Do you ever wonder how your students are using course materials to study? What if you could adjust your course based on how students are engaging outside of the classroom?

Around 1.2 million teaching and learning data events are generated by students at the University of Iowa every day, offering valuable snapshots of their engagement and performance. This includes activities such as logging into a course ICON page, downloading a posted PDF, submitting a quiz assignment, and watching a video on UICapture.

“Despite this robust data, its potential to enhance teaching and learning has largely remained untapped. Course Activity Insights is designed to unlock and return these insights to instructors,” explains Jane Russell, director of OTLT Research and Analytics.

Course Activity Insights, or CAI, is an analytics platform designed to help instructors make data-informed decisions about their teaching. By pulling data from technology tools used in a course, it provides instructors with a more comprehensive understanding of their students’ engagement across materials and tools. 

How instructors are using CAI

Last spring, CAI was piloted by 14 instructors who taught courses in chemistry, public health, psychology, engineering, health and human physiology, mathematics, and business, impacting 4,792 students. Here are a few of the ways they described using the tool over the course of the semester:

• Review shifts in enrollment and prior course work.
• Check relevance of materials based on students’ programs and prior course work.
• Help students make connections with other courses they are taking.
• Find highly active times to send announcements/communications to students.
• Give specific feedback to students based on their recent engagement.
• Identify underutilized course materials.

Expansion of CAI

CAI is expanding to accommodate more instructors for the spring 2025 semester. A new student information page has been designed to better suit graduate and professional courses, and a recent development allows for Zoom data (attendance and duration of attendance) to be available for courses that use Hawk ID authentication for virtual lectures.

Gain access to CAI in spring 2025

To have CAI for in your spring 2025 courses, instructors must complete this form to sign up for a one-hour training session via Zoom. There are three sessions scheduled:

• Wednesday, Nov. 13, 10 to 11 a.m.
• Thursday, Nov. 21, 1 to 2 p.m.
• Monday, Dec. 9, 3 to 4 p.m.

Training must be completed before Friday, Dec. 20, to ensure all course data will be available in spring 2025.

If you have questions about CAI or training, contact OTLT Research and Analytics at its-ra@iowa.uiowa.edu.