Harnessing Data Tools on the Instructure Platform

Okay. So welcome, everyone. Welcome, everyone, to this, second, services webinar, where the EMEA services consultants, will cover a very specific topic every first Thursday of the month. So today's session will be about data tools on the Instructure platform. And, well, let me first introduce myself. My name is, Edwin Suppriyapna Yukon.

I'm a services consultant, located actually in, in Abenelux in Holland. And, my role is, is a project manager and, and a consultant for Canvas implementations and also all kinds of other related products, like, like catalog and, like impact. So these kinds of implementations, is what I do. I will not do this all by myself. So also my colleague, Laura Slopemarkers.

She is, and there's Laura. Hi, Laura. She is a senior customer success manager, in a Benelux. So, yeah, we are actually buddies, Benelux buddies, and she will actually, will assist me also here during this session, to answer your questions, during this webinar. Okay.

So what can you expect during this session? So here's my agenda. We'll talk about data, of course, and data sources. Why data sources? Why are they so important? What can it mean for you? Then I actually will talk about, some data sources. And the first data source which I would like to cover oh, sorry. Would like to cover is admin analytics.

And for each of these data sources, I also will, cover some use cases. The second data source which I would like to, cover is Impact Insights, and also, the use cases for that particular data source. And the last one which I would like to cover is Canvas Data two. So that's a new Canvas Data. It's the successor of Canvas Data one, let's say.

And, also, I will cover some use cases for this particular data source. I also will talk about a new, data source, which, has now been described in the, in the last, release note, which is called admin data hub. So I will briefly also explain you a little bit more about this new, data source in Canvas. Then we will have some time for some questions. And, well, talking about questions, if you got any questions during this webinar, then please use the q and a button, which is at the, well, at the bottom of this Zoom, window.

So please use a q and a button, and don't use it yet. Okay? Good. So let us start, with, with this with this webinar. Okay. Good.

Let us first start with data and data sources because, as you all know, of course, lots of data, lots of raw data is actually generated from from from Canvas, but also, from, from the web logs. So lots of data, and you actually would like to do something with the data. Right? So data sources or actually those data tools, which makes it, which makes it possible to convert that raw data eventually, into into information and into insights. Because what you would like to do, of course, eventually, is that these data sources, make it possible for you to make very important decisions. So, within Canvas, there are different data sources.

The data sources, for instance, for administrators like admin analytics, admin reports, analytics and statistics, field admin console, account level analytics. So many, data sources for the administrators. Then we actually also have other data sources, data sources for for, for teachers, which are also very, very valuable. Like new analytics, the grade book also provides, data sources, quizzes as well, student context card, and also the course statistics. Right? So many, many data sources.

And, also, here we got some other data sources like Studio, or a data source which is inside Studio, I have to say, in the mastery paths also, but also in outcomes. So many data sources, which can help you to to make specific decisions also depending on your role. And, well, that's also why should you why should you actually use these data sources. So that can be, for instance, from a management and strategic perspective. For instance, when you need to do some, return on investment, you are actually, let's say, looking for, looking at, the the the, let's say, the, the investment that has been done for specific systems or applications, and you need to make decisions well.

That's also something, that's also would be a reason to use data sources, and I will get back to this later on. But also to improve learning and teaching because lots of learning analytics also will be generated. And in order to, to make the right decisions to to to to improve learning and teaching, you need to have learning analytics. You need to have data sources, that actually will reflect the learning analytics. Furthermore, of course, also, as you all know, campus administration, to to to to to to do the LMS management.

So lots of information or lots of data, of course, is generated, course data, but also, user activity. So that's also very important information for a Canvas administrator. And finally, what I also would like to mention here is that data sources can also be used in order to do so called targeted campaigns. So I suppose that, that that that the user engagement, for instance, is not good enough, well, what you then can do is that you actually can do some target campaigns, by using, by using different tools within Canvas. So different reasons to use data sources.

And, well, what I would like to do during this webinar is to focus on three different data sources. And, the first one which I would like to cover is admin analytics. Admin analytics is, of course, a data source which comes from a Canvas, user interface. We all know that. Then I actually would like to cover Impact.

