I give my first-year students points for attending class in the form of clicker questions which are also a learning activity. These points are not a large fraction of their final grade, but small incentives seem to help. They also earn course credit for participating in tutorials.

I found this to be partially effective this semester by having a daily in class assignment. It was most days. Not every day.

I do the same, but my rule is that if they do 80% of the questions, they get 100% of the points. So if they need to take a sick/mental health day every now and then they shouldn't worry about it.