Activity Meter - Quick Start Guide (Ver. 1.0)

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What is Activity Meter?

Activity Meter (AM) in Etudes captures, stores, and displays site visits and activities of students. It allows instructors to analyze learner behavior, outcomes, persistence, and performance. Instructors can assess how and what students are doing and when, who is not doing anything or not coming to class, etc. Additionally, Activity Meter offers an "Early Alert" feature to help instructors reach out to students who are absent and who may be at risk of failing the course, so that you can intervene early. Activity Meter can also help instructors watch for and spot patterns (i.e. at what point in the term students drop) and make adjustments to classroom setup.

What preparation is needed to use Activity Meter?

None. It will display data automatically, based on your students' activity (or lack thereof). Just enable it and visit it regularly to stay informed about your class activity.

Where is Activity Meter located?

Once enabled, Activity Meter will appear just above "Site Info" on your site's left menu.

How do I enable it?

Go to Site Info >> Edit Tools >> Check Activity Meter >> Continue and finish the process. You may enable it in DEV and term sites.

Do students have Activity Meter?

Activity Meter is only available to instructors.

The students' version of Activity Meter is Course Map. It provides them with detailed information on all of their activity.

What information does Activity Meter track and list?

Activity Meter offers an Overview section (home) with a summary of the entire class activity, early alert data, and direct access to details on each student's activity. It tracks site visits and activity in the Syllabus, Modules, Discussions, AT&S.

The rest of this guide will explain each component of AM and the information provided in each.

"Overview" section of Activity Meter (Home)

Overview provides information on the overall activity for the entire class. It offers a quick way to analyze how your learners are doing from one view, if you don't have time to drill down to specifics.

At the top of the screen, you will see information on your enrollment status - total enrolled, dropped, and blocked students.

If there are students who have not come to class in the last 7 days, you will also see an Early Alert message (see next section).

The main section of AM's Overview provides the following information for your class:

1. Student Name and userid.

2. A section column allows you to review class activity by section, if you are teaching more than one sections in the site.

3. Dates of the students' first and last visit to the site.

4. Total number of site visits. This is a count of the user's site visits (not Etudes sessions). If the user visits the site in a login session, the visit is counted once, even if the user comes back to the site again in the same session.

5. The date when the syllabus was read and accepted by each student.

6. Total number of modules completed by each student.

7. Total number of posts (topics and replies) contributed by each student in discussions.

8. Total number of assignments, tests and surveys submitted by each student.

Click on Export to CSV to download this data to analyze it offline in Excel or to have as a local backup of your class activity.

The list is sorted by name and enrollment status, with 'enrolled' students listed first, and blocked and dropped students at the end.

ALL columns are sortable. For example, you may want to sort by last visit or first visit, to see who logged on early.

Overview of a student's detailed activity - Where is it located?

From Activity Meter's home (Overview), click on a student's name to view details on all of his or her activity.

At the top of the individual student's details, you will see their enrollment status and a summary of their activity.

*Items missed refers to items whose dates are now past due.

This is perhaps the most beneficial view of AM, as it allows you to view all of a student's work in one page.

This page is (almost) identical to the view that students have in Course Map! This enables you to have a look at the details that each student sees. In addition, your Activity Meter list will include unpublished and invalid items which the students don't see.

You can see how much has been done (count) by the student, theirs score (if partially graded), and date of last submission or post.

Open and due dates of items are listed for your convenience.

Green checks indicate completed items, accompanied by details on when they finished, count, and score, if applicable.

Items that have not yet been mastered (students scored below the mastery level value) are flagged.

In-progress work is highlighted with an 'in-progress' icon.

An information icon provides students with details on the item (i.e. availability, prerequisites, required posts, etc.)

If the item is closed, the information icon reflects its status. Clicking on it will give you the date that it closed.

If an item has a prerequisite attached to it, the information icon has a lock on it. Clicking on the icon will provide information on the prerequisite requirements that you must complete prior to continuing to the next item in the course.

A navigation bar, with Prev / Next buttons, allows you to move through your entire class and evaluate everyone's individual activities and progress, without returning to the list.

You can export all of a student's activity in a CSV file for offline reviewing in Excel or for backup purposes. Conveniently located in this view is the ability to send PM to students while you are evaluating their class progress and activities.

Early Alert - How does it work? Where is it located?

If there are students who have not come to your class in the last 7 days (from when you are looking at the page), you will see an Early Alert message at the top right of Activity Meter's home page; otherwise, you will not see any.

Click on the number of students who haven't come to class to find out who they are!

From the early alert view, you can see a summary of the activity of the absent students.

You can send a Private Message (PM) to each student by clicking on the message icon to the right of their name.

You can send a PM to all students who haven't visited your class in the last 7 days. 

When sending a PM to all, students don't know that it was not send just to them. In the "to:" field, they will see their name, and in the "from:" field, they will see your name. You can include a general message that doesn't address a group to make it more efficient for you to reach out to absent students frequently (i.e. We've miss you in class in the last 7 days! There is still plenty of time to do well and pass the course.).

The early alert PMs are set to 'high-priority' email notification by default so that students get a copy of it in the email associated with their Etudes account (if they have a valid one) AND in their Private Messages "in-box" in Etudes.