Impact is, one of these, tools, which actually can measure student and sorry, the the engagement and will also give you adoption metrics. And finally, what I also would like to offer is Canvas Data. So with Canvas Data, you will be able to create custom reports, and, you can use that also in your data warehousing. Okay. So these are the three that I would like to cover.

And, well, let's go to the very first one, which is admin analytics. So admin analytics, of course, is a tool, data tool that needs to be, activated, enabled within the feature options as you probably know. I like this admin analytics very much because, what you will see in an admin analytics are all these interactive charts. Right? So we got lots of charts, then first for the overview, which is a general overview. And all of these charts are interactive.

That means that you actually can click on a particular piece of that chart, and it will retrieve specific data which you request. But there are different charts as you can see here in the overview, like the course status, enrolled students. Well, excuse me, for the quality of this, of this image. So, we got also, the average course grades, for instance, here and interactions by category. So these are just different, charts, different data, which you actually can use.

Suppose that you, for instance, would like to know, how many of, which courses, for instance, are not published. Right? Well, in that case, you can go to the course status, click on that particular bar, unpublished courses, and it will retrieve all the courses that has not been published yet. Right? Well, also, you can break down or you can use filters, by using specific filter options. One of the things that you can do here is, selecting a particular subaccount or multiple subaccounts. So if you again, in this in this example, which I just, mentioned, if you would like to know which courses haven't been published yet within a particular subaccount or within a set of subaccounts, then you can actually use this filter.

Other filter options that are available here is, on the terms, you can actually also select specific courses, teachers, but also here, they had a possibility to select particular course statuses. So I will not go through all these, filter options, but they will come in very handy, when you would like to be more specific, more detailed, about your about your data. Okay. So this is an overview. The other one is the courses, as you can see here.

With the courses, you also have, some information here at the top, like, course publish, how many, many courses, or have you published, the course grades, something about student engagement. But what I like actually the most in this, admin analytics part is actually this part here in, in the middle, which is the, the feature used in course with activity. This is this is a very interesting one because with this chart, you actually will be able to, to retrieve all the courses that are using a very specific feature. Feature like, well, say the syllabus or, the grades or the, or the pages or modules. So if you would like to know, which courses are actually using a very particular feature, then go to this, to this chart to in admin analytics, and, you can find all your courses.

Again, of course, you can also use, the the filter options. So when you actually would like to know more about a very particular subaccount, for instance, and you would like to know which courses, no, which courses are actually using, let's say, the rubrics, for instance, then this would be, the solution, to retrieve all those courses. Finally, what I would like to show you here is, something about students, student engagement data. I will not go too much into detail here, but, it actually provides you lots of information about students. Students who, for instance, are maybe at risk, students, who actually score, beneath, sixty percent, for instance, students with no activity in the last thirty days.

So, this kind of, this kind of of of of of data, provides you information about, students who might be at risk. Okay. Good. So from here, I actually would like to go to some use cases. So under which, situations in which situations, can you actually use, the admin analytics? And, of course, there are many, many reasons to to to use the admin analytics, but let me just show you some of these use cases, which are very applicable to the admin analytics.

So first one here is which courses are published or unpublished this term. So this is a very typical use case, which is very important when, when you start when when a news when a new term is, is starting. And you actually would like to know which courses haven't been published yet. Right? Because it's always a big issue when courses haven't been published and core and students, will go into Canvas and don't see their courses yet. Right? Lots of complaints, and you actually would like to avoid that.

Well, the way how you can do it is actually to use the admin analytics and, create a list of all those courses, that haven't been published yet for this new term. Because what you then can do is that you actually can connect with those teachers who are related to that particular courses. And, well, you can ask them to publish this course. Another, use case, which is also very important, I think, which courses are published but did not have any activity this academic year. Yeah.

That's strange, of course, because courses that haven't been published, of that are published, sorry, that are published but don't have any activity. Well, then something strange, should be going on here. Maybe there's something something went wrong with the, with the student enrollment. Could be. But, anyway, it's definitely something that needs to be evaluated.

