Creating Room Layouts

Before you can create a seating chart to use when taking attendance, you must create a room layout. The room layout defines the location of each desk in the room. You can associate the room layout with a particular room number if your classes are assigned to a room. Room layouts are user-specific, so teachers who team teach must both create their own. For example, if Mr. Jones and Mrs. Smith teach kindergarten together in the same room, each teacher would need to create a room layout in order to take attendance by seating chart. You can also clone room layouts if necessary. Once students are assigned to a seating chart that is attached to the room layout, you will see their profile picture on the room layout. Clicking a picture will open the Students Using This Seat pop-up window, where you can view details including the student's name, class, and seating chart on which they are assigned.

Scroll past the video to access the step-by-step instructions.

Audio Transcript

Creating room layouts allows you to map the location of each desk in a room so that a seating chart can then be created for attendance taking purposes. This process begins within Teacher Access. Let’s head over to the Seating Chart List in the Attendance module. From here, we can create a room layout for rows of seats. We’ll also be able identify the room we’re creating this layout for. Let’s click Save and Add Seats. From here, the grid can be used to set up how our seats will be arranged within our room layout. We could individually add as many desks as we want or add multiple desks at once. We have the option to enable or disable the grid. If this box is unchecked, the grid lines will no longer display. If this box is checked, the size of the grid can be adjusted to be larger or smaller if needed. If we wanted to add desks individually, it’s as simple as clicking and dragging either the teacher or student desk to the desired area on the grid. If we needed to move multiple desks at once to a different location on the grid, we could click and drag to highlight the appropriate desks, and then move them accordingly. Similarly, if desks needed to be deleted, we could move them to the trash can. For this video, let’s create multiple seats at once. The number of rows, as well as the number of seats per row this room layout should have, can be specified here. Let’s save to complete the process. Now that you know how to create room layouts, you can be sure that you’re set up to create a seating chart for attendance taking purposes.

Procedure

Creating room layouts allows you to map the location of each desk in a room so that a seating chart can then be created for attendance taking purposes. This process begins within Teacher Access. Let’s head over to the Seating Chart List in the Attendance module. From here, we can create a room layout for rows of seats. We’ll also be able identify the room we’re creating this layout for. Let’s click Save and Add Seats. From here, the grid can be used to set up how our seats will be arranged within our room layout. We could individually add as many desks as we want or add multiple desks at once. We have the option to enable or disable the grid. If this box is unchecked, the grid lines will no longer display. If this box is checked, the size of the grid can be adjusted to be larger or smaller if needed. If we wanted to add desks individually, it’s as simple as clicking and dragging either the teacher or student desk to the desired area on the grid. If we needed to move multiple desks at once to a different location on the grid, we could click and drag to highlight the appropriate desks, and then move them accordingly. Similarly, if desks needed to be deleted, we could move them to the trash can. For this video, let’s create multiple seats at once. The number of rows, as well as the number of seats per row this room layout should have, can be specified here. Let’s save to complete the process. Now that you know how to create room layouts, you can be sure that you’re set up to create a seating chart for attendance taking purposes.





  1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Attendance.
  2. Select Seating Chart under Features.

    You see the Seating Chart List, which displays the room layouts and associated seating charts.

  3. Verify you are in the correct school year by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
  4. Under the Room Layouts heading, click Add Room Layout near the top right of the screen.

    You see the Add Room Layout screen.

  5. Complete the appropriate fields.

    Required fields are identified with an asterisk. You must complete required fields before you can save your work.

    1. Enter a Description to identify the room layout.

      For example, you could enter Rows or Pods.

    2. Enter a Room or click the Down Arrow icon to choose from the drop-down list, if appropriate.
      If you select a room, the room layout will only be available to classes you teach that have that room number assigned to the Meet. Alternatively, if you leave this field blank, the room layout will only be available to classes you teach that do not have a room assigned to the meet.
    3. Click Save & Add Seats near the top left of the screen.

      You should only click Save if you plan to add seats to the room layout at a later time.

      You see the General tab of the Room Layout Details screen. Under the Edit Room tab, you see a rectangle labeled as a Student Desk and a larger rectangle that is labeled as a Teacher Desk. Student desks can be added individually or you can add multiple desks at once.

      If the Enable Grid box near the top right of the screen is checked, you can click Decrease Grid or Increase Grid to adjust the size of the grid. If you uncheck the Enable Grid box, the grid lines no longer display.

      If you want to individually add desks, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you want to add multiple desks at once, skip to sub-step f.

    4. Drag and drop the desks onto the grid in your desired order.

      You can add as many desks as necessary to the grid. To relocate a desk, select it and drag it to the desired location. To relocate multiple desks at once, highlight the desks you wish to move by clicking and dragging your cursor to surround the necessary desks, clicking within the highlighted group of desks, and dragging the group to the desired location.

      If you wish to delete a desk, you can select it and drag it to the Trash Can icon at the bottom right of the screen. You can also delete multiple desks by highlighting and dragging the group to the Trash Can icon.

    5. Click Save near the top left of the screen to save your work.

      The seating chart is saved according to the arrangement you configured.

      If you wish to add multiple desks, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you are done adding desks, no further steps are required.

    6. Click Add Multiple Seats near the top right of the screen.

      You see the Add Seats window.

    7. Enter the Number of Rows you wish to have for desks in your classroom.
    8. Enter the Number of Seats Per Row.
  6. Click Save near the bottom of the window to save your work.

    You return to the General tab of the Room Layout Details screen, which displays the added student desks to the right of any previously existing desks, according to the values you entered.

Results

You have successfully created a room layout.