New Canvas Report - Allow Admins to See WHEN (Date/Timestamp) Learners Complete their Course

[MichaelSewell]

It would be extremely useful to report on when learners are actually completing their courses (Date/Timestamp).  Another report that may suffice is to run a report on when learners are marked CONCLUDED.  Canvas tech support revealed that this is not an existing feature.

Canvas tracks when learners access the system, but not when they complete their assignments.  Seems like a strange thing to miss in the development of an application.  Please add this; you'll be a hero!!!

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for sharing this idea, @MichaelSewell . Is this a request for an admin-level report that tracks course completion, an admin- or teacher-level report of concluded students, or a report for instructors that indicates when students are completing assignments (referenced in the second paragraph)? Would you elaborate on the use case for this functionality?

[MichaelSewell]

Good questions...

As an admin, I wanted visibility into when learner activity is happening (not sign in activity but actual course progress activity).  I've had theories about whether the activity happens in the evening or on weekends.  I hope to use this information to influence when we announce and begin course compliance campaigns (before a weekend or after a weekend, etc.).

As an admin who struggles with the external SIS/registration system having inaccurate data on course completions, I hope to run completion reports in Canvas and the SIS/registration system to compare them for accuracy purposes.  It also helps with troubleshooting, to see when a learner completes a course (for historical analysis and comparison of system events).

As an Instructor, you'd think they'd want to have visibility into when their learners are completing to see how many knock out assignments at various points (what percent are waiting till the last minute versus accomplishing assignments during the earlier phases of the window of learning).  Any good database is a transactional database.  If an event occurs, it is time-stamped; why not expose that in the UI to everyone and for reporting purposes?

As a leaner, you'd think they might want to see their history over time to see when they've completed their assignments over the semesters.  Any good database is a transactional database.  If an event occurs, it is time-stamped; why not expose that in the UI to everyone and for reporting purposes?

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for the clarification, @MichaelSewell . However, these are essentially three (perhaps four) separate requests, each of which would need to be considered by the community separately: (1a) admin view of learner activity trends; (1b) admin need for a completion report; (2) instructor view of assignment completion (to the extent that course information isn't already available to them via New Analytics); and (3) learner history over time.

Would you please resubmit each idea as its own request? We'll archive this one.

[MichaelSewell]

No thanks.  That is just enough effort to push me back into hiding.  I'll abandon my idea for improvement.  Whether it is 1 or 4 requests, it all stems from a single weakness with the current state of Canvas that does not expose the time/date of course completions.  If someone wants to consider 1 benefit of my suggestion, they should consider the entire cycle and design solutions strategically that could impact multiple roles across the platform.  I vote this remain in a single feature request.

You unfortunately made this too complex of a process to share ideas for improvement.  I appreciate your willingness to help though.

[Stef_retired]

Thanks. For future reference, @MichaelSewell , here's guidance on writing singularly focused ideas for consideration in this forum: How do I create a new idea conversation in the Canvas Community? Idea Conversations is one of numerous ways requests are prioritized, as detailed in What is the feature development process for Instructure products? ; if these reports constitute a current critical need for your school, please discuss them further with your school's Customer Success Manager (CSM).

[MichaelSewell]

I understand your desire to narrow the focus, but you are asking customers to elaborate on e.g. widening the highway, but only for one particular intersection.  But the highway needs to be widened for multiple intersections across many miles and should be discussed in a unified context.

[RebeccaFrakes]

We second @MichaelSewell request for:
     New Canvas Report - Allow Admins to See WHEN (Date/Timestamp) Learners Complete their Course

I believe @Stef_retired indicated this request as (1b) admin need for a completion report