Enable Engagement Analytics

Overview

Engagement analytics are data on student activities. These include detailed data on student viewing of Echoes and participation in discussions. Engagement analytics are typically conveyed to Academic Staff via student usage reports, accessed via the EchoCenter page for a section (see Student Usage Reports - Are Students Engaged? for details). Engagement analytics can also be exported and included in a broader analysis.

Enabling engagement analytics requires this configuration:

Secured section. The section must be secured in some way. The individual student accessing the section must be identified so his activity can be compiled in a report. See Enable Section Security below for details on security methods you can use.
Student names. Student names must be in a database so the ESS can identify an individual student when he logs in. If you are using a security method that includes a name database (LDAP, CAS, Shibboleth, an LMS with seamless login), student names are already in an accessible database and you do not have to create one. If you are not using such a security method, you will have to enrich the ESS internal database with student names. See Put Students Names in a Database below.

When this configuration is in place, engagement analytics can be collected because the following process takes place:

The student logs in to an Echo for the first time.
The ESS gathers identification data (the student's first name, last name, and email address) from a database. This can be a learning management system (LMS), LDAP, or the internal ESS database.
The ESS marks the student as an Active Student.
The ESS compiles engagement analytics for the student, using the identification data gathered from the source system.
The ESS formats these engagement analytics into student usage reports on the EchoCenter page for the section. See Student Usage Reports - Are Students Engaged?

Enable Section Security

You can enable security for the section in a variety of ways. See Security Settings for a general discussion of security settings. The section security setting is usually inherited from the organization security setting.

Implement CAS or Shibboleth with the Authentication Required security module. You do not need to explicitly put student names in a database because student names are gathered from the CAS or Shibboleth databases. See CAS and Shibboleth Authentication .
Implement an LDAP security module. Student names are gathered from the LDAP database. See LDAP Authentication.
Implement seamless login with your learning management system (LMS) and implement the Authentication Required security module. Student names are gathered from the LMS. See Seamless Only vs. Authentication Required.
Import all users and passwords into the internal ESS database and implement the Authentication Required security module. You will have to put student names in the internal ESS database. See Put Students Names in a Database.

Be aware of these special cases and side effects:

CAS as source system. The ESS collects only the student username from CAS. This means that engagement analytics show the username, not the student's actual name. If you want to show the actual name, you can export the user list for the section as a .csv file, enrich it with the actual name data, then re-import it. See Import and Export Objects for a general discussion of this technique. See Import Users for specifics on user names.
A disengaged student is not listed on student usage report. If the student never logs in to view an Echo, the student name is not gathered and does not appear on the student usage report.
In some cases, an engaged student is not listed on the student usage report. If a student downloads Echoes rather than streaming them from the ESS, engagement analytics are not collected. See Students Who Download Echoes Have Skewed Data. You may need to explain this case to Academic Staff.

Put Students Names in the ESS Internal Database

If you are using a security method that includes a name database, you can skip this step. If you do not, or if you have problems with the name database, you can import students manually. You can use any of these methods to do this:

Import students using a .csv file
Manually add individual students

See Manage Student Users for details.