Course Insights
Background Information
In the Canvas online learning environment, a lot of data on students' activities is generated on a daily basis. Following the TU/e Learning Analytics Code of Practice, it is possible to use these data as a source of information to optimize learning and teaching.
The development of Course Insights started with a relatively simple question to teachers: If you could see what students do in the Canvas environment of your course, what would you want to see? A teacher Community on Learning Analytics (CoLA) was established to discuss this question. Multiple subsequent brainstorming sessions of this community served as input for the development of Course Insights by the LIS BI&Analytics team.
Course Insights is a course level learning analytics dashboard for teachers that contains descriptive data on students' activities on a Canvas course page on an aggregated level. The information in Course Insights, can support teachers to identify if students use provided information and if so, when do students consult certain files, and do so once or multiple times? And at what moment are students responding to course deadlines or take quizzes? And much more.
Aim of the project
The aim of this project is to learn how to configure Course Insights in such a way that it has added value for teachers of a broad range of courses. Course Insights is used by the teachers involved in the CoLA. Regular discussions with the CoLA members ared aimed at establishing use cases for Course Insights, to learn what kind of educational questions can be answered with data fom the dashboard and discuss what interventions can follow from that. The various use cases are collected in a manual to support future users in effectively using Course Insights. The CoLA also provides ongoing input for the continued development of Course Insights.
Results and learnings
This project is still ongoing. Teachers interested in using Course Insights and participating in discussions about this topic with peers are welcome to join the Community on Learning Analytics! Contact Suzanne Groothuijsen for more information.
For more information, please contact:
