Page views are perhaps the only easily available proxy for platform engagement that is surfaced by Instructure Canvas. Platform engagement can be seen in turn as a proxy for participation. There are 1137 students in 115 courses and 45 faculty active on the platform as of week eleven.
Total page views spring 2022 to date shows a pattern similar to that seen last fall, with the vertical offset being due to more students being on the platform spring 2022.
Spring 2022 peaked in week three with 1224 students on the platform and is now down by 87 students to 1137 students, a loss of 7.1%. Fall 2021 had 956 students on the platform in week three and dropped to 887 by week eleven, a loss of 7.2%. The drop in the number of students reflects withdrawals from courses. Students can withdraw with a "W" up to the end of week ten. That the two percentages are almost equal suggests that the loss rate might be a stable percentage term-on-term.
The same data with the spring 2022 values included. There is a drop in engagement after the first two weeks until midterm, but behind the midterm engagement slumps to well below pre-midterm values. This may well reflect the actual effort patterns of the students. The average page views for the three weeks prior to midterm (weeks five, six, and seven) was 77385. The average page views for the three weeks after midterm (weeks nine, ten, and eleven) was 58945. This represents an 24% drop in page views, a drop that cannot be explained by a 7% loss of students from the platform.
Either students are less engaged after the midterm or their courses require less work of them behind the midterm than they did ahead of the midterm. While some of the drop might be written off to students being more efficient in their navigation on the platform, that is does not seem likely to be sufficient to account for the 24% drop.
The average page views by day of the week has shown a consistent pattern in both fall 2021 and spring 2022. Monday and Thursdays lead engagement while Saturday is the nadir of the scholastic week.
Midterms occurred in the first two days of week eight. This undoubtedly explains the Sunday spike in engagement in week seven, the day before midterm examinations, and the spikes seen Monday and Tuesday of week eight. Thursday in week eight also spiked with Monday and Tuesday.
When rescaled to a percentage of total page views for that week, the general dominance of Monday and Thursday become clear. Thursday volume might be explained by assignments that are due on a Friday.
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