Student File Access Report

[themidiman]

Wondering if anyone knows how an instructor can see the usage of a particular file by all students on the roster. They want to know how effective a particular study guide file is before creating more like them for all the assessments. An individual student's access report will show it on their logs but to check each and every student on the roster is multiple mouse clicks. New Analytics doesn't seem to have that as a data point either.

[dbrace · Accepted solution]

Hi @themidiman,

I do not believe there is a way to accomplish this using native functionality from Canvas.

However, @Code-with-Ski has built an extension that is compatible with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (if you allow extensions from the Chrome Web Store) called Canvas LMS Mods (Basic).

The extension has a set of reports that are available from the "Statistics" page of a Canvas course and one of them is called (something familiar) "User Access Report" and it goes through all users in the course and generates a downloadable CSV file (also visible within Canvas) and shows who has accessed what.

There is additional information about the extension at https://code-with-ski.github.io/Canvas-LMS_Mods-Website. Details about reports in "Statistics" can be found on the "Course Mods" webpage on that website and there is a post in the Canvas Developers Group at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Developers-Group/Custom-Course-Reports/ba-p/581822.

FYI - I just used that report earlier today while helping an instructor find out who attempted to access a quiz in the course that had its dates incorrectly configured.

Will that help you out?

-Doug

[themidiman]

Thanks, @dbrace 

I will have to check those out. Sad that it's not built into the UI. The average, although brilliant instructors in their field, will probably not want to resort in a browser hack extension to get this information if they want to be self sufficient. Plus my institution blocks Tampermonkey and other extensions like it.

[dbrace]

You are welcome, @themidiman.

I agree that it would be nice if this were built into Canvas. Technically Canvas admins would have this type of information if they are using Canvas Data or other analytic solutions (although it would be time delayed and not in real-time, something that would also be a limitation with New Analytics) but this extension is the best option for faculty (an end user)

-Doug