Analytics in Canvas

What are Analytics?

Numbers representing analytics

Analytics presents logged activity by users in various components of a Canvas course. Course Analytics takes a three-pronged approach to creating substantive data for Canvas users.

  • Justification focuses on system reports and how the system is being used.
  • Intervention looks to predict at-risk students and how to meet their needs.
  • Learning focuses on learning outcomes, the effectiveness of the teaching style, and the division of time between students achieving competence and those falling behind.

For more information, please see: What are analytics?

What kind of Analytics does Canvas track for students?

Canvas tracks page views, participation, assignments, and grades for students through the Analytics tool.

Canvas also tracks the Last Activity and Total Activity in a Course. Last Activity refers to how often students interact with the course and Total Activity refers to how long students interact within a course and is associated with page views. Total activity requires a two-minute page view minimum for performance. Note: This does not capture page views for videos that do not include intermediate page requests, such as a half-hour recorded lecture. This information is accessible to instructors under the People tool.

For more information, please see:

How should Analytics in Canvas be used?

Your students may wonder if or how Analytics will be used in your Canvas sites (e.g., for grading participation), so it is best to be as transparent as possible about analytics.

We recommend instructors outline in their Syllabus expectations for students’ site activity, or any weight that analytics will have on grading.

Is there other data that Canvas tracks?

Canvas includes timestamps for all submissions to Canvas tools like Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzes. Additionally tools like Quizzes include information like the Average Time the assessment took to complete and time to completion for each user.

Is there anything else to know about the Analytics that Canvas tracks?

Canvas Analytics tracks interactions from both web browsers and Canvas mobile apps.

Who can I contact for questions about Analytics?

The Penn Canvas Support team would be happy to answer any questions. You can reach us at: canvas@pobox.upenn.edu

Last Updated: 9 Nov 2020