Slides for a session presented by Martin Hawksey and Nico Miceli for staff at RMIT University, Australia. Recording available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N2091y9c0Q Traffic analysis tools for websites are well established with Google Analytics reportedly having the majority market share used in over 80% of websites with tracking enabled. As the internet and web technologies have evolved so has the functionality of traffic analysis tools going far beyond pageviews enabling cohort analysis, acquisitions and conversion reporting, and more. A more recent development is the emergence of Learning Analytics which focus on "the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs". Given the proportion of learning and teaching that now occurs online this session explores how Google Analytics can be used for Learning Analytics. As part of this we cover Google Analytics tracking and integration techniques including how Google Analytics can be deployed at scale provide custom reporting and enabling actionable insight.

1. Google Analytics for
Learning Analytics
+Martin Hawksey
@mhawksey
+Nico Miceli
@NicoMiceli

2. Introductions

3. +Martin Hawksey
@mhawksey
+Nico Miceli
@NicoMiceli

4. Overview

5. the measurement, collection, analysis
and reporting of data about learners
and their contexts, for purposes of
understanding and optimising
learning and the environments in
which it occurs
First International Conference on Learning Analytics
and Knowledge (LAK11), 2011
“
’’

6. Action
Analytic
Data
Question

7. For example...

8. Philip Guo, Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement

9. YouTube Analytics

10. YouTube Analytics

11. Connection
CC-BY-SA https://flic.kr/p/7tzVKr
Collection
CC-BY-SA https://flic.kr/p/jAZBNr
Continuous Refinement
CC-BY https://flic.kr/p/gjW3aQ

13. ● Acquired by Google in 2005
● Offers free and enterprise versions
● Primarily used for on websites and mobile apps but allows of
other types of data collection
● In 2012 adopted the customer centric approach
● Contains advanced features such as:
○ Sequential Analysis
○ A/B & Multivariate Testing
● 400+ Dimensions and Metrics + custom ones!
Google Analytics is a full featured data collection, analysis, and web
site testing application from Google

14. Tracking used to be easy

15. Beyond page views...

16. But the current web is a lot better… and cooler!

17. But tracking got more advanced

18. Pageviews just don’t cut it anymore
1 page view 1 page view 1 page view

19. Understanding Engagement

20. Event Tracking - the James Bond of tracking
Clean, elegant, easy to use Customizable to handle anything
© MGM Studios

21. Event Tracking
Event tracking is a piece of code with custom values that
you fire off when you want to track something
ga('send',
'event', // Required: type of tracking
'category', // Required: Category of event
'action', // Required: Action of event
'label', //optional value
value); //optional number
ga('send','event','category','action','label',value);

22. <button id="b1">Hello World</button>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('#b1').click(function(event) {
ga('send','event','button','click','hello
world',1);
});
</script>
Event Tracking
Track clicks on the button
HTML/jQuery

23. ga('send','event','Fall15-BSN101-T1.1','multichoice-
selection','21',5);

24. Google Analytics Event Tracking MCQs

25. Connect to Media Player API’s
Youtube and GA: http://nicomiceli.com/youtube-
embed-tracking-google-analytics/

26. Segment and build your own metrics
More advanced sites create more advanced actions that
lead to more advanced analysis & questions
● See if your videos are being watched
○ How many people watched a video for more than 50% of the total time?
● Figure out if people who watch your videos do better?
○ How many people watch a video for less than 50% and answered 75% of the questions
correct?
● Make sure there are not any tech issues
○ How many people got question 5 wrong and what browser were they using?
● Compare answers by hardware used to view material
○ What are the average scores on desktop computers compared to tablets?

27. There are a ton of other Dimensions & Metrics at your disposal!

28. Warning: Google Analytics does not allow Personally
Identifiable Information (PII) stored in the Application. If
you’re caught storing PII you can have you data erased.
It’s not about the individual, it’s about collective groups.
NO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

29. Measurement Protocol

30. The measurement protocol lets you send data to Google
Analytics via HTTP Requests to these endpoints:
http://www.google-analytics.com/collect
http://ssl.google-analytics.com/collect
With these values required for all hits
Name Parameter Example Description
Protocol Version v v=1 The protocol version.
The value should be 1.
Tracking ID tid tid=UA-123456-1 The ID that
distinguishes to which
Google Analytics
property to send data.
Client ID cid cid=xxxxx An ID unique to a
particular user.
Hit Type t t=pageview The type of interaction
collected for a particular
user.

31. Kiosks
Smart TV
Apps
Point
of Sale
Devices
Web
Connected
Devices
Backend
Applications

32. nicomiceli.com/slackalytics github.com/NicoMiceli/slackalytics
Tracks real time communication in chat application
Slack.
Counts words, emojis, question marks,
exclamation points, ellipses

33. slack bot example - adding morning 11/3

35. Track anything...

36. Total Cost: $60

37. Google Analytics Sleep Tracker

38. Analyzing the flow...

39. Counts don’t count much if
decontextualized
Wilson, T.D. (1999). Models in information behaviour research.
Journal of Documentation, 55(3), 249 – 270.
“ ’’

40. Google Analytics API

41. Lets interface
CC-BY-NC https://flic.kr/p/5d59EW

43. Google Analytics Add-on for Google Sheets

44. Nico’s Interactive Dashboard
https://goo.gl/JOSrGy

45. Google Analytics superProxy and Google Analytics Data Bridge
https://developers.google.com/analytics/solutions/google-analytics-super-proxy

46. Google Tag Manager

48. Google Analytics - Tracking
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-X', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
Google Tag Manager - Container
<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
<noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-XXXXXXD"
height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-54262D');</script>
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->

49. Google Tag Manager allows you to deploy 3rd party
scripts through an easy to use Interface.
Consists of 3 parts:
Tags
Triggers
Variables
Google Tag Manager

50. <button id="b1">Hello World</button>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('#b1').click(function(event) {
ga('send','event','button','click','hello
world',1);
});
</script>
Event Tracking
Track clicks on the button
HTML/jQuery

51. Event Tracking
Track clicks on the button with
Google Tag Manager
<button id="b1">Hello World</button>

52. Google Tag Manager

54. Experiments
CC-BY-ND https://flic.kr/p/dtZF7K

55. Hopefully, you now
know a little more what
is possible

56. Image credit: timmacpherson.com
Now it’s time to get
creative!
Rethink the interactions
with your students
Ask questions

58. Questions?
marketer | data junkie
nicomiceli.com
Edtech Explorer
mashe.hawksey.info
+Martin Hawksey
@mhawksey
+Nico Miceli
@NicoMiceli

59. Thank you!
+Martin Hawksey
@mhawksey
+Nico Miceli
@NicoMiceli