efficient solution due to the amount of manual effort and time required. You can still track digital attendance using Google Sheets with our tips, but it’s worth considering alternatives if you want to do more in less time. An automated solution like Virtualbadge.io is a one-stop-shop for digital attendance tracking with QR codes, certificate generation, and distribution. Start your 7-day free trial to test the tool today!
To learn more:
- Comment créer des certificats numériques pour votre cours en ligne ou votre programme de formation gratuitement
- Comment créer des certificats avec des codes QR en utilisant Virtualbadge.io : Guide pas à pas
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How to set up a QR code for attendance?
Virtualbadge.io automatically generates a unique QR code for your event or session. You can then display it on-screen at the end of the session, allowing participants to scan the code and submit their attendance.
2. How to create a digital attendance sheet?
You can create a digital attendance sheet using Google Sheets as follows:
- Create a blank sheet.
- Fill in the title and sheet name.
- Enter the mandatory columns such as participant name, email address, ID, attendance status, event date, etc.
- Format the columns. For example, add a date picker to the Date field and a drop-down menu to enter attendance.
- Update access to Google Sheets and share the link with designated people.
