Track Student Participation in Canvas

Canvas tracks how users are engaging within a course (where, when, how long, and how often). As an instructor, you can use this tracking to see if, when, and how your students have been participating in your Canvas courses. You can view the Course Access Report Links to an external site. for an individual user in the People section of your course. The course access report shows a summary of user participation in your course and complements the Total Activity column Links to an external site. in the People page. Visit the People section of your course, click on an individual student's name, then look over to the right and click the button to view his or her Access Report.

Note: the Access Report is generated periodically, please take that into consideration as you gauge students' activity. They may have been present in your course, but Canvas isn't reporting that to you yet.    

Open User Details

Open User Details

Click the user's Options icon [1], then select the User Details link [2].

Open Access Report

Student Access Report button

Locate the user details sidebar and click the Access Report link or button.

View Access Report

View Access Report

The access report will show you:

  • The content the user has viewed [1].
  • The number of times the user viewed the content [2]. A view is counted each time a user navigates to the URL where the content resides or downloads an attachment.
  • The number of times the user participated (if applicable, such as posting to a discussion or submitting an assignment) [3].
  • The last time the user viewed the content [4].

To return to the User Details page, click the Back to User Page button [5].

View Course Participation Content Icons

View Course Participation Content Icons

When a user navigates to course content areas from Course Navigation or views named course content, the following icons display in the access report:

  • Assignments [1]: displays next to graded and ungraded assignments. Participation is counted if the user submits an assignment.
  • Discussions [2]: displays next to discussions and announcements. Participation is counted if a user posts a reply. If the user accesses content from an announcement, such as an assignment, the Access Report displays a Discussion icon.
  • Quizzes [3]: displays next to quizzes. Participation is counted if a user starts a quiz, even if they do not submit any answers.
  • External Link [4]: displays next to external links (LTI) such as Microsoft365 and Conferences. Participation is counted for external links such as Collaborations and Conferences, but is not counted when a user participates in Chat.
  • Pages [5]: displays next to content added as a page in the course. Participation is not recorded if a user views pages.
  • Files [6]: displays next to views or previews of course files.Participation is not recorded if a user views files.

Note: The Access Report does not display a specific icon for groups. If a user accesses content from a group, such as a discussion or an assignment, the action is labeled with the appropriate content icon.

The Student Interactions Report Links to an external site. will show you information for the student in all enrolled courses. You can view the last time you interacted with the student, the current grade for the student, the final grade for the student, and if there are any submitted but ungraded assignments for the student. You can also quickly access the Conversations page to send a message to the student by clicking the message icon.

 

New Analytics allows you to track average course grades Links to an external site. for student submissions using an interactive chart graph. Data is for viewing only and cannot directly be changed. You can view analytics in both active and concluded courses. The average course grade is the average of all student totals from the Gradebook. Course analytics will show you student activity Links to an external site., assignment submissions, grades, and student names. Page views and participation metrics include an aggregate across all devices, including Canvas mobile apps. By default, the analytics page displays an interactive chart graph of all data. However, you can switch and view data within a table Links to an external site. at any time.

You can view the full specific report for a student by viewing student analytics Links to an external site. and send them a message based on specific course participation criteria Links to an external site..