What can LMS data tell us about student behaviors and course design? With access to the full Canvas database, Utah State University faculty and instructional designers set out to answer that question. This session will present results of that quest, and initial insights into the LMS data.
With access to Canvas LMS database, Utah State University faculty, instructional designers, and researchers set out to mine the data with a list of questions.
Do minutes spent watching videos correlate with grades?
When are students turning in assignements?
How are students navigating courses?
What paths are they taking?
Are certain content elements skipped by students?
Are there measurable course behaviors that can be correlated to grades?
One finding showed that only 53% of student interactions with a specific course began at the course homepage. This led researchers to dive deeper into how students interact with the courses in the LMS. A chord chart and other visulaziations were built to allow further investigation into course navigation and paths. Current analysis is underway to chart how students in 4 courses are navigating them, including the first time they enter a course. Results from this study will be shared with partcipants, and an interactive discussion will allow participants to discuss and share ideas on how the data might be used for designing online and hybrid courses. Technical details on accessing the data and tools used to build visualizations can be shared with particpants if desired, but is not the focus of this presentation.