8 Metrics Every Course Creator Should Track -
The course creators are constantly looking for ways to improve their classes. One of the most effective ways to do this is to listen to your students.
The issue is that the students you teach won't be able to let you know what's happening within your class. Some will leave the course, cancel their account, or even complete the course only to disappear which means you'll never get the whole story.
Tracking online course metrics helps you determine what learners are thinking about your course, and how you can improve it.
It's not just about tallying up course completion rate. No course will have an exact completion in the event of a life-changing incident or when a student's motivations or circumstances change.
So let's explore the eight online course metrics that you should be tracking and how you can use the data to increase your chances of performance.
Learning Performance and Progress
Metric 1: Course Progression
In a nutshell the students who complete your class at a fast rate are likely to be enthusiastic and involved. This could be a sign of a successful courses that you could reproduce or teach to other people.
While monitoring course progress, consider asking these questions:
- What is the time it takes for the learner to complete the lesson?
- What speed do they move through each topic and lesson?
- What ideas seem simple but which are difficult?
- If students consistently struggle, how can I make it clearer?
Student Satisfaction and Approval
Metric 2: Surveys at exit
Just because a learner finished an entire course, it doesn't mean that they liked it. You might want to send out surveys after the course is completed (and once learners know their feedback won't affect the final grade.) A quick exit survey can capture initial impressions.
Metric3: course review
4. Metric: Instructor's efficiency
The best instructors may fail to deliver an online course. Examine the way instructors respond to requests from students and how they're communicating with your students. It is particularly important to monitor if instructors change however, not the content of the course. Is there a difference in student engagement?
Metric 5, Discussions and comments
Discussion threads on the internet provide a wonderful opportunity for students to study the material with others and experience the sense of being part of a community. Monitor group discussions to examine what learners are discussing and engaging with the content. A certain level of engagement within the discussion board could be validating!
Professional Competency of Learners and Skills
Metric 6: Quiz Scores
Metric 7. Quality of Assignment Submissions
The complexity and the quality of your assignments will help you gain an idea of how students are engaging with your course. If you can, provide learners personal feedback on each assignment (or look over the feedback the instructor has left). This will help you determine how students are overcoming roadblocks. This can lead to better rate of success (and reviews!) for learners who have individual needs.
Metric 8. Certificates and Retakes
How long do learners stay enrolled in your course, and do they come back for more? How many finish the course with a certification, or how many need to take the test again? A strong completion rate is an easy statistic to track, without requiring the students to submit an explicit review.
Does Your LMS Have Metrics that can be customized?
- See a snapshot of the pending assignments and enrollment when you log in
- Track student progress in real time and observe how students move through courses and keep tabs on test scores
- You can manage assignments by approving or deleting assignments
- Run advanced reports and export the course information to CSV or Excel files. CSV or Excel file
Are you interested in seeing it working? Check out our webinar replay on ProPanel to understand the way these tools work within your next class.
If you're looking to get started, you can check out ProPanel through our live demo.