How do I create and run a report?

You can customize Statistics reports to view events for specific tools or content in your site. You can save a custom report to run it later and gather additional data.

Go to Statistics.

Select the Statistics tool from the Tool Menu of your site.

Select the Reports tab.

Select the Add link.

Enter a title and optional description.

  1. Enter a Title identifying the report.
  2. Add an optional Description.

Note: A title is required to save a report for reuse.

Select the activity to report.

You can create reports for:

  • Visits,
  • Events,
  • Or Resources.

Events and Resources offer additional options to specify which events to include in the report.

Visits

By default, Visits is selected. Use this option to report on how many times people accessed your site.

Note: If someone logs into UVACollab, and enters and exits a site more than once without logging out of the system, only one visit will be recorded for that person.

Events

  1. Select Events to report on activity in specific tools.
  2. By default, Select by tool is enabled. To filter the types of events to include in the report, choose Select by event. For example, you could use Select by event to report when new announcements were posted in the Announcements tool.
  3. By default, when selecting by tool, All available tools are included in the report. To report on any specific tool(s) (e.g., Announcements), choose the desired tool(s) in the Selection box.  When selecting by event, none are selected by default, and you will need to choose the desired event(s).

Tip: Hold down the Shift key while clicking or using the up and down arrow keys to select several consecutive tools in the list. To select select several non-consecutive tools, Ctrl + Click (on a PC) or Command + Click (on a Mac).

Resources

  1. Select Resources to report on activities related to files and folders.
  2. Select the Limit to action check box to choose one of the following activities:
    • New (selected by default): A file or folder was added.
    • Read: Someone opened or downloaded a file.
    • Revise: Someone edited a file or folder, or uploaded a new version of a file.
    • Delete: A file or folder was removed.
  3. Select the Limit to resources check box to filter the report to specific file locations.
  4. When Limit to resources is enabled:
    • Select the check box(es) for the desired folder(s).  Options include:
      • Resources,
      • File Drop,
      • And/or Attachments.
    • Select a folder name to further refine the results. For example, selecting Attachments will allow you to view and select tools in the site that currently include attachments.

Note: Some activities trigger more than one event.

Examples:

  • Moving a file from one folder to another triggers two different events: Delete, removing the file from one folder, and New, adding the file to the other folder.
  • When a student uploads an attachment to an assignment for the first time, a folder is created to hold the attachment, then the attachment is added to the folder, resulting in two New events.

Select a time period.

From the Period menu, select a time period for your report. Options include:

  • All: Since the Statistics tool first started capturing the selected events. For more information on capturing statistics for various site tools, see How do I modify preferences in the Statistics tool?
  • Last 7 days (selected by default)
  • Last 30 days
  • Last 365 days
  • Custom: Select this option to enter a specific range of dates and times for the report, e.g., From: 4/4/19 at 12:00 pm To: 4/4/19 at 2:30 pm.

Select whose activity will be included in the report.

From the Users menu, choose whose activity to include in the report. Options include:

  • All (selected by default): All site participants.
  • Role: When this option is selected, a Role menu displays. To report on the activity of users in a specific role, select the desired role, e.g., Student, from the Role menu.
  • Group: When this option is selected, a Group menu displays. To report on the activity of members of a specific group or roster, select the desired group or roster from the Group menu.
  • Custom: When this option is selected, a list of site participants displays. Select the participant(s) whose activity should be included in the report (see also Tip below).
  • None: This option allows you to identify users who do not meet the report's criteria. