The most important LMS analytics that teachers should know about

A learning management system (LMS) provides rich analytics that help teachers better understand how students progress through classes and identify those who are struggling. While there is no doubt that an LMS can provide incredibly insightful analytics, there is no need for teachers to use all of them. Instead, teachers can focus on a few key analytics that will make a difference in their activity.

So what are those key LMS analytics? Each class is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach, but we can outline some of the most common and relevant analytics for teachers. Let’s have a look:

1. Progress analytics

   One of the most useful analytics is the time spent in lessons and sections because it makes it easy to identify improvement areas. Detailed analytics on each student’s progress, such as the section and lesson completion percentages, are also helpful; other analytics concern students’ daily activity, including assignment submission and viewed lessons.

2. Assessment analytics

   A good place to start is the general assignment analytics for a class. You might want to look at how many assignments are due, how many need to be graded, submissions, and the grade distribution. At an assignment level, it’s important to consider the grade average. The gradebook also provides useful analytics at a glance, such as missing assignments.

3. Mastery analytics

   The concept of mastery is simple. You create a list of competencies for a class or use a pre-built curriculum, then tag sections and assignments with the competencies they are teaching. In terms of analytics, the most useful metrics related to competencies are mastery coverage and students’ overall competency progress.

4. Built-in and custom reports

   An LMS provides built-in reports for instant insights. The most important reports generate class enrollment, class completion, missing work, and class status data. In addition, custom reporting allows teachers to create reports using parameters defined by them. They are great for in-depth analytics, such as figuring out who are the top 10% of students in all classes in terms of progress.

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