Canvas Insights

Watch the videos on our YouTube Page

You can self-enroll in the new Insights on Canvas Data course in Canvas and learn more about Canvas Insights. This course will cover a variety of topics on Canvas data, Canvas analytics, early alerts, and Canvas Insights.

To get started, from one of your Canvas courses, select Canvas Insights in the Navigation menu to open the Canvas Insights dashboard.

1. Select one of your courses in the Courses pull down menu, and you’ll see a list of the students enrolled in the course
2. Use the Total Course Grade two-way sliders to select low, middle-range or high-performing students
3. Use the Sort by pull-down menu to sort the results by student name, CSUN ID, email address, number or late or missed submissions, or Grade to Date
4. In the Assignment Group menu, choose All Assignments or narrow them down by Assignment Group
5. In the Assignment Name menu, you can choose individual assignments within the Assignment Group you selected
6. Use the Assignment Score two-way sliders to select a range of scores in assignments graded
7. Use the Late Online Submissions and the Missed Online Submissions two-way sliders to select a range of late or missing submissions
8. The Checked Syllabus section lets you narrow the list to students who have or have not accessed the Canvas-generated syllabus
9. The Checked Gradebook section further refines the list based on students who have or have not accessed the gradebook
10. The Logged into Course in past two weeks section lets you narrow the list to students who have or have not logged into the course in last two weeks from the current date
11. Once you’ve defined the list of students, select Email this list

On the Messaging page, use the “Select Message to Send” pull-down menu to choose “Needs Assistance” or “Positive Feedback” messaging and the Subject Line and Message Text boxes will autofill with a corresponding message. You can edit or replace the text in the Message Text box, and then select the “Send Email” button to send your personalized message individually to each student in the list.

This template offers students resources available at CSUN: links to COVID information, CSUN with a Heart, technology help, and student life.

Remember these templates are completely editable, you can change the introduction:

For example:

"I hope this message finds you well. I noticed you have not signed in to our Canvas course and you have not had the opportunity to attend any synchronous Zoom meetings. I wanted to reach out with some resources."

Your early alert has been sent. Keep in mind when sending out an “I am here to help” personalize message, students will respond, so be ready to help.

Updated “I am here to help” Template for Spring 2022

The “I am here to help” template in Canvas insights has been updated. The update acknowledges the concerns students may have about returning to campus and offers instructor support. Additionally, the updated template provides a list of resources available to students both on campus and online. This template was crafted in partnership with Academic Affairs and Students Affairs along with input from students. You can find it in the drop-down “select messages to send” menu in the email section of Canvas Insights.

Faculty can receive Canvas Insights support from the Faculty Technology Center (FTC) by contacting ftc@csun.edu. Please check the workshop calendar or request a presentation for your department or college.

For more information on Early Alerts, visit the Faculty Development Early Alerts page.

Canvas Insights allows faculty to customize filters to quickly identify:

• student engagement in the Canvas course
• groups of students with high and low scores on assignments
• students who are missing assignments
• students who are doing well (or not) in your class

Once students have been identified based on the filters faculty choose, faculty can send out a personalized email through Canvas Insights to that group of students.

To send an early alert, first use the filters in Canvas Insights to identify students who would benefit from a little nudge in your course. These filters use the information (grades, missing assignments, late submission, and gradebook views) that you have already entered into the Canvas course.  Data can determine who would benefit from an early alert (Bear et al., 2020).  Using Canvas Insights allows you to scale up the alert to students in large classes or with multiple classes.

During week 2 of this spring semester, I used Canvas Insights to quickly identify two students from different courses who have not yet signed into the Canvas course.  I used the “Logged into Course” Yes / No checked box to identify the students who had not checked into Canvas yet. Two students were identified out of 182 students overall. I clicked on “email this list” and used the “I am here to help” email template to send a personalized message.  I heard back from both students the same night as I was able to help them get started with the material in the Canvas course.

According to research, sending out timely alerts to students is a key component to intervention for retention (Bear et al., 2020; Jayaprakash et al., 2014). Here is a general idea for a timeline to send out early alerts:

Week 2 - have a simple assignment due early
Week 4 - more advanced assignment due
Week 6 - check in with students before midterms
Week 8 - midterm check in
Week 10 - not too late to still pass the class

In addition, send out an alert to students after major assignments are graded.

This template offers students resources available at CSUN: links to CSUN with a Heart, technology help and student life.

Remember these templates are completely editable, you can change the introduction:

For Example:

“I hope this message finds you well. I noticed you have not signed into our Canvas course and you have not had the opportunity to attend any synchronous Zoom meetings. I wanted to reach out with some resources.”

Your early alert has been sent.  Keep in mind when sending out an “I am here to help” personalize message, students will respond, so be ready to help.

To learn more about Canvas Insights check out the instructional videos on the CSUN Academic Technology YouTube Channel or you can attend a weekly workshop Using Canvas Insights for Early Alerts.

To learn more on Early Alerts, check out the Faculty Development Canvas course module on Early Alerts.

By Joyce Marie Brusasco, EdD.

References.

Bear, L., Hagman, A., & Kil, D. (2020). Preventing a winter of disillusionment: Artificial intelligence and human intelligence in environment. Educause Review (1), 46-54.

Jayaprakash, S. M., Moody, E. W., Lauría, E. J. M., Regan, J. R., & Baron, J. D. (2014). Early Alert of Academically At-Risk Students: An Open-Source Analytics Initiative. Journal of Learning Analytics, 1(1), 6–47. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2014.11.3

Villano, R., Harrison, S., Lynch, G., & Chen, G. (2018). Linking early alert systems and student retention: a survival analysis approach. Higher Education, 76(5), 903–920. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0249-y