Interpreting heat maps
Echo 360 for Staff
Introduction
Heat maps are hotspots where most student review activity is evident in portions of your lecture.
They chart points along a time scale that show particular patterns of student viewing activity in a
recording. Red or ‘hot’ areas show the most frequently accessed areas and/or the areas of the
recording accessed by more students than others in the course. The blue or ‘cool areas’ show less
access to particular points of the recording - and so on. The more students that have accessed a
particular part of the lecture, the ‘hotter’ the spots will be on that portion of the lecture on the time
scale.
Studying the lecture heat maps offers an insight into student lecture recording review patterns and
also offers an insight into the areas of your lecture that students felt they needed to review, for
whatever reason. Did students tend to watch a particular part of a lecture because the material
presented there was obscure, too dense, interesting etc.? Equally significant, why did students not
view parts of a lecture or other recording? Was this because these areas were already well
understood or is it the case that students have erratic viewing habits and view areas of the recording
serendipitously?
The heat map information in the screenshot above shows that one minute into the recording, this
segment was viewed more often than the first minute or the last part of the recording.
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Use the heat maps to distinguish and interpret unique recording views from cumulative views (in
the example below one person has viewed the recording seven times), the percentage of the
recording viewed and the number of spots that are hot, warm or cold. This prominent numerical
statistic becomes more valid when the heat map line is unable to differentiate graphically, the sheer
number of points accessed by a large number of students. In the example below, why would one
student view two sections of the recording several times? Is this significant? Why haven’t other
students viewed it?
In the example below, only the first part of the recording has likely been accessed at all. Why?
In the example below, parts of the recording appear to have been intentionally skipped. Why?
As a lecturer, you can use such heat map usage data to analyse several aspects of the student
viewing habits. This might include the following aspects:
•
Why did students skip particular points of a lecture entirely? Could I have done
something in the lecture at that point to encourage them to view the material later?
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•
•
Why did students seem to watch a particular part of the lecture more frequently and/
or in greater numbers? Was it because the lecture material, at this point, was too
difficult or ‘muddy’ or obscure? What could I learn from this in subsequent lectures?
Was the most watched material examples of or solutions to a problem that students felt
they wanted to or needed to review again in order to understand it better? Or was it a
particularly interesting part of the lecture, and if so, what made it so interesting?
•
Why did students not view the last part of a lecture recording? What could be done in
the lecture itself to encourage them to review this segment of the lecture more?
•
Why did so few students review the lecture recording at all? Was it because the
material in the live lecture was too easy, not relevant (in their perception), too obscure
or too tedious? Is there anything I could do to change this perception if this trend
continues to occur?
•
Could I structure the lecture differently and could I make different use of PowerPoint
slides to mark a clearer sequence through the lecture?
•
Do students not find sufficient useful material at the beginning and ending of some
lectures to warrant reviewing? Could I make more obvious links at these points to
previous lectures or material (at the beginning) or to future lectures or course material
(at the end)?
•
If students seemed to review mainly the segment of the lecture when problems or
examples were presented, does this suggest that I should introduce more of these
activities or sequences?
•
If students are consistently not reviewing particular types of material presented in the
live lectures, could I consider taking this material out of the lecture completely, freeing
up lecture time for other material and/or discussion or problem-solving activities?
•
Could I take out material that does not seem to be viewed much in the live lectures and
instead make use of it as an online resource - or does it need to be taught? If it needs to
be taught, could it be taught in a different way and might this encourage more
reviewing of the material?
•
What could I do or say in the live lecture to encourage students to review the lecture
recordings? Should I spend time near the beginning or end of some lectures to suggest
to students how they might optimally use the lecture recording review time most
profitably? For example, is there difficult lecture material that needs one or more
reviews in order to grasp it?
Key points
•
The EchoCenter is the log-in portal (students access the EchoCenter through the Learn block
in a course where Echo 360 is being used) where students and lecturers can access
individual lectures. Lecturers can also view Course Statistics that show details such as which
of the lecture presentations attracted the most views, where the number of views rise and fall
over the course of the semester, which parts of the presentations were re-visited by students
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- and more information, if it has been made available. Students cannot see Course statistics
or the heat maps in their view - only the recordings that are available for them to access.
