BruinLearn- Student Activity & Analytics
Using Student Analytics in Canvas
Canvas offers powerful tools to help instructors monitor student performance, track engagement, and communicate proactively. This guide outlines how to access and interpret student analytics in your course. By monitoring student analytics regularly, you can spot trends, identify at-risk students early, and tailor your teaching and feedback for more effective outcomes.
Viewing Student Analytics
To access analytics for an individual student:
In Global Navigation, click Courses, then select your course.
Click the View Course Analytics button.
Scroll through or sort the Student Analytics table by student name, page views, participation, or current score.
Click a student's name to view their individual analytics.
Tips:
The analytics table is paginated. Scroll or click through to view more students.
Use the drop-down menu or next/previous arrows to switch between students.
The student’s current course percentage is displayed at the top of their profile.
To message a student directly, click the mail icon.
Understanding the Analytics Graphs
Analytics are shown by default in graphical form. Each graph provides a different perspective on student performance and engagement:
1. Activity by Date
This graph tracks page views (light blue bars) and participation (dark blue bars).
X-axis: course dates
Y-axis: number of interactions
Participation includes:
Viewing or editing collaborations
Joining conferences
Posting in discussions/announcements
Starting/submitting quizzes
Submitting assignments
Creating wiki pages
Timeframes adjust automatically:
Daily bars: activity < 6 months old
Weekly bars: activity > 6 months
Monthly bars: activity ~1 year
Tips:
Hover over any bar to see detailed activity data for that day/week/month.
Remember that browser window size, zoom level, and screen resolution impact how these bars display.
2. Communication
This graph visualizes messages exchanged between instructor and student via the Canvas Inbox.
Y-axis: user type
X-axis: date of interaction
Orange message icons: student-initiated messages
Blue message icons: instructor-initiated messages
Tips:
Each message in a thread counts individually. Group messages count if the student is a recipient. Notifications and announcements are not included.
Use the Student Interactions Report to view communication data in table form.
3. Submissions
This graph displays the submission status of assignments for each student.
Y-axis: course assignments
X-axis: submission dates
Symbols on the graph indicate the status of assignments:
Green Circle: Submitted on time
Yellow Triangle: Submitted late
Red Square: Missing
White Circle with Black Outline: Future due date
Tips: Remember that the chart does not include information about assignments with no required submission (like ungraded assignments), excused assignments, or differentiated assignments not applicable to the student.
4. Grades
This graph compares a student's performance to class statistics for each assignment.
X-axis: course assignments
Y-axis: points possible for each assignment
A vertical black line extends from the highest score to the lower score. The gray box extends from the 75th to the 25th percentile. The horizontal black line shows the median score for the assignment Visual Elements:
Shapes in the submissions graph indicate a student’s score:
Green Circle: This is an assignment equal to or greater than the median.
Yellow Triangle: This is an assignment between the 75th and 25th percentiles.
Red Square: This is an assignment below the 25th percentile.
Tips:
You can hover over a graph to view assignment title, due date, submission date, and score.
A colored horizontal line indicates timing:
Green = submitted early
Yellow = submitted late
No line = submitted on due date or no due date
Switching to Table View
Prefer to read data in table form? Click the Analytics icon (top left/right) to toggle between graph and table views.
Table data corresponds to the visible graph.
Each table is paginated to 30 entries per page.