Web Analytics for Online / Blended Learning Environments

For this post I got on Google Scholar and just went to town. I initially had no idea what to look for. At first I tried "'web analytics' education." This brought up a bunch of results that were related to training people in the art and craft of web analytics. Not exactly what I was looking for.

The next query I tried was "learning environments online OR blended 'web analytics'". This brought up results that were much more promising than what I had found originally. Here are my thoughts on two of the articles that seemed relevant to our topic.

A Model of Online Instructional Design Analytics

I wondered if this article were based on some older research, because it focused mainly on how HTTP server logs can be harvested to provide us with data similar to what we would expect to get out of Google Analytics. In this way, it was quite similar (in principle) to what we do with web analytics today. I imagine these methods were common among those pioneering the field of web analytics.

Although relatively old, this article has some merit because it outlines many of the major obstacles we still face today in doing practical web analytics. Perhaps the most conspicuous of those limitations mentioned is our general inability to compare aggregate usage statistics against the individual's usage of the system.

This article was interesting because, although the methods they espoused seemed a little quaint to me, it made me appreciate the ingenuity that the pioneers of this field had. We owe so much of what we have today to people who just did the best with what they had.

Web Mining for Self-Directed E-learning

The focus of this article was not "web analytics" per se, but the question of how we can improve the relevance of information obtained by querying "e-learning systems." The authors broad definition of "e-learning system" seemed to be any online, searchable repository of information. They specifically geared their discussion around those repositories such as Google, CiteSeer, LexisNexis, and any number of other similar sites on the Internet that attempt to provide "results" based on "relevance" to the query.

The authors stated that there is an increasing trend in the number of "self-directed e-learners," or those people who use the Internet as a knowledge-building tool. This includes novices who are seeking a broad but shallow summary of an entire field of expertise as well as those experts who are seeking depth of information. The purpose of this article was to propose a number of ideas through which these information retrieval systems could be made dynamic and self-updating, providing more relevant results to the user based on the user's usage of the system.

While much of their discussion did not relate directly to web analytics, they did have a section on mining "web usage data," and the idea that grabbed me here was their idea to collect web usage data for websites, and make this data available to the users of the website in real time. This way, people using a website could see how others are using it and what types of results they are getting.

This provides an interesting question for web analytics. Imagine a large, complex website with many possible navigation paths. Or, imagine an online course website with fairly straightforward start-to-finish navigation options, but with a number of different tools available to the user. In both cases, an interesting question would be, How would website usage trends evolve if people using the site were given a realtime view of the website's usage trends? Or, from another perspective, is there any way we could identify usage patterns of those who are doing well in the course and give this information to other users in a way that would encourage them to use the course in the same way? Could this be of any actual benefit to the other users?

Things I'd Like to Track with Web Analytics

When considering the question of what I would most like to track using web analytics, I thought I would explore the issue systematically by considering the types of things that would be found on an online course website. I was then able to think of some questions that I would like to answer regarding these parts and pieces.

• Text
○ Specifically for text that is long enough to have a scrollbar, are the students reading all of the text? Could we know if students scrolled all the way to the end of a textbox? How about the end of the page?
○ What is the amount of time that students spend on a page? Seeing the average time spent on a page might reveal some interesting usage trends.
• Figures, Tables, and Graphs - Can we find out if the students moused over visuals on the screen, such as tables and graphs? In general, can we track the position of the cursor as it moves around the screen? This would reveal very interesting usage patterns, as it would give us some idea of how people visually navigate through our web pages.
• Videos
○ Are students watching the whole thing? If not, is there any way we could find out when they stopped watching?
• Sounds - with any kind of audio, same questions as with video: Are students listening to the full audio track?
• Assessments
○ How much time spent does a student spend on an online assessment? This would indicate if students are really thinking about the questions, or just answering them as fast as they can. Could we find out how much time they spend on each item?

I know that web analytics can track the geographical location of the IP address used to visit the page. In addition to these questions regarding the specific components that are used to create an online course, it would also be fascinating if we could compare usage trends to the geographical location of the people visiting the page.

Expectations for this Class

I have a number of questions about web analytics. Among them are:

• Why is web analytics possible? How does it work? What are the principles involved that make web analytics possible? How do webpages need to be altered to enable analytics?
• What are possible technical problems? Is it possible for the user to circumvent web analytics? What will cause it to break? What are circumstances in which web analytics will not collect the information we are expecting?
• Learn (at least briefly) about some of the different tools available for web analytics (other than Google Analytics).
• What are some of the legal and ethical implications of web analytics? Are there laws about the type of information that we are allowed to collect? Is there any legislation pending?
• What kinds of things can we track with analytics?
• How can /should we interpret the different kinds of data that we will collect via web analytics?
• How can I use web analytics to improve my web site?
• How can I use web analytics to bring more traffic to my website?

My expectations for this class would be to get answers to most or all of these questions. I would like to come away from this class with a working knowledge of how to implement and utilize web analytics, and how it can benefit me, especially in establishing my brand identity.

I would like to know all about the types of things that are possible with web analytics.

