Learning analytics

Learning Analytics are any piece of information that can help an LMS user improve learning outcomes. Users include students, teachers, administrators and decision-makers.

Moodle Plugins

There are a number of reports, blocks and other plugins for Moodle that provide learning analytics.

Plugin	Plugin type	Standard / Additional	Useful for	Description	Reported usage*
Logs	Report	Standard	Teachers, Admins, Decision-makers	Filterable log of events	71.4%
Activity	Report	Standard	Teachers	View count of activities in course	69.1%
Activity completion, see also Course completion	Report	Standard	Teachers	Completion matrix of students and activities	66.3%
Live logs	Report	Standard	Teachers, Admins	Automatically refreshing log of events	55.2%
Feedback	Activity	Standard	Teachers, Researchers	Configurable survey tool	59.5%
(Quiz) Statistics	Report	Standard	Teachers	Student quiz performance report	53.0%
(Course) Participation	Report	Standard	Teachers	Single student's participation in course	49.9%
Survey	Activity	Standard	Teachers, Researchers	Set of standardised educational surveys	45.6%
Questionnaire	Activity	Additional	Teachers, Researchers	Configurable survey tool	45.3%
Course overview	Report	Standard	Admins, Decision-makers	Comparison of participation across multiple courses	45.0%
Course completion status	Block	Standard	Students	View of student's own completion of activities	41.4%
Progress Bar	Block	Additional	Students, Teachers	Time management tool for students with overview for teachers	32.0%
Events list	Report	Standard	Teachers, Admins	Events that can be monitored/searched in logs	28.6%
Activity results block	Block	Standard	Students	Leader-board of results in single activity	26.1%
Configurable Reports (A list of contributed reports)	Block (Report Graphs filter)	Additional	Teachers, Admins, Decision-makers	Report generation and viewing	22.7%
(Gradebook) Overview	Report	Standard	Teachers, Students	View of student grades across activites	N/A
Statistics	Report	Standard	Admins, Decision-makers	Daily activity across site	N/A
Event monitor	Report	Standard	Teachers, Admins, Decision-makers	Proactive, focussed monitor tool	N/A
Ad-hoc database queries	Report	Additional	Teachers, Admins, Decision-makers	SQL-based report generation and viewing	N/A
Engagement Analytics	Block, Report, Activity module	Additional	Teachers	Configurable engagement measurement report and block	N/A
Course Dedication	Block	Additional	Students, Teachers	Estimated time online for students	N/A
Graph Stats	Block	Additional	Teachers, Admins	Daily visits to site or course	N/A
GISMO	Block	Additional	Teachers	Numerous charts of student activity participation	N/A
Level Up!	Block	Additional	Students, Teachers	Incentive-drive participation meter	N/A
Forum Graph	Report	Additional	Teachers	Graph of forum interactions	N/A
Analytics Graphs	Block	Additional	Teachers	Visualisation of student participation	N/A
Heatmap	Block	Additional	Teachers	Colour-coded indication of activity views on course page	N/A
Analytics	Local	Additional	Admins, Decision-makers	Enriched feed to Google Analytics and Pywick	N/A
Logstore xAPI	Logstore	Additional	Admins, Decision-makers, Researchers	xAPI event stream output	N/A

* Reported usage is drawn from the Plugins Usage Survey from 2015.

Integrations with Moodle

A number of systems integrate with Moodle to provide learning analytics information externally.

• Moodle Activity Viewer (MAV) (Git), consider Heatmap as an alternative
• Intelliboard
• Zoola (was Analytika)
• Learning Locker, can be used with Logstore xAPI
• SmartKlass
• Blackboard Predict
• Completing the loop

Dimensions of Analytics

Learning analytics are a concept that has been emerging under a number of different names through the past decades. Its origins lie in research in data mining and intelligent tutoring systems. LA tools can be categorised in a number of ways. The diagram below describes such tools by how deeply they are integrated with other systems (source).

See also...

• Analytics and reporting forum
• Moodle Research forum
• Moodle research page
• Logging
• Events list
• Learning Analytics API specification
• Assessment Analytics working group details and issues
• Events specification
• Logging specification
• Report Builder API specification
• Use Generico filter to display custom DB reports with graphs Demo / Forums
• Solving the ethical and legal issues around learning analytics: a series of podcasts

Presentations

• Moodle Analytics Plans I Elizabeth Dalton at MoodleMoot Australia 2016 (video 24m)