You will also see the PM's that you sent in your "Sent" folder of your PM in Discussions. If you sent a PM to "all", you will see a separate PM for each student. This allows you to have a record of all PM's that you sent from Activity Meter.

While in the early alert view, click on a student's name to view complete details of a student's activity in the class.

Site Visits

At the very top of this view, instructors are provided with a summary of site visits activity.

Summary of Activity for Enrolled Students:

• x visited the site at least once
• x never visited the site
• x visited the site in the last 7 days

A table lists the dates of the first and last visit and the total site visits per student. When a student visits the site in the login session, it adds a single count to the total, even if the student comes back to the site again in the same session.

The table data is sorted by name and enrollment status - with blocked and dropped students at the bottom of the list.

ALL columns are sortable.

You can export the data as a CSV file to open in Excel or for backup purposes. This data can be used for attendance tracking.

Syllabus Activity

With the release of Activity Meter, a new feature was added to the Syllabus tool. At the very bottom of the Syllabus (student view), students are presented with an agreement to accept the syllabus, as in the following. Activity Meter records the date students accept the syllabus.

At the top of the Syllabus view in Activity Meter, you will see the % of enrolled students who have accepted your syllabus.

You will also see the date that the syllabus was accepted by each student or a dash if it was not yet accepted.

You may send a PM to all the students who haven't accepted the syllabus.

The columns are sortable.

The table data is sorted by name and enrollment status - with blocked and dropped students at the bottom of the list.

A green check by the Syllabus indicates that it is published and accessible to students from Course Map.

A red icon by the Syllabus indicates that it is saved as a draft and is not accessible to students.

Modules Activity

At the top of this view, you will see the % of module sections that have been viewed by enrolled students.

Below that, you will see a list of all the modules in your course (excluding any archived items). To the right, you will see the number of students who have viewed each section.

Click on the title of the section for detailed information on who has viewed the section. You will see the following:

• Names of the students who have viewed it, and the date they first viewed the section.

• Navigation buttons (Next / Prev) allow you to move through all the module sections to review student visits to the content.

• You may send a Private Message to all students who haven't viewed the section of the module.

• You can see the open and due dates of each module and its status (open, closed, or invalid).

• All columns are sortable.

• The green checks indicate that the modules are published and visible in the students' view of Modules. Remember that although a module may be published, it may not be accessible to students if it is not yet open or if it is closed or if it has a prerequisite that is not yet met.

Discussions Activity

At the top of this view, you will see a summary of activity in your discussions area of Etudes:

• Total number of posts of enrolled students (including contributions in non-gradable categories, forums and topics).

• % of students who posted at least once.

• % of students who never posted anything.

Below that, you will see a list of all the gradable categories, gradable forums and gradable topics in your site.

 For each discussion item, you will see the # of students who have posted there and the total number of posts per item.

• Click on the title of each discussion item to see the names of the students who have posted and the number of posts.

• Navigation buttons (Next / Prev) allow you to move through all your gradable discussions to see student involvement. 

• You may send a Private Message to all students who have not posted to the discussion.

• You can see the open and due dates of each discussion and its status (open, closed, or invalid).

• All columns are sortable.

• The green checks indicate that the discussion is published and visible in the students' view of discussions. 

• If a discussion is not yet open (invisible), you will see the 'deny access' icon by the title of the item.

Click on the title of a discussion to see details on who posted, how many posts they've contributed, and if they've reviewed your evaluation comments (see sample screen shot below).

A green icon indicates that the student visited the Review page after you graded and released scores. If a student has not reviewed your released evaluation comments, a dash is shown.

Assignments, Tests & Surveys Activity

At the top, you will see a summary of activity in AT&S for enrolled students:

Below that, you will see a list of all assignments, tests, and surveys in your site (excluding any archived items). For each assessment, you will see the # of students who have submitted and the total number of submissions per item.

• Click on the title of each assessment to see the names of the students who have submitted and details on the submissions.

• First, you will see a summary of activity for the specific assessment: how many have submitted, how many are in progress, and how many have not yet started.

• The table below lists students in alphabetical order and by enrollment status, with enrolled at the top and blocked / dropped at the bottom.

• You can see when each student started and finished the assessment, if at all.

• If students completed multiple submissions, all of them will be listed with start and finished dates, scores, or in-progress information. Here is an example.
  
  
  
   

• You can also see if and when students visited the Review page of the assessment (if you allow review). This feature allows you to see if students have bothered to go to Review after you released evaluations.

  • If students go to review before you had evaluated and released the item, a yellow alert icon indicates that they have not seen your comments.

  • A green icon indicates that the student visited the Review page after you graded and released scores.

  • If a student has not reviewed since the evaluation was done and released, a dash is shown.
    
    

• Navigation buttons (Next / Prev) allow you to move through all your assessments to evaluate student activity.

• You may send a Private Message to all who have not started the assessment.

• You can see the open, due, and accept until dates of each assessment and its status (open, closed, or invalid).

• All columns are sortable.

• Green checks by the title of the assessment indicate that it is published and visible in the students' view of AT&S.

• Just like in AT&S, if an item is not published, no green check is displayed in front of it.  

• If an assessment is invalid (i.e. bad dates), you will see an alert icon by the title of the item.

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