When we are done, I should be able to implement some web analytics solutions on websites of my own and others, collect information that is interesting and useful, and interpret that data to inform decisions regarding that web site.

Spiders

No, not those web-crawling bots that Google uses to traverse the depths of the World Wide Web that you might have expected to find in a posting on a blog about web analytics. No, my friends, I'm talking about our eight-eyed, eight-legged, fuzzy little friends. These energetic guys are extremely useful to mankind, but are unfortunately almost universally feared and frequently find themselves at the center of awkward social situations.

"Oh, sure," you say. "Other people might be prejudiced against spiders, but not me! Why, I would never hate any species based solely on the number of its legs! These kinds of things happened in times past, but not today! We are progressive. In fact, I had a spider over for dinner just the other night!"

But let's be honest. Arachnobigotry still exists. Do you ever see eyeglasses with eight lenses? No! They don't make them! Are there community action groups aimed at promoting the health and well-being of spiders? No! If a spider came to ask you for a job, would you hire the ladybug instead, justifying your decision by convincing yourself that "the ladybug had better people skills anyway?" And how many spiders have you ever REALLY tried to get to know? How can you sleep at night?

That being said, I hate the nasty little blighters. Well, I did hate them. Their eight skinny legs allow them to move just a little too fast for my comfort. Let me explain how things unfolded.

You see, it all started when I was just a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old. My grandparents lived in California, and I think the hot humid air made for some gigantic bugs. My favorite of these bugs were the Daddy Long Legs (Pholcus phalangioides), a spider which, as EVERY school child knows, is the MOST POISONOUS SPIDER IN THE WORLD! Luckily, their fangs are short enough (0.25 mm) that they can't penetrate human skin (0.1 mm). Oh, wait. (Check out Myth Busters.)

Anyway, I don't remember having a problem with spiders at that young age. Then something awful must have happened, because the rest of my life is characterized by a general malevolence towards them. I really don't know why.

Maybe it's because they tried to kill me.

For a while when I was growing up, I lived in the basement of our home. There were always spiders in the basement, but nothing that ever concerned me too much. Just little "garden variety" spiders, who were probably just strolling around leisurely, looking for their next insect meal. I killed them all the same out of principle, because I had proclaimed a very stern "you move, you die" policy in my bedroom, and I couldn't afford to set a bad precedent by allowing some things to move and not to die. Such was the agreement I had with all things creepy-crawly, and such was the status quo for a good, long time

Then one day, a mean-looking, thuggish gang of hobo spiders (Tegenaria agrestis) wearing full leather biker attire rolled into town on their harleys. They took up camp in a woodpile outside of my neighbor's home. One day she went outside and disturbed their woodpile. They bit her, laughed at her, and sent her away with a large necrotic lesion on her leg. That was a mistake. She called the local news station and immediately declared her personal crusade against the hobo spiders. She even started a website, www.hobospiderlady.org (which unfortunately no longer exists), from which she sold hobo spider traps and poisons to people all across ... town.

Fleeing this unexpected retaliation, the hobos began looking for other homes. One of them happened to be mine. I first noticed encountered them one night as I was studying, lying flat on my stomach on the floor in my basement room. As I was reading, I briefly heard the sound of something akin to a miniature typewriter, clicking and clacking at a rate of about 120 words per minute. I looked to see what was causing such an intriguing noise and noticed a very large, brown, octopedal visitor heading my way, tap dancing on my papers that were scattered across the floor. I summarily dismissed this uninvited guest with a whack of my shoe. Drawing one final breath, he wheezed, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..."

I would later find out that this meant, "You dirty bag of scum. You may expect that my brother will avenge my death, as will no less than a veritable legion of his venomous offspring."

The promised vengeance was swift. I was soon killing several of these guys per week. One day, I came home from classes and opened the door to my room, to find what I can only assume was a hobo spider political rally taking place on the floor. There was a quiet stillness as approximately 782 blinking, beady eyes were riveted on me. Awkward. A number of them ran for safety in the far reaches of my room--under the bed, under the dresser--in every place where they knew I couldn't get to them easily. One intrepid soul ran menacingly towards me as fast as his eight long legs would take him. Yeah, he died. I ran to get the vacuum cleaner and a flashlight and moved all the furniture in my room, sucking these little guys up with fiendish delight.

Later, I decided it was time to be proactive about the situation. I took a caulking gun and sealed each corner of my room, and every conceivable nook and cranny through which they might be able to enter.

For quite a while it appeared that I had restored order to my realm, until one day I noticed a spider on the wall while I was sitting at my desk studying. I looked at him closely, once more ready to dole out justice and judgment, but had the strange impression enter my mind, "This little guy's not dangerous. Tell him to leave."

I informed him that once he had rested a bit he would need to find another place to hang out. He stuck around for a day or two, and I never saw him again. Moreover, I never saw ANY spiders in that room again. I think he must have gone and told his spider buddies that I'm not completely despicable after all.

So, I guess all I'm trying to say is next time you see a spider, consider getting a cup and a paper and taking him outside. Unless he's a hobo spider. Then terminate him with extreme prejudice.