It’s easy for instructors to wonder if students are engaging with course content and keeping on top of their coursework. Fortunately, Canvas provides New Analytics, an excellent tool that helps instructors see how students are progressing. New Analytics can be used to reach out to students who are not engaging or are falling behind. With this tool, instructors can ensure that students who may need help or extra attention know how to improve and what resources are available to them.
Beyond helping students, New Analytics can gauge whether your content is working or if it might be time to swap out or refresh a module, assignment, activity or assessment. If a piece of supplemental material is rarely being accessed, it may suggest it isn’t a particularly valuable resource for students or that students may need better priming to understand its value. Formatting or layout of the material can also be checked. Essentially, information provided in the tool can be used to help audit the course content.
There are many more features and uses for New Analytics, so it is encouraged to use and explore this tool. For additional help, please visit the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design’s virtual/physical drop-in hours.
Best practices: When should this be used?
- Use New Analytics to identify struggling students and contact them with tailored feedback. Intervening early with struggling students can have a more meaningful impact on preventing withdrawals and failing grades.
- Use New Analytics to evaluate how students are engaging with course materials and to improve course design. Content with low engagement could be improved by adding more information or better priming and context within the module.
- Run reports in New Analytics to tailor data to exact interests. Reports can be used to see data on many subjects and apply filters to weed out extraneous detail.
Walking through it together
Walking through it together
For complete written step-by-step instructions, visit the CTLD Ready Spotlight tutorial page.
Have questions?
Want help on this or other teaching and learning topics? Please visit the CTLD for drop-in support (10 a.m.-3 p.m., M-F) or try one of the self-help tutorials.