See which students have viewed a particular page or activity and when

[Beth_Young]

I would like to see who has viewed any particular page or activity and when it was viewed.

I can find some of this information by going to every student and looking through their page views, but I want to be able to quickly see who has/hasn't seen a particular page or activity, i.e., if I post an information page, I'd like to be able to access a report about view of that page. That way I can easily remind those who are overlooking something important.

Also, the time of most recent access per student is not enough. I often need to know when a student first accessed the information. i.e., after the assignment was due? 15 mins before the assignment was due?

Comments from Instructure

Please refer to Canvas Release: New Course and User Analytics.

Note from the Community Team: We're including the link to https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4495-view-access-by-file-or-item-not-user here so we can keep these related ideas associated with each other.

[waz107]

I agree!  I also post these types of materials in my courses and I want to know if students are using them or not. If students are not taking advantage of the extra materials that I make, then I don't spend time making them in the future. If they are using certain types of materials, I know where to focus my time and attention.

[bquinlan]

I just contacted chat about this tonight. I thought maybe I was just "missing something" because I couldn't find a way to do this. The person I chatted with pointed me to this page. It is pretty unreal that this feature isn't available when it has been for years in other Learning Management Systems. I understand that software developers aren't teachers and it's hard to know exactly what we will need or want, but at the same time you have to look at your competitors and take some hints. Also, I don't know how you decide on priorities for development cycles, but I hope there is a tremendous amount of faculty input. Not "former teachers who have come to work for you full-time", but faculty who are currently teaching. Technology changes so quickly that what I would have wanted/expected 5 years ago is completely different from what I want and expect now. So I sincerely hope that you have a group of faculty advocates who you run your priority lists by, and those faculty should not only be from various disciplines but also make sure you have faculty who use Canvas for both on-campus and distance learning courses. I teach both and can assure you that I use Canvas very differently between the two. But this feature is without question something that I need in every class that I teach. Please move it to the top of the list!

[scottdennis]

Hi  @waz107 ​,

I can relate to your predicament.  When I was an ANGEL admin and sometime ANGEL using instructor I too dearly loved this feature and used it every day.

[Renee_Carney]

Hi  @bquinlan ​

Thank you so much for your questions/concerns on how we seek and use input for feature development.

We are very proud of the continuous interactions that we have with current faculty and teachers.  All Canvas users can formally submit Canvas Feature Ideas​ and we get a lot of information from the formal and informal comments of those ideas (and other Community discussions/questions).  When we have a feature that we need to explore in greater depth we often launch a Canvas Focus Group,​​ and/or our product teams and engineers travel for campus visits.  Every school has a CSM (Customer Success Manager) that shares important feature needs with the product team!  Our product team is always seeking information from a wide spectrum of users and diverse channels!

In October, our Product team presented a great CanvasLIVE​ webinar, where they talked about their process!  You can find the archive here

Here are a few resources that may help explain our processes! 

What is the feature development process for Canvas?

How do I create a new feature idea?​

How does the voting process work for feature ideas?​

I hope this information helps! 

Also, per the 'comment form instructure' on this feature idea, this idea is not forgotten.  It is not one that can be implemented quickly or easily, but it is on the radar of the product team!

[mcdowela]

I brought this up again and was told it would be added for voting on Feb. 3.  PLEASE everyone go vote on the idea!  I agree it's appalling that Canvas can't do it. I relied heavily on this feature in Angel.  And hey, if Angel could do it, and Canvas is supposed to be "better," then why is it more regressive than Angel in this feature. (Oh, and polling!!)

Canvas folks, PLEASE realize how important a feature like this is for faculty in tracking student work. I don't need about 75% of  the bells and whistles you now have available (especially in this current iteration), but I need more basic faculty interaction possibilities.  I have to say I often wonder whether faculty are consulted when these things are designed at the beginning, or whether a bunch of people (perhaps more used to a student perspective) envision "what faculty might want"?

Thanks for addressing this as soon as possible!  🙂

[RobDitto]

Here's a link to  @mcdowela ​'s more recent submission of a closely related idea:

[debra_maranto]

Yes, yes, YES!! It is so ridiculously time consuming to do this through "People".

