This is the first tip in a series about using the features of Canvas New Analytics to support your teaching and your students’ learning. In this tip I will share some basic details and resources for getting started with Canvas New Analytics and provide an outline for the other tips in the series that will follow.

A Quick Overview of New Analytics Features

The New Analytics dashboard updates every 24 hours and offers useful insights and features such as:

Average course grade
Weekly online activity (Are students accessing the course and completing the activities?)
Individual student activity (How is a particular student doing?)
“Message students who” meet a certain criterion, such as not having submitted an assignment.
Generate reports, such as course activity, missing, and late assignments either for the whole class or an individual student.

For a brief demo of these features check out this video!

Enabling New Analytics for the First Time

The first time you access New Analytics in each course, you may need to enable it first (you may not see the button to access the tool if you haven’t enabled it). To do this, go to Settings, then select the Feature Options tab, then click the red x next to New Course and User Analytics, and select the enabled option.

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Accessing New Analytics

Once it has been enabled, you can access New Analytics from the right-hand navigation on your course homepage.

Resources for New Analytics

Overview of New Analytics by Canvas (6:06)
New Analytics Demo at HU by Justin Detig (7:24)

New Analytics Canvas Guides for Instructors
Research Article: Students' LMS interaction patterns and their relationship with achievement: A case study in higher education (this one is for those of you that may be wondering “Why bother?”)

Upcoming Scenario-Based Tips

Over the next several weeks, CITL will be sharing a series of scenarios related to using these new features to support your teaching in different contexts.

Mid-Week Check-In – Tracking Overall Class Engagement

Keeping your class on track throughout the week is an important faculty role that New Analytics can help with. At one glance, you can see who has logged into a course, accessed a page or resource, submitted a post to a discussion forum, taken a quiz, etc. Then individuals who may not be on track can be nudged all at once to encourage them to get to work before it’s too late.

Tracking Individual Student Progress

One of your students is performing poorly in your course, so you look at the student's interactions with Canvas to better understand the situation. Have they been using all available resources in Canvas but are simply not mastering the content?  Have they been interacting with their classmates? This knowledge will allow you to tailor how you approach the student about their performance. From within New Analytics you will also have an opportunity to message the student to find out if there are any problems, after which you can connect the student with the proper support resources and/or file a CARES Report.

Did anyone do the reading? – Tracking Activity Completion, Missing, & Late Assignments

New Analytics can help faculty keep track of student completion status for assignments as well as whether they have viewed a particular page or resource. You can answer the question “have they done the reading?” for any digital resources, possibly even to help inform a participation grade. You can easily track who has missing or late assignments or other required activities and send a direct message to help get those students back on track.

Tracking & Reporting Attendance in Asynchronous Online Courses

In fully online, asynchronous courses attendance is based on completion of a predetermined activity and must be reported to the Registrar at certain times. New Analytics can make this reporting easier, even allowing a list of participation by student for a particular activity to be exported.

Identifying Learning Gaps in Quizzes/Exams

After delivering a Canvas Quiz, you realize your students did not do as well as you were expecting. New analytics can help you identify which questions many students may have struggled with, allowing you to understand where the learning gap exists and fill it in with additional instruction before moving on. This can help faculty ensure that students have grasped all the concepts of your course.