Canvas LMS Basics Guide

What is Course Analytics?

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Course Analytics provides interactive graphs and tables that allow instructors and students to track data related to course grades, activity, and communication. Instructors can track student grades, submission status, weekly course activity, individual student participation, and online attendance. Instructors can also use Course Analytics to message students based on their submission status or grade.

Students can use Course Analytics to view and download data about their course grades, weekly online activity, and Inbox communication.

Data displays in interactive chart graphs or tables. You can also download the data.

This transition offers increased load schedule frequency (every 8 hours instead of the current 24-48 refresh), ensures consistency in metrics with other data products across Canvas, and improves data quality and availability.

Notes:

Currently, Course Analytics is enabled by default and managed at the account and course levels through the New Course and User Analytics feature option.
In order for Course Analytics to display in Canvas, you may need to enable third-party cookies in your browser settings.
Course Analytics data does not display for unpublished courses.
Users can view Course Analytics only if their course role permission includes Analytics - view pages.
Because mobile page view data is based on device settings and network connection, it may vary from the time the page views actually occurred. Page view data should not be used to assess academic integrity.
Unposted assignments are not included in Course Analytics course grade tab.

View the video transcript

00:05: What is Course Analytics?

00:07: To access Course Analytics from Course Navigation,

00:10: click the Course Analytics link.

00:13: You can also access Course Analytics from the Course Analytics button in

00:17: the Course Home Page.

00:20: You can use Course Analytics to track

00:22: course grades for student submissions, course activity,

00:25: individual student data, communication data, submission status data, and

00:29: online attendance. As an instructor, you can perform various activities

00:33: using the following tabs in Course Analytics:

00:37: Course Grade: View average course grade analytics

00:40: as an interactive chart graph or a data table.

00:43: You can also compare the course average with an individual assignment, course

00:47: section, or student filter using the chart graph comparison or data

00:51: table comparison.

00:53: Weekly Online Activity: Access page view and participation data as

00:57: an interactive chart graph or a data table.

01:00: You can also compare the course average weekly online participation

01:04: analytics with an individual student or section using the chart graph

01:08: comparison or data table comparison.

01:11: Students: View grade and participation analytics for individual students.

01:16: You can also view message communication data between you

01:20: and individual students.

01:22: Reports: Run and download reports on missing, late, or excused

01:27: assignments. The Class Roster report provides a list of enrolled students along

01:31: with their contact information. The Course Activity report provides a

01:35: list of daily user interactions

01:37: in course resources.

01:40: Online Attendance: Discover whether students have met online attendance criteria

01:44: that has been selected by an admin. Admins must enable and configure

01:48: this report.

01:50: You can also use Course Analytics to communicate with students based on the analytics.

01:55: You can: Send a message to all students based

01:59: on specific course grade or participation criteria.

02:02: Send a message to an individual student based on specific course

02:07: grade or participation criteria.

02:10: You can use course, analytics as a student to view and or download

02:14: data about your grades course activity and communication to

02:18: access data, click the following tabs.

02:22: Course Grade: View a graph or table displaying your grades and submissions

02:26: Weekly Online Activity: View a graph or table displaying page views and

02:31: participation activities.

02:33: Communication: View a graph or table displaying Inbox message data.

02:38: A "page view" is when you open a page in a course. Page views can

02:43: give indicate how a user has been accessing course resources.

02:46: However, because page view data is based on requests

02:50: to the server, use page view data as a good approximation to activity

02:54: and not an absolute metric. Page view data is most valuable

02:59: for understanding whether activity occurred, and to make comparisons across

03:03: students within a course or when viewing trends week to week.

03:08: Several actions define participation in canvas and collectively describe

03:12: events where a user takes an action within a course, the following

03:17: student actions generate analytics course participation Announcements

03:23: posts. A new comment to an announcement.

03:26: Assignments submits an assignment.

03:29: Collaborations loads a collaboration to view.

03:31: Edit a document. Conferences.

03:34: Joins a Web Conference. Discussions posts and

03:38: new comment to a discussion. New quizzes, submits a

03:43: new quiz. Pages, creates a page.

03:46: Quizzes, submits a quiz. Who is starts taking a

03:50: quiz?

03:52: This guide covered Course Analytics.

Course Analytics Access

Analytics Beta Access

To access Course Analytics from Course Navigation, click the Course Analytics link [1].

You can also access Course Analytics from the Course Analytics button in the Course Home Page [2].

Note: If you do not see Course Analytics in Course Navigation, an instructor may need to enable Course Analytics in your Course Navigation.

When would I use Course Analytics as an Instructor?

Course Average tab in Analytics Beta

You can use Course Analytics to track course grades for student submissions, course activity, individual student data, communication data, submission status data, and online attendance.

As an instructor, you can perform various activities using the following tabs in Course Analytics:

Course Grade [1]: View average course grade analytics as an interactive chart graph or a data table. You can also compare the course average with an individual assignment, course section, or student filter using the chart graph comparison or data table comparison.
Weekly Online Activity [2]: Access page view and participation data as an interactive chart graph or a data table. You can also compare the course average weekly online participation analytics with an individual student or section using the chart graph comparison or data table comparison.
Students [3]: View grade and participation analytics for individual students. You can also view message communication data between you and individual students.
Reports [4]: Run and download reports on missing, late, or excused assignments. The Class Roster report provides a list of enrolled students along with their contact information. The Course Activity report provides a list of daily user interactions in course resources.
Online Attendance [5]: Discover whether students have met online attendance criteria that has been selected by an admin. Admins must enable and configure this report.

You can also use Course Analytics to communicate with students based on the analytics [6]. You can:

Send a message to all students based on specific course grade or participation criteria.
Send a message to an individual student based on specific course grade or participation criteria.

Notes:

Data is for viewing only and cannot directly be changed.
Page views and participation metrics include an aggregate across all devices, including Canvas mobile apps.
Courses with a course weight higher than 50,000 may not load properly. For courses with a course weight under 50,000, any loading issues should be reported to Canvas Support. Additionally, courses with a section weight over 100,000 (calculated as the number of sections multiplied by the number of students) cannot load Course Analytics and will display a message indicating the course is too large to load.

When would I use Course Analytics as a Student?

When would I use New Analytics as a student?

You can use Course Analytics as a student to view and/or download data about your grades, course activity, and communication. To access data, click the following tabs:

Course Grade [1]: View a graph or table displaying your grades and submissions
Weekly Online Activity [2]: View a graph or table displaying page views and participation activities
Communication [3]: View a graph or table displaying Inbox message data

What are Page Views and Participations?

A page view is when you open a page in a course. Page views can indicate how a user has been accessing course resources. However, because page view data is based on requests to the server, use page view data only as a good approximation to activity and not an absolute metric. Page view data is most valuable for understanding whether activity occurred, and to make comparisons across students within a course or when viewing trends week to week.

Several actions define participation in Canvas and collectively describe events where a user takes an action within a course. The following student actions generate analytics course participation:

Announcements: posts a new comment to an announcement
Assignments: submits an assignment
Collaborations: loads a collaboration to view/edit a document
Conferences: joins a web conference
Discussions: posts a new comment to a discussion
New Quizzes: submits a new quiz
Pages: creates a page
Quizzes: submits a quiz
Quizzes: starts taking a quiz

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