Another use case, are there students enrolled in courses this term who have not had any activity in their courses? Well, I just mentioned it earlier, student at risk. Right? You would like to track them. You would like to know which students are not active, in a course. So then, also, something should be, will be going on, of course. Yes.

And, probably, these are student at risk. But what you can do here is that you actually can can give that information to the teacher, and the teacher then actually can connect with those students who are at risk and ask questions, right, and maybe also help them. Another use case, which Canvas features are widely used and which are not? Well, I think that's also very important, of course, because as an administrator, hey, you would like to know that, all the features in Canvas that are supposed to be used, by the teachers, should be used, of course. But if they are not used, then in that case, that could be a reason actually to motivate or to to to promote that particular, functionality within Canvas. So, therefore, this information is very important just to know, how engaged, in this case, for instance, the teachers are with this kind of functionalities.

So, all kinds of, use cases here, and, well, let's go to the next one. Let's go to the next data source, which is Impact Insights. Impact is not a free tool. Impact, is a tool which which needs to be installed, of course. And, one of the tools within Impact is Impact Insights.

It's the data analytics part of Impact. So what is Impact Insights? How does it work? Well, what you need to know about Impact Insights is that it actually works with so called monitors. And these monitors are actually, well, let's say, counters, right, which are, located on very specific features and functionalities, within Canvas. So what they do is actually whenever a particular monitor is visited by a user, by a click or a visit, then this monitor will be triggered. And this is actually, the fundamental base of how the impact insights work.

So here you actually can see some of these, monitors. There are lots of monitors, deployed when, Impact is installed. So we can actually see that, well, there are more than ten times sixty nine, let's say, more than seven hundred, monitors actively measuring, canvas on a very granular detailed level. Okay. So impact insights.

So the first impact insight that I would like to, to cover here is the tool adoption. The tool adoption report is, well, as this name already says, it's a, tool that actually measures, yeah, the tool usage, the tool engage the tool engagement, actually. What you can see here is actually, very first, is that, the tools itself are actually categorized, in different categories, like assessments, canvas setup, communication, discussion. And this is actually how it works. So if you, for instance, would like to know how, how the Rubrics tool actually is used under the instructors, yeah, under the teachers, because here you actually can see that, the instructors have been selected.

Then in that case, you have to navigate to that particular metric, which is assignments and rubrics, in this case. And when you do that, then it actually will, show you all the details about Hi. It seems that Edwin has frozen. Hopefully, it's not just my Internet, and it's everyone's, and I'm I'm making sense. So I'll just, reach out to him because it seems like he's also left the recording or the webinar now.

I'll just reach out to him and see what's going on, and hopefully, we can continue soon. Feel free to grab yourself some coffee whilst we wait. Thank you for confirming that it's not just me. I'll put my camera on so you don't feel like you've all been left alone. I'm still here.

I'm just chatting to to the team and Edwin behind this, the scenes to hopefully solve this quickly. Okay. I'm sorry. Edwin, good to have you back. Okay.

What happens? I have no idea. Let me just quickly check if we're still recording. Yes. We are still recording. We are.

Let me just continue on. Okay. Great. Oh, excuse me so much, for this, for this incident. Okay.

Let me, again, share my screen, and let me also see where I actually, left the session. Let me see. No. Okay. Can everyone see my screen? We can, Edwin.

Okay. So so let me go back a little bit because, I suppose that I started with Impact Insights. Is that is that right? Is that the latest step in my presentation? I believe that's what we were on, Edwin. Yeah? Okay. Good.

Let me see here. Shall I start from here? Is this is this also what you have seen? Because I really don't know from which moment I actually was leaving this, this meeting. Okay. So let me start again with how Impact works. So, Impact, is using so called monitors, so called activity monitors.

So what are activity monitors? These are actually counters that are counting the clicks and the visits on very specific locations, positions in Canvas. So here, you actually can see some of these, monitors, and they are measuring, the clicks and the visits on very specific locations. Very specific features, specific very specific granular details, like a user page, the rubric button. So this is actually also how the data, will be, collected and will be put in specific insights. Okay.