[scain]

As an additional note, it would be incredibly beneficial to have a "Message Students Who" link associated with these item reports (e.g. Message students who have not viewed the syllabus).

[jennifer_wood]

This is really helpful if there was a change in the assignment like an updated file to use or there was an error that you've fixed. You can see who already viewed the assignment and just contact those students rather than the whole class. It really helps the first time through a course.

[Renee_Carney]

  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...

[Stef_retired]

For anyone interested in this topic, be sure to RSVP to the CanvasLIVE event Obtaining Access Report Data for an Entire Class , which is coming up this Friday, February 3, 2017. RSVP “yes” if you will be there--and if you’re interested, but your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend in real time, RSVP "no" or "maybe" to receive all event updates. Your RSVP ensures that you will receive a notification should the event be cancelled or changed.

[smarder-eppstei]

It would also be helpful to know how long students are on the page for. 

[Sylvia_Ami]

 @ssmith301 ‌ Is this the feature you were talking to me about? I'd like to hear how this feature would be helpful for you in your teaching and course design.

[ssmith301]

 @Sylvia_Ami ‌ Yes, it is! This feature would be extremely helpful to faculty, and I am surprised it is still not built into Canvas by now. I think the greatest benefit would be the ability to see which of our course resources are utilized, and how often they are utilized. For example, if I find myself spending 10 hours creating a detailed "Help/Study Guide," I would like to know whether or not my students are actually viewing it. If they are, great! If they are not, time to come up with another plan. 

With this data made available, it would allow us to make changes and improvements to our classes. As mentioned above, it would also be great to have a "massage students who" tool so we can follow up with students who are "lagging" on viewing certain course pages (for example, the "Syllabus" page or the "Free Tutoring Info" page). 

[james10]

I know nothing about programming, but this was a feature that I used all the time in our district's previous course management system, which was based on Moodle. I hope y'all are able to get to it soon. 🙂 

[jholte]

Yes!  It would be so helpful to be able to see how many students are actually using all the reference materials I post. 

Also, sometimes I realize the item I posted has an error or just could be explained in a better way.  Before I bother with sending everyone in the class an announcement that a revision has been made, I'd like to know if anyone looked at the item yet.

It looks like this has been on the "radar" for a couple years, but I called the helpline today and it is still not available.  Please consider!

[aschuster]

The information I'm looking for seems to be available in the API at Users - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation  (the interaction_seconds field in particular would be useful to me), but seems to only be available to admins. It'd be great if regular teachers could see this too! 

[Renee_Carney]

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

[sm1851]

Hello, I am a User and new with Canvas. I was aghast at the absence of this functionality.

Concisely please, has there been any progress for this straight-forward request (I do not need to know anything about the "modifications" process or technical barriers)?

It's been three years at least since the initial inquiry below? This feature, even if enhanced tracking in baby step mode, is crucial. Even my students want it! Please provide a description of any enhanced capabilities in this regard, and if none, please just say "none". I can then take this to our Administration. 

Thank you!

"See which students have viewed a particular page or activity and when"

Idea created by Beth Young on Apr 17, 2015

[megan_alstot889]

Research supports the need to track page views as a way to manage student:content interaction and strategically align objectives - content - assessment.  I'm glad to see this suggestion and hope changes are made sooner than later!  Here's my two cents on the topic:

Enabling instructors to track the student views on individual course pages, assignments, discussions, etc. would support targeted decision making regarding course design and content selection and delivery.  Looking at the volume of views per page would inform strategic course design and/or revision based on student success (i.e. grades and course completion).  Instructors could use page views to map student navigation patterns to support both timely intervention and adjust design based on student habits.  For example, looking at the interaction history and page statistics of students achieving high grades, could help instructors see patterns in course design, content selection and interactions that support student success. 

According to the research of Murray 2013 students in  and hybrid courses are selective when interacting with content in digital learning environments.  Student decisions regarding whether or not to engage in content is largely driven by student perception of the content's direct relationship to grade outcomes.   platforms allow instructors and designers to include a wide variety of content, but how much is too much?  Tracking page views could yield valuable data on student behavior, equipping instructors and designers with information regarding content selection and course development, mediating the uncertainty between student agency, economy of time and desired learning outcomes.