Community

Our institution has been trying the New Analytics features. Even if we are using a Canvas Supported browser, we still have to enable third-party cookies before the New Analytics to run. Otherwise, the New Analytics cannot be loaded (i.e. black page). Is there anything we can do about it? (other than enabling each time) ... View more

After knowing that the New Analytics is not supported for large course weights (students X assignments>50K), I was trying to explore how many courses are being affected in my institution. It turns out that we got a dozen of courses having huge course weights. Many of these courses got 1500-2000 students with 100+ assignments.  What can we do about it?  Does instructure have plans to address the issue? ... View more

After trying out the New Analytics features, we found some confusing ways for presenting some features.  (1) The list of students is not clear.  By default, the Course average is displayed, and the list below counts all 10 students in my course.  When I add a filter for one student, the list now shows 1 student, even though the chart still displays the "course average" markers, representing all 10 students, PLUS the markers for the single student.  If I add one other group of students now, the list of students counts 5 students, i.e. the number of students in the newly-added group. The chart will show the "course average" markers, representing all 10 students, PLUS the markers for the single student, PLUS the markers for the group.  Some labels, to be displayed according to the filter for the list, would be good. Instead of “Students”, we may have: Students (All) Students (Group 101) Student (Selected)    Instead of “Resources”, we may have:  Resources (All Students) Resources (Group 101) Resources (Selected Students) (2) The chart on grades seems to indicate students’ performance throughout the course. However, assignments without due dates appear to the left of those with due dates. That means reading the trend from left to right does not necessarily indicate the performance of students from start to end. Assignments without deadlines should be indicated differently (e.g. same icon but with a different colour).  (3)  Unclear labeling in BCC line If I click “message students who” without any filter, It always shows “All Section” but in fact the actual recipients depend on the conditions set above. Similar to the above issue: Before I use the “Message students who function”, I have added some filters on the line graph. When I click “message students who”, I will still see the filters I added to the chart, e.g. two students. No matter what conditions I set (i.e. viewed / participated / grade range etc), I will always see the filter I have added followed by XX students. (4) “Message Students Who” Resources Viewed / Not Viewed Users can choose “students” as resources. When a class has more than 200 students, there will be 200 students and all resources. It is not possible to look for resources. How the resources were sorted is not clear to the users.  The list of resources should be sorted in a meaningful manner. ... View more

A few more comments for the New Analytics (1) When viewing with multiple filters, sometimes the markers in the chart perfectly overlap. In this case, it's not easy to click on the interactive marker that is underneath. Information such as “average” and “total” cannot be shown. The design should be improved to allow users to select the respective markers more easily. (2) Similar to (1) Next to the “download” button, there is a kebab menu with two options: Data Table and Display Shapes. Both can be turned on/off together.  If “Data Table” is selected, the chart will be replaced by a data table.  If “Display Shapes” is selected, the markers in the chart will turn to be different shapes “Display Shapes” is no longer useful at all if the data table is displayed (i.e. no shapes in the table). However, after choosing “Data Table”, the “Display Shapes” feature is still available to be turned on/off. This doesn't make sense. (3) In the filter box, user may type a student name, assignment name or a group name. The behaviors of typing vary. Some instructions should be provided in some ways.  If users type the assignment name on the grading page, the mark distribution card will display (as a select function)  If users type the name of the student / group, an additional line will be displayed on the chart (i.e. as an add function) (4) In the comparison filters box/bar, there's a small "x" on user-added filters. But, clicking anywhere on the filter-pill will remove the filter. The "x" is superfluous. (5)  When a user clicks on a marker (i.e. dot) on the chart, a card will be displayed to provide more details.  The card on the activity page will close by clicking anywhere outside the card. The card on the course grade page will NOT close by doing the above. It will only close if the "x" is clicked. Hope that the next version can address some of these to make it easier for users.  ... View more

When trying out the New Analytics, having some more functions to be beneficial to users.  (1) The filter function should allow greater flexibility User should be able to remove the course average if they want to. Multiple group comparisons should be allowed Users should be allowed to track the usage of students / resources within any user-defined timeframe. (2) Similar to (1), the CSV downloaded has limited information. It only contains info in the original filter. There should be more ways to manipulate the CSV as the first question.  (3) Similar to (2), the CSV downloaded should be much more fulsome. At a minimum, the full gradebook could be included in the export (all assignments, Section IDs, etc).  (4) Course ID can be added as the name of the exported file, "weekly_online_activity_109xc".Inside the ZIP file exported from the weekly activity page, the file name, “Student”, “Resources” and “Chart” do not help teachers know what they meant. (5) The CSV file should vary based on the filter use (i.e. the component chosen / not chosen). The figure for each component should be available. Hope that some of them can be addressed in the next version.  ... View more