Nothing loads in Analytics Beta for a course with 4,000 students

[dave-long]

After I add Analytics BETA to the course navigation for a course with 4,602 students and 15 assignments in it, the Analytics Beta interface loads, but does not display student data. 

Also, this should be in Priority: Analytics 2  or somewhere else, but that wasn't a selectable place to post. 

[ericwerth]

Hi  @dave-long .  I don't have any insight into Analytics BETA, but I was able to move your post into Priority: Analytics 2.

Best wishes! 

[Stef_retired]

 @dave-long ‌, don't get whiplash—but I moved your post, again, this time into our new   User Group: Analytics Beta‌

[vanzandt]

 @dave-long , On the call with Chris Hunter on Friday, I got the impression that there was something about "Course weight" which had to do with number of students multiplied by number of assignments (is that right?), but then I got called away for a moment and missed the information about what they were currently able to support. Did you catch what the threshold was? I know there was a question later, about a course_weight of 265,000, and that was beyond their current threshold.

[dave-long]

Hi Todd,

From what Chris mentioned, "course weight" is determined by students times assignments.  Deactivated user‌, is that correct?  So, a course with 70 students and 10 assignments would have a course weight of 700?  I recall something like 97% of all courses in Canvas are under that threshold, but wasn't clear on what the specific weight was.

Thanks!

-Dave 

[vanzandt]

Thanks David! I guess I didn't miss hearing the specific threshold number then. Thanks for reminding me of his statement about 97% of courses falling under the current threshold. I do remember hearing him say that. 

[chunter]

The dimensions that affect Canvas performance are student enrollment and assignments. Courses can be large in either or both of those dimensions. To test the scalability of Analytics we use a metric we call course weight which is calculated simply by multiplying the number of students by the number of assignments:

Course Weight = # of Students X # of Assignments

For our testing we successfully tested up to a course weight of 50,000. So if you're seeing loading issues with courses having a course weight of less than 50,000 (which is 99.7% of all courses in Canvas) we'd like those reported to our Support team so they can be triaged. 

Thanks!

Chris

[dave-long]

Thanks for the details Chris.  For the course I mentioned in the original post above, the course weight is 69,030 (4,602 students x 15 assignments).  

[vanzandt]

Thanks for the response, and for the additional detail on the course weight definition you had used for your calculations. That's really helpful for us to know when to report, or to realize that we might just be in that upper crust that is not yet supported. It saves us a lot of time when troubleshooting and assisting faculty to have those details. Thanks again!