{"id":2528,"date":"2021-07-16T11:11:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T10:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/?p=2528"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:00:34","slug":"using-canvas-new-analytics-to-gain-insights-into-students-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/2021\/07\/16\/using-canvas-new-analytics-to-gain-insights-into-students-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Canvas New Analytics to gain insights into students\u2019 access"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 class=\"entry-content\"><strong style=\"color: #003f80;\">Dr Rachelle Maddison, <\/strong><strong style=\"color: #003f80;\">Module Leader (Biology), International Foundation in Biomedicine, Biology and Pharmacy, INTO Newcastle University<\/strong><\/h4>\n<h4 class=\"entry-content\"><strong style=\"color: #003f80;\">Dr Raghda Zahran, Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) <\/strong><\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 1px solid #464646;\" src=\"https:\/\/campus.recap.ncl.ac.uk\/Panopto\/Pages\/Embed.aspx?id=773432de-d3ec-4474-a007-ad4b00f53977&amp;autoplay=false&amp;offerviewer=true&amp;showtitle=true&amp;showbrand=false&amp;start=0&amp;interactivity=all\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>What did you do?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I used Canvas New Analytics\u00a0to check whether a small cohort of international students could access resources in their own countries.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Who is involved?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Dr\u00a0Rachelle Maddison,\u00a0Module Leader on the\u00a0International Foundation in BBP,\u00a0members of the Learning Analytics pilot group, with support from Dr\u00a0Raghda\u00a0Zahran from LTDS.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>How did you do it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I used Canvas New Analytics\u00a0to monitor\u00a0student\u00a0engagement with resources on Canvas.\u00a0Before I started using New Analytics I\u00a0spoke to all the students\u00a0to make it clear what information I could access and how I would use it. I was very clear that the information would only be used\u00a0to support them and their studies\u00a0in a positive way. I wanted to gain their trust early in the course and it make it clear that I was doing this to help them.<\/p>\n<p>This system was used with two small cohorts (n=17, n=29)\u00a0of international students on a 1 year foundation course. Most of these students remained in their own countries and all were\u00a0taught online entirely\u00a0throughout the academic year 2020 \u2013 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Towards the end of the first teaching week I used the New Analytics to determine which resources were being accessed.\u00a0I was aware that the students were getting used to a new learning environment, mode of teaching,\u00a0VLE,\u00a0and in many cases, the first time they had been taught in English.\u00a0When I did this in the first week I noticed that a number of students hadn\u2019t accessed the asynchronous learning materials they\u00a0should have. I used the\u00a0\u2018Message students who didn\u2019t view\u2019 function within New Analytics to send bcc messages to these students. I made sure that these messages\u00a0were positive, mentioning that I noticed they had\u00a0not\u00a0accessed these resources and asking what I could do to help them.<\/p>\n<p>I very quickly received messages back from these students and they mentioned that they were having problems accessing the materials in their country\u00a0(China).\u00a0Prior to starting the course,\u00a0accessibility in China\u00a0was checked\u00a0for all\u00a0teaching materials. However, it became apparent that, for a small number of students, there was a problem accessing videos via Stream.\u00a0I was able to immediately give these students access using an alternative format.\u00a0Having this functionality through Canvas meant that this problem was identified and rectified within their first week of study. I am sure that eventually the students would have mentioned their access problems, but\u00a0without New Analytics I feel this would have taken weeks rather than days.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2537\" src=\"http:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study.png 1920w, https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/files\/2021\/07\/case-study-1536x864.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another\u00a0aspect of New Analytics that I found useful was to\u00a0identify which students had not accessed\u00a0pre-learning materials before our live sessions. If I noticed that most of a class\u00a0had not accessed the pre-work (perhaps due to other deadlines) it meant that I could amend\u00a0my teaching plan to account for this.<\/p>\n<p>When\u00a0a minority of students in a class had not accessed the pre-work,\u00a0I approached them after class, either online or with a message, to say that I had noticed that they had struggled in our live lessons and that doing the pre-work in advance would help with this and what could I do to facilitate this. Again, the emphasis was on help and support rather than blame.<\/p>\n<p>Another use was identifying which types of resources were not being accessed. For example, I noticed that the \u2018assessment overview\u2019 page was not being accessed, with important information on assessment and deadlines\u00a0being missed. I used this information to signpost the location and use of this page and to show the students where this information could be found. Used in this manner it was very useful to help both myself and the students get used to a new VLE.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Why did you do it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to\u00a0monitor engagement\u00a0within the new VLE.\u00a0\u00a0The students are across the world, in different time zones,\u00a0working online\u00a0and in many instances, in English for the first time.\u00a0Anything I can do to identify early access issues could only help with student engagement and\u00a0attainment. The bcc\u00a0targeted\u00a0messaging system helped me to develop working relationships\u00a0with the students much quicker than general emails and various live sessions. Once the students had responded to me\u00a0in this way\u00a0I noticed that they were more willing,\u00a0earlier in the course,\u00a0to approach for help with other issues.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Does it work?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There is no formal feedback from the students regarding the use of New Analytics.\u00a0However, I do feel that it was useful\u00a0from\u00a0teachers\u2019\u00a0point of view\u00a0and we used the system across our modules to look for common usage problems in targeted students.<\/p>\n<p>I had one live session that did not go the way I intended with\u00a0a\u00a0group of students. Using\u00a0New Analytics afterwards I noticed that only one student had actually accessed the pre-learning materials meaning that\u00a0my flipped learning approach that week\u00a0was doomed. I could then talk to the students individually to mention that I had noticed they hadn\u2019t had time to\u00a0prepare,\u00a0and we could look over this again in a study clinic\u00a0once\u00a0they had completed\u00a0the necessary work. I feel that this\u00a0approach helped the students\u00a0and I to gain a more meaningful teacher-student relationship\u00a0in online learning,\u00a0and ultimately helped with their attainment.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Useful Resources<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/learning-and-teaching\/digital-technologies\/canvas\/canvas-new-analytics\/\">Canvas New Analytics guides on Learning and Teaching website<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find out if Dr Rachelle Maddison and Dr Raghda Zahran could use Canvas New Analytics\u00a0to check whether a small cohort of international students could access resources in their own countries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4591,"featured_media":2541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,275,417,360,318,274,319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-biomedical-sciences","category-into","category-learning-and-teaching-development-service","category-medical-education","category-fms","category-pharmacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4591"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2528"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3868,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions\/3868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}