•
Using the Course Statistics and heat maps, monitor student engagement with your lecture
and other recordings, and interpret why more students have viewed particular sections and
not others
•
Least viewed areas of a recording may not signify any problems with understanding the
lecture, only that the least viewed options may be thought of as less important to review
because students already understand the concepts presented in those sections
•
Most viewed areas may signify more interest in what was done or said at this point – or it
might indicate a portion of the lecture material that students felt difficult to understand and
which the lecturer might want to reinforce again in a subsequent lecture. In this sense a ‘red
flag’ (a red heat map line) may indicate trouble spots in the lecture in need of remediation
by the lecturer
•
By interpreting student lecture reviewing habits, lecturers can receive feedback on their
lectures and can also use the information to teach students about how best to review a
lecture recording. Students need guidance in knowing how to get the most benefit from the
time they are willing to spend on viewing recorded lectures. Students also need to know
what your expectations are for them to add to their notes, review difficult areas of the lecture
etc. when accessing the recordings
•
Whether a recording might be viewed or not, should not just be left to the discretion of
individual students. Lecturers can scaffold or encourage effective viewing habits (this
involves not merely viewing passively but viewing actively - note-taking, reflection etc.)
and suggest guidelines for most effective use of student time engaged with this
•
Use the heat maps to review particular areas of the lecture where the material might have
been too complex or too dense and note this for follow-up with the students in the course.
For example you might want to use Personal Capture to make a short supplementary
recording (audio only or audio and video) of the difficult concepts that students seem to
need to review most frequently. This material can be reused in later years and perhaps in
other courses
•
If students do not seem to watch beginnings and endings of lecture recordings, consider the
possibility that this may be because you are not using these parts of the lecture for important
information such as how this new lecture relates to the previous one (could be mentioned at
the beginning) and what the follow-up should be for students after the lecture (could be
mentioned in the last five minutes of the lecture)
•
Use student viewing habits to see how you might improve the ‘cold’ (un-viewed) areas of
your reviewed lecture content. Could this trend mean that students find the content too easy
or that they feel there is no more to learn about this part of the topic etc.? Structure the live
lecture in such a way that you pose questions to students at the end of each lecture segment,
requiring them to think, do more research or reading and so on. Then suggest that they
review these sections of the recorded lecture to see if they can answer these questions in the
light of a repeat viewing of what you said or did
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Also consider…
•
Don’t hide the trends you find in the viewing statistics, from the students. Give feedback to
students on their collective lecture recording viewing habits, during the next live lecture,
pointing out the benefits and limitations of reviewing certain portions of a lecture only and
suggesting strategies for reviewing lecture recordings to obtain the best learning potential.
Students may be skipping portions of the lecture merely to save time, not because those
areas are thought to be irrelevant or too easy or unchallenging
•
Set up a Learn Feedback activity asking students for feedback on their viewing habits for
watching your recorded lectures. Use the student feedback as a basis of offering tips and
strategies for reviewing your lectures. Use the Feedback activity to ask students how the
lecture recordings might be improved (e.g. use more verbal signals and instructions in the
live lecture for the benefit of those who later review the recording)
•
Heat maps are not just maps of viewing habits - they are maps of student engagement with
your lecture material. Be self-critical and look for ways of more evenly spreading access to
more parts of your lecture. Tweaking the lecture presentation to include verbalising a clear
objective for the lecture, link with the last lecture, link to the following lecture after this one
etc. will make the structure clearer not only to the students in the live lecture but to everyone
who later views it again later
Acknowledgements and sources
Curtin University (2012). 5 Things you Need to Know about iLecture. Retrieved from
http://blogs.curtin.edu.au/lms/5-things-about-ilectures/
Echo 360.com (2012). Echo360 Releases Latest Version of EchoSystem 5. Retrieved from
http://echo360.com/news-events/press-releases/pr040412/
Echo 360.com (2012). Echo360 Releases Latest Version of EchoSystem 5. Retrieved from
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/echo360-releases-latest-version-of-echosystem-5-2012-04-04
University of Tasmania (2012). MyMedia Unit Portal (EchoCenter): Staff User Guide. Retrieved
from http://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/208618/MMS-MyMedia-Unit-Portal.pdf
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