Early student interaction and feedback is critical to student success, and Canvas has tools that can provide metrics on that interaction within the LMS. For in-person students, this could mean having them check the Syllabus for course expectations and Calendar for semester due dates. In an online course, early and ongoing engagement is vital to building meaningful learning experiences and students’ success. Check out the interactive “Blazing New Trails for Online Engagement” for examples in the online environment.
Below are some of the Canvas tools available to you to view student engagement in Canvas.
New Analytics
New Analytics provides the following visuals about your course(s) and students:
- Average Course Grades for all of your assignments
- Weekly Online Activity to see page views and participation
- Students to see their current course grade, their percentage of on-time submissions, participations, and page views
- Reports that display missing assignments, late assignments, excused assignments, a class roster, and course activity
- Online Attendance which automatically tracks specific interactions of your students
The easiest way to access New Analytics is by going to your Home page of a Canvas course and then clicking on the New Analytics button on the right side of your screen.
- Alternatively, the New Analytics course navigation menu can be enabled on the left side of your screen by going to your course Settings >> Navigation tab. Then, drag the New Analytics button from the bottom (inactive) list to the top (active) list. How do I manage Course Navigation links?
The Course Grade tab will show you the average course grade for various assignments in your course.
Click on any of the dots within the graph to view additional details about the assignment.
Use the “Message Students Who” button to send a message to students who:
- fall within a specific percentage
- have missing work
- have late work
The Weekly Online Activity tab displays average page views, average participation, and a table of resource content in your course (Students, Page Views, and Participations).
Click on any of the dots within the graph to see additional information on page views, participation, and the resources that were viewed.
Use the “Message Students Who” button to send a message to students who:
- viewed a specific resource
- didn’t view a specific resource
- participated in a specific resource
- didn’t participate in a specific resource
The Students tab will show you a complete listing of all students enrolled in your course. The table also displays:
- a student’s current course grade
- percentage of assignments submitted on time or before a due date
- the date when a student last interacted with the course
- the date when a user last accessed the course
- the count of total page views for a student within the course
- the count of total participations for a student within the course
On this screen, the same options are available for “Message Students Who” that are available on the Course Grade tab.
The Reports tab offers five reports that can be run from this screen. After running the report, you can download a *.csv file to your computer to look at the data.
The Online Attendance screen automatically displays if a student has participated in the course for a given day of the week. Criteria include:
- Course Access: student views a page in a course
- Posts: student posts a new comment to an announcement or a discussion
- Assignments: student submits an assignment
- Collaborations: student loads a collaboration to view/edit document
- Conferences: student joins a web conference
- Pages: student creates a page
- Quizzes: student starts taking or submits a classic quiz or submits a classic quiz
If a student meets the requirements of any selected criteria, he/she will be marked as present for that day in the Online Attendance report.
Additional Resources
- How do I view New Analytics in a course as an instructor?
- How do I view average course grade analytics in an interactive chart graph in New Analytics?
- How do I compare the course average chart graph with an assignment, section, or student filter in New Analytics?
- How do I send a message to all students based on specific course criteria in New Analytics?
- How do I send a message to an individual student in New Analytics?
- How do I view weekly online activity analytics in an interactive chart graph in New Analytics?
- How do I compare the weekly online activity chart graph with a section or student filter in New Analytics?
- How do I send a message to all students based on specific course participation criteria in New Analytics?
- How do I send a message to an individual student based on specific course participation criteria in New Analytics?
- How do I view and download reports in New Analytics?
- How do I view the Online Attendance report in New Analytics?