So let us have a look into the very first impact insight, which is the tool adoption. The tool adoption actually provides all kinds of, insights specifically for instructors and also specific, for specific, tools. So here you can see some tool tool category. So all the tools are categorized in specific categories. And if you, for instance, would like to know more about how, for instance, Rubik's is used, among the instructors, well, then you have to navigate to that particular metric, and there you got your insights.

Yeah. How, the, impact insights or actually how the, rubrics are actually used. So you can also, narrow down on a very specific user group or a specific, subaccount in this case, and also to see how, the the Rubik usage is, within that particular subaccount. But this is something that you can do for students. Yeah.

Sorry for, for instructors, but you can also do that for students. So if you would like to know, for instance, how many, assignment submissions have been done by students within a particular period, well, you need to navigate to that particular metric, of course, and there you got your information. Another insight which I would like to show you here is also the user activity. While the user activity is, a data source, which gives you all the logins of, of your Canvas instance. But the great thing is also that you also can, break down also, again, on different subaccounts.

So here, we've got an example in which I have added three, subaccounts where you actually can compare the different, subaccounts with each other with in respect with user activity. And the last one which I would like to show you here about Impact Insights is the LTI monitoring. So what you need to know is that is that Impact is actually capable to detect all the installed, LTIs. Right? So that's all that's actually not the only thing that, that Impact does. It it also measures, let's say, the total launches of that particular LTI.

Right? So this is something that you can see here. What it also will do is that it then also will add that to the tool adoption, report, which I showed you. But here, it will actually be added to the so called integrated tools. So Impact also provides LTI monitoring. Good.

Let's go through use cases for Impact Insights and LTI monitoring. So first of all, I think this is also a very important one, is also for return on investment, reasons. Right? So, systems or applications, will be purchased. And, of course, as management, you actually would like to know, if a continuation of these applications are actually justified. Right? So, therefore, you need to know how these LTIs are actually used.

Right? So if you have, suppose that, an LTI has been purchased, like, response lockdown browser or Turnitin, well, you would like to know how it's used. And, when it's underused, then, of course, it would be a reason to make other decisions. Well, the the other use case is about, early adapters engagement, and and particularly, of course, in an implementation because you actually would like to know, how successful actually, the the the implementation is actually going on, how, how it proceeds. So early adapters, for instance, can be measured, how which tools they are actually using, how they are using. So that actually will come, with very, valuable information for, for the implementation.

But also a little bit well, a little bit comparable, of course, with the with the previous, use case is onboarding. Onboarding of new students and new teachers. So how did this, onboarding went? So which tools are they using? All the tools which they are supposed to be using, are they are they actually used by, by these, by these groups? Another use case is how engaged are users with a new tool. So it could be that a new tool, a new application has been implemented. And, yeah.

Well, there are, of course, expectations set or goals, for for for usage of this particular tool, and you would like to know how engaged, you know, the users are. And, for have, additional support, for instance. Right? So that's something that you also can do with a data source as Impact Insights. Good. So that was Impact.

Let's now go to another data source, which is Canvas Data two. Well, as I've already mentioned, Canvas Data two is actually a successor of Canvas Data. Well, Canvas Data one is not the real name, but, it's it's a successor of Canvas Data, of course. And it actually contains far more possibilities, than, than the, than the predecessor. So first of all, what is Canvas Data? So Canvas Data, and this is a nice statement, Canvas Data is a modern data platform, that your internal dev team or trusted partners can leverage to design and build your own reports, data streams, and analytic applications.

So it means, of course, that, that you actually need to build, these reports. So these are not, let's say, data sources which are over, which are ready to use. We need to build them. Yeah? And that's that's a big difference, of course, with, with the other two data sources which I have demonstrated. We need to build them.

And, well, who is Canvas Data built for? Well, of course, every institution, of course, that have the desire and resources to build reporting and analytics solutions. So the resources is very important, of course, with, with Canvas Data, because typical users are data engineers, data scientists, developers, or DBAers in conjunction with Canvas administrators. This is very important. As I already mentioned, you need to have the resources to build this reporting. These are actually also the people who can, build these, these reporting.

And, well, what kind of skills do they do they need? Well, skills like data modeling, ETL, BI tools, but, definitely also data visualization tools, and other tools to, that are data related. So that means it's very specific, very specific in a sense that, Canvas data, is something that you cannot use, let's say, by using a user interface. You need to build it. Okay. So very important then is, okay, how can you build it? Well, there are many Canvas tables, which are available.

Lots of data, which is available. So Canvas tables, but also catalog data is also, stored in, in Canvas data, but also the Canvas web logs. And that's also very, very interesting. Please mind also that, it's not real time. It still has a, a delay of four hours.

But, again, I think that's that's very interesting. And also what you need to know, but probably you already know, it also it's included in your Canvas license. So if you got the knowledge, if you got the people who actually can do this, then it definitely will be very interesting because the, the possibilities are are are very great, of course, in this case. But how does it work? Actually, what you need to know, of course, you need to have the skills, because you need to be able to to access campus data via different, block. It can be via a CLI tool or API tools to access.

And then, of course, you also need to be able to to query the right, data from the Canvas data. And, to pull this data is very important, of course, and you can do that, by using different file formats. And then, of course, you you also need to be able to put that somewhere, that can be a local database, or you can also put that, data into a data warehouse. Okay. So let's have a look into the use cases.

So, under in in in which situations actually, can you use Canvas data? Because, again, the possibilities are huge. Right? Okay. So first of all, Canvas Data allows you to migrate your data into a warehouse, what I just mentioned, and that you can combine that with other data sources. For instance, you can also use this, to track progress using data from your student information system. Yes.

You can combine that. Well, which you, can have and will be answered, with this kind of data sources. Princess here, this one, are all student groups equitably supported? So you can have different, different backgrounds. And, yeah, and you get this information, of course, from your SIS. And, well, these kinds of, visualizations is something that you can can make with, with Canvas Data too.

Another question, which you also can, can answer with this, with this data source is, are there any trends that can inform our teaching practice and professional development? So this is definitely something about cultural cultural responsive teaching or campaigns to support different student groups. So lots of possibilities, when you actually pull data, and combine that in a data warehouse, for instance, with a data source from your SIS. Another one, about analyzing Canvas access is, that we can use so called web logs. I mentioned that earlier. Web logs are also stored in, in a database.

And, well, we can use web logs, yeah, to see when students and teachers are accessing Canvas to make courses more accessible. So here we got an example, for instance, of how do users prefer to use Canvas. So, we can actually also determine, which, which browser they are actually using or also, which, operating system, they are using. And all that kind of information, can actually give you answers to these questions. Also, how can we adapt our instructional design? You can actually also adapt your instructional design based on this, accessibility.

And, also, for instance, when when users, when are users most active in Canvas? So, this is also something that you can pull out of, Canvas data. For instance, what you can do here is is it time of day, moving deadlines to earlier or to prevent midnight access? Okay. Another use case is about quality assurance. So what we can do is we can compare also time stamps in Canvas data. Right? So these time stamps are stored in Canvas data, to ensure teachers are meeting policy standards when it comes to marking and feedback.

So, also questions like, are teachers providing timely feedback? Right? It's a great question, and that actually can be answered also with, with using Canvas data here as well. Questions like, which teachers are consistently taking longer than other to provide students with their grades? So you can actually also, determine which teachers, these are. Are teachers logging in to Canvas, often to interact with students? Also, something that can be answered with, with Canvas Data too. Okay. Then the last one, the last, use case is about tool usage and adoption.

So Canvas Data, allows you to bring in external tools into reports and allowing you to analyze LTI adoption, like what you can see here. So which LTI tools are your teachers actively using? That way, you can see which, which LTIs here are actually used. So this is an average, for instance. But you can actually also do that for very specific teachers so that you actually will make these, teacher centric, reports. Or another question, are there LTI tools that you should focus on and encourage instructors to use more often? So different reasons, different purposes, that you will have with with Canvas Data too.

It's really, something that, where where the the possibilities are much greater, of course. But, again, you need to have, the knowledge and the skills to set up to to to develop these kinds of reporting. Okay. Then, finally, what I also would like to, mention here is a new, data source. It's called the Analytics Hub.

It's new. It's brand new, I have to say, because, it is just described in the, in the latest release notes. But what it actually does, and I have to admit that I, haven't, practiced with it, so I don't have any experience yet at the moment. But what it actually does is that it actually brings together, many of the, data sources. So what it actually does is that it, bring actually all that data and data sources in in in one central app.

And, well, here you actually got a little bit an overview of the possibilities the data possibilities that are here in the analytics hub. So, I have to admit again, I don't have, I haven't practiced yet as a, services consultant with the analytics hub. It will be released very, very soon. That's something that I know. And, Yeah.

I'm really excited, actually, also to to use this. Okay. So we actually have come to the end of this of this services webinar. I don't know if there there are any questions that we actually can do together, or are there specific questions that, that needs to be answered? Hello, Edwin. I think at the moment, we don't have any more open questions, but let's, give people some time to add questions to the q and a.

Oh, I can see something pop in. There we go. Someone has just asked, how do I access, web logs or web log? Oh, that's a very, detailed question. So, yeah, you need to know, of course, how the the the Canvas tables are actually, organized and structured. I don't know the exact, table name of the web logs, but this is definitely something that I can back to you can get back to you and give you the exact, table name for the web logs.

So, you can expect by the way, all of you can expect the, the recording of this session. And what I can do is that I also will include, the answers, to your questions, which I don't can give which I can't give you at the moment. Thank you, Edwin. The the attendee, they're anonymous. I don't know who they are, but they are already using Canvas data too.

So I think just sharing the the table, the necessary table would be would be helpful. Yep. Exactly. Okay. Someone has also asked if we'll be sharing the presentation.

I'll just ask Clive. I was typing out my my response, but, yes, we will. So there will be an email, to attendees with the recording and with the slide deck, so you will be able to look at us again in the future. Yep. Exactly.

Oh, they just went off, anonymous. But thank you, Alcon. We'll, we'll follow-up with the answer with the necessary tables, in our email afterwards. The same email where you'll get the recording in the deck as well. Yep.

No other outstanding questions for now. I just put in the chat. I'm sure you've all seen it, but the analytics or the data hub that, Edwin was mentioning at the end will be officially announced at InstructureCon in the United States, which is next week. So it will be released on July ninth, which is the day of InstructureCom. So, yeah, that's definitely something to look forward to.

You'll all be seeing it in your, admin, view of Canvas where you you would now see the admin analytics. It'll say analytics hub instead of that. Great. Next week already. Looking forward to that.

Yes. Absolutely. Yep. Any other questions? Not at the moment. K.

So, what I would like to do also here is I'd like to mention this. So as you probably know, CanvasCon Europe will be, in Barcelona this year, in October. And, well, feel free, of course, also to register, to this, to this great conference. What I also would like to add is that it is also possible to register yourself for the pre conference. And, yeah, I actually would like to promote a little bit our, services, EMEA services, workshops.

So there will be a couple of workshops that we will do, from our services team, and you can actually also register yourself for this preconference. Okay? So I I hope, I will see you there. Laura, are there some other questions? No. Someone, shared a helpful resource in the q and a as well. So that's definitely worth checking out, but no other questions.

Okay. Great. Good. Thank you. If there are no other questions, then, yeah, I would like to thank you all for attending this, services webinar.

More to come, of course. What I just mentioned is, each Thursday, each first Thursday of the month, there will be a webinar. I think I can't recall which, webinar, will come after me. But, yeah. Well, I, again, thank you for attending this, webinar.

And, yeah, you will receive the recording and also, the the answer to one of these questions. Okay? Okay. Wish you a nice day, and thank you all. Bye.