Overview of the reporting tools in Moodle, Panopto, Zoom and Teams

Published on: 06/09/2023 · Last updated on: 28/10/2024

Introduction

The reports produced by our learning technology platforms provide data that can help to give an indication of student involvement with your online content.

The main benefit of being able to access this data is that lecturers can identify students who may be struggling to keep up with the online tasks set for them and provide access to support.  Additionally, lecturers can review how often resources are viewed and provide reminders for students at important times.

The main benefit for students in being able to access their activity completion report is one of keeping track of progress.  They can see what they’ve completed and what they still need to do and supports their independent learning goals.

Moodle Reports

When staff and students work in Moodle the technology logs their interactions.  This information is then made available in various report functions:

• for staff so that they can understand student behaviour and analyse how students are working with the online content
• for students so that they can keep track of their progress

The following information identifies some of the most useful reports and their potential uses, but please be clear that the information does not provide evidence that learning has taken place.  Rather, it gives you an indication that tasks are being attempted, or completed, that readings are being viewed or that forum posts are being made.  You can see which types of activity are visited regularly and which are not so popular.  With this information you can start to get a picture of how your students are interacting with the content, you and their peers.

Accessing Moodle Reports

You can access Moodle Reports from your chosen Moodle space by clicking the Reports tab (underneath the Moodle space title).

Activity Report

An activity report shows the number of views for each activity and resource. An activity report is calculated from the Moodle ‘course’ start date, which is taken from the Settings tab.  This can be a quick way to identify which resources or activities are popular (or not).

You can find the Activity Report link in the list of reports (shown above).

Use case example: This can let you know at a glance if a resource or activity has been popular, e.g. a revision guide, or a Health Safety form or a discussion forum. This might help predict student behaviour in relation to different types of online resource or activity which can help you adapt your delivery or seek advice from the CLT.

Activity Completion Report

Activity completion allows students to track their progress through the various activities you provide on your Moodle space. Students can see a checklist of what they have done so far. Using the activity completion report, staff can review student progress.

Enabling completion tracking

Completion tracking is normally enabled by default for most Moodle spaces. If you need to enable completion tracking on your Moodle space:

1. Go to the Settings tab.
2. Scroll down to Completion tracking, and set enable completion tracking to Yes
3. Optionally, you can also decide whether students can see the conditions for activity completion on the main Moodle page. They will always see the conditions when they select a given activity.
4. Save and display.

Activity completion settings

Once completion tracking is enabled on your Moodle space, you can set the completion criteria for each activity in the activity settings.

When you create new activities or resources, they will have activity completion tracking set by default (for students to manually indicate completion). You can disable this for individual resources where activity completion tracking is not suitable (e.g. a general Q&A forum which students will refer back to many times). You can set the default activity completion for several types of resources (e.g. for ‘Text and media’, which by default is ‘set Activity completion to None’).

You can set the activity completion conditions so that students manually indicate completion (by ticking a box), or so that the completion box is automatically ticked once conditions are met. The conditions for activity completion depend on the type of activity e.g. for an assignment, you can choose whether students must submit or receive a grade; for forums, choose whether students must post or reply to a number of discussions.

Find the Activity Completion Report link in the list of reports (shown above).

Use case example: You are able to check student progress, in one place, as they work through a number of Moodle activities. You can check that they have ‘viewed’ a resource, or ‘completed’ a graded task. If you include a ‘pass rate’ for completion of a formative assessment task you will be able to see how many students have achieved the standard required. This can provide information about which areas of the subject matter cause difficulty, allowing you to adapt your delivery.

Learning Analytics

Taking this reporting further, Moodle incorporates Learning Analytics (since version 3.9). It automatically analyses data (based on specific models that have been enabled on the site) to identify patterns of behaviour (known as ‘Insights’) which help space owners to track engagement, easily monitor and contact students who may not have accessed recently/at all.

“Insights may be predictions about future performance or may detect current, hidden aspects or processes of learning. They may apply to students, courses, cohorts, or any other entity in Moodle.”

Moodle.org

In the first instance, two models will be enabled:

1. Students who have never accessed the Moodle space
2. Students who haven’t accessed the Moodle space in the last month

Moodle ‘course’ owners can access the ‘Insights’ reports at any time, but Moodle will also send teachers automatic notifications when new insights are identified (via email or through the Moodle messaging tool depending on your notification preference settings).

Changing your email notification settings
By default, and until further discussions with relevant stakeholders can take place, all those in the Teacher or Non-editing Teacher role will receive the Insights notifications.   If you do not want to receive these by email you can change your Notification settings from the Preferences menu found under the User menu (under your profile name).

1. Find the Insights Report link in the list of reports (shown above).
2. The Insights Report will be listed in the Reports section IF there is anything to report, otherwise it will not be present.

Use case example: On receiving notification that students are not accessing your Moodle space you can provide targeted support specifically to those that may need it.

Filtering on Participants

Although not a report, the Participants list can be filtered in a number of ways that can be useful:

• by enrolment method (e.g. SAMIS enrolled, Course meta link enrolled, self-enrolled etc.)
• by role (e.g. student, non-editing teacher, Teacher+ etc.)
• by group (if you have set up groups)
• by ‘inactivity’ (i.e. have not accessed the Moodle space) over a number of days, weeks or months.

To filter participants and download the results

1. Select the relevant Moodle space, and then choose Participants tab at the top of the page.
2. From the drop-down menus (by clicking the down arrows) select the filter options you need.  You can have multiple selections (e.g. filter by SAMIS enrolment, for those in the role of Student, who have been inactive for over a week).
3. Click Apply filters. The resulting list will give you a number of participants who match the criteria chosen.
4. If you wish to download this list, click the check box at the top lft of your filtered list of participants and scroll down past the table of results. Click the ‘With selected users‘ drop-down menu to select a format (e.g. PDF, CSV etc.) for the downloaded file.  The list will contain the names, usernames and any Groups the students are in.

Use case example: A list filtered by ‘inactivity’ can identify students who may not be visiting your Moodle space regularly. This could help you provide targeted support for students who may be struggling to keep up with activities.

Logs

The logs in Moodle create an audit trail for activity undertaken by staff or students. These logs can be viewed at Moodle ‘course’ level, and can be filtered:

• by all participants or a specific named individual
• by all days or a specific date
• by all activities or a specific activity (e.g. an assignment, forum or resource)
• by all actions or a specific action (e.g. whether a resource has been viewed or deleted, or whether an assignment has been submitted)
• by all events or a specific event (e.g. teaching or participating)

When the results are obtained, they appear on screen (in multiple pages). You are able to download the results, exported as an Excel or CSV file, where you can access more filtering options.

Note: there may be a delay in presenting the results if there is a lot of activity to search through.

You can find the Logs link in the list of reports (shown above).

Use case example: Logs can be helpful to track down whether an assessment submission was uploaded in the event of a student query. Filtering for specific activities may also reveal trends e.g. students submitting coursework in the last few minutes of a deadline, which can be addressed in your delivery.

Live Logs

These logs are a subset of the full data, showing the most recent activity (i.e. the last hour).  These are only viewable on screen (i.e. no downloads) and there are no filtering options.

You can find the Live Logs link in the list of reports (shown above).

Use case example: Live logs may be helpful, in the event of a student query, while students are working in Moodle during an in-person session e.g during a quiz.

Panopto Stats / Analytics

In Panopto, folders and individual recordings both display a stats icon, where you can access data and download reports. Statistics such as viewer engagement and views by day will give you insights about how your students are using the recordings you provide them.

It might be that students are viewing more often during revision periods or that they are watching a particular part more often because they find it difficult. You can see which students on your course have viewed videos and this data is also available to download. Panopto’s help pages provide guidance about obtaining folder and recording statistics.

Recording: How to view data about recordings

Use case examples: In a flipped classroom approach you can check how many students have watched the pre-session recording you have assigned them. You can provide reminders or adapt your session as needed. It’s also possible to identify patterns of use which could reveal which subject matter topics students struggle with. This could help you adapt your delivery or provide information for discussion with your students.

Zoom Attendance / Poll Reports

In Zoom the reporting relates to attendance and poll results.

• Meeting registers (accessible from Moodle or Zoom Cloud)
• Poll results

For attendance data only the Meeting organiser can access the data from Zoom Cloud, whereas in Moodle anyone in the Teacher role can access a Report link (from the Previous Meetings tab) to see those who participated.

If you record your Zoom meeting, the recording will be uploaded to Panopto, where you will also be able to view statistics.

Use case example: Poll results can indicate levels of understanding which can help you plan your future delivery.

MS Teams Attendance and Analytics Report

During Teams meetings it’s possible to access an attendance list.

• Attendance list

When working in a Teams area, you can access a page of statistics summarising activity within the team.  Enter your Team and from the ellipsis menu (More options) select Manage Team and then select the Analytics tab.

• Team analytics

Use case example: Where Teams is used for student project work you can use the analytics data to see how much activity each student is undertaking. This could help you identify if students need additional support (e.g. group working, meeting deadlines and other ‘skills’).