Setting up and managing course analytics and reports in Moodle involves utilizing its built-in reporting tools, as well as configuring course-level analytics features. Moodle provides a variety of options to track student progress, activity, and overall performance. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you set up and manage course analytics and reports in Moodle:

1. Enabling Course Analytics

Course analytics helps instructors and administrators to track learner engagement, activity completion, and performance. Moodle has a built-in analytics feature that can be enabled and configured as follows:

Step 1: Enable Analytics

1. Login as an Administrator: Log into Moodle with admin rights.
2. Navigate to Site Administration: Go to Site administration > Advanced features.
3. Enable Analytics: Make sure the Analytics feature is enabled.

Step 2: Configure Analytics Models

1. Go to Site administration > Reports > Analytics models.
2. Moodle provides different models (such as Predictive model or Engagement model), and you can set up models depending on your needs.
3. Choose a model to configure and customize the settings (e.g., grade prediction, activity completion predictions).
4. Save the model and enable it for the course(s) you want to monitor.

2. Accessing and Understanding Analytics Data

Once analytics is enabled, instructors and admins can view insights into student behavior and performance.

Step 1: View Analytics

1. Go to the Course where you want to track analytics.
2. In the course administration panel, navigate to Reports > Course Analytics.
3. The analytics data will show insights like:
   • Learner engagement: How frequently students are engaging with course content.
   • Activity completion: Tracking how many students have completed activities.
   • Grades and scores: Visualizing performance over time.

3. Setting Up Custom Reports

Moodle provides built-in reports for common metrics, but you can also create custom reports to track specific data for your courses.

Step 1: Use the Custom Report Generator

1. Navigate to Reports: Go to Site administration > Reports > Custom reports.
2. Create a New Report: Choose Add a new report.
3. Choose the Data: Select which data you want to include in the report, such as:
   • Course activity completion
   • Quiz scores
   • Assignment submissions
4. Apply Filters: You can filter data based on date ranges, student groups, or other criteria.
5. Save the Report: Once the custom report is set up, save it for future use.

Step 2: View the Report

• After creating the custom report, you can view it from the Custom reports section.
• You can also download the report as a CSV or Excel file for offline analysis.

4. Using Built-in Reports

Moodle offers several standard reports that track user activity and course completion. These include:

Activity Reports

• Activity completion report: Shows which students have completed the required activities.
• Course participation report: Displays how actively students are participating in the course.
• Logs report: Displays detailed logs of all user activities in the course.

Grades and Activity Completion

• Gradebook: A comprehensive overview of all student grades.
• Activity completion report: A detailed overview of how students are progressing with course activities.

5. Using the “Completion Tracking” Feature

Completion tracking allows instructors to monitor whether students have met certain milestones, like completing assignments or reaching particular activity stages.

Step 1: Enable Completion Tracking

1. Navigate to your Course Settings.
2. Under Completion tracking, select “Yes” to enable.
3. This will allow you to set completion criteria for various activities (e.g., require passing a quiz or submitting an assignment).

Step 2: Set Completion Criteria

1. When editing any activity (e.g., assignment, quiz, forum), scroll down to the Activity completion section.
2. Define the criteria for activity completion (e.g., students must achieve a certain grade, post a discussion, or view the activity).
3. Save the settings.

Step 3: View Completion Reports

1. Once students start interacting with activities, you can view their completion status via Reports > Activity completion.
2. This will show a list of students and their progress for each activity in the course.

6. Using the “Learning Analytics” Block

This block is designed to display course analytics in a more user-friendly and visually appealing format.

Step 1: Add the Learning Analytics Block

1. In the course dashboard, go to the Block drawer.
2. Search for Learning Analytics and add it to the page.
3. The block will show various metrics, including student progress, predictions, and engagement.

7. Scheduling Reports

You can schedule reports to be automatically generated and emailed to instructors or administrators.

Step 1: Schedule a Report

1. In Custom Reports, after creating a report, look for the Schedule option.
2. Set the frequency of the report (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).
3. Choose the recipients and save the scheduled report.

8. Exporting Reports

To share or analyze the data offline, you can export the reports to different formats (CSV, Excel, PDF).

Step 1: Export Reports

• Navigate to the report you want to export (e.g., activity completion or grade report).
• Look for the Export button (usually in the form of an icon or a link).
• Choose the format (CSV, Excel, or PDF) and save the report.

9. Analyzing and Acting on Data

After you’ve collected data via reports and analytics:

• Identify struggling students: Use performance data to identify learners who are falling behind.
• Optimize course materials: Use engagement and activity completion data to see which materials are most/least engaging and adjust accordingly.
• Provide targeted interventions: Send reminders or interventions to students who may need additional support or encouragement.

By setting up and managing course analytics in Moodle, you can have a comprehensive view of how students are progressing, how effective your teaching strategies are, and which areas of the course may need adjustments for better student outcomes.