Engagement Drop-Off Analysis

Overview:

Tool: ELMS-Canvas  

Time: 15 min

What you need: access to your ELMS-Canvas course analytics

How to do it:

1. In your ELMS-Canvas course, click "Course Analytics" in the left-hand navigation (in blue). Select "Weekly Online Activity" from the top menu. You will see a graph showing page views and participations by week across the semester.
2. Look for weeks where both page views and participations drop significantly relative to surrounding weeks. Note the week number(s).
3. Cross-reference with your course calendar. Take some time to reflect: 
   1. What was due that week? 
   2. Was there a high-stakes exam the following week? 
   3. Did grades for a major assignment just return?
4. Optional: open TerpAI* and paste the prompt below with your observations to brainstorm design responses:

"My course engagement data shows a significant drop in week [X]. Here is what was happening that week in the course: [brief description]. What are the most likely reasons for this drop, and what are two course design changes I could test in a future semester to prevent it?"

Notes:

Canvas analytics track page views and submissions, not actual learning. Low page views in a given week may mean disengagement, or may mean students are studying from materials they already downloaded.

For cross-course engagement benchmarking (to see if your drop-off pattern is unusual relative to similar courses) connect with our Educational Effectiveness team.

*We encourage you to exclusively use UMD-approved GenAI tools, which are deployed in alignment with institutional security and compliance requirements.