Accessing video analytics in Canvas

Posted on: 25 May 2021 by Strategic Change Communications Team in Canvas at Liverpool

One of the lesser-known features in Canvas is that you can access video analytics. The analytics won’t only tell you who has accessed your course video content, but for how long, where they skipped through or where they spent time re-watching. Such information can help you get an even more in-depth idea of what your students want from their course content.

How video analytics can help your course

“Think of the viewer analytics of your Studio videos as kind of a heatmap showing where you garnered the most engagement and where students switched off more or skimmed through,” Will Moindrot, Educational Developer in CIE explains. “This can help point you in the direction of what is working best for a particular group or what could do with a tweak.”

When looking at your video analytics, you will be shown a timeline of your Studio video connected to a graph. The vertical axis shows you the number of viewers on each area of the video, with the bars representing the amount of time each person spends on that particular section (for example, rewinding or fast-forwarding).

You can further break down your video insights on a student-by-student basis. This will give you personalised information for each student on how they interacted with the video – again showing you how much time they spent on each section, where they skipped and where they spent more time than expected.

Colleagues can use Studio analytics in a number of ways. In our Canvas case study with Dr Andrew Roe-Crines from the Department of Politics, which you can read here, he told us about his experiences using the video analytics functionality to adjust how he delivers his course content. “You can delve to not only the level of how much a video is being watched and for how long, but also where it’s being skipped over,” Andrew explains. “This informed how I went on to deliver my content. Via analytics, I found out a lot of students were skipping some of the YouTube videos I had put in and so now I’ve taken them out and replaced them.”

Will explains that you can get to know how the data works and is collected by trying it yourself. “I really like the fact you can test how accurate the analytics are," he says. "Just go onto the ‘Student View’ and work through your video content there – then come back and take a look. For me, there was not even any lag in the data being presented.”

How to access your video analytics

To access course-level video analytics, follow these steps:

On your Canvas dashboard, navigate to your Studio area and locate the content you would like analytics for.
Hover over the piece of content and click the thumbnail. Please note: if the media has been uploaded to multiple courses, you will be shown a drop-down menu of courses. Select the course you wish to find the analytics for.
On the tab that subsequently opens up, navigate across to the ‘Insights’ bar.
This will open up your video timeline with the information laid out above – including where people skip, how many people have watched different parts of the video and more.

To access student-level video analytics, follow these steps:

Follow the above steps to access your course-level analytics.
The insights tab will display a list of all users on the course – select the student you would like to view.
To go back to course-level analytics, simply click the student you are viewing again and the graph will revert to general analytics.

Keywords: Canvas, Analytics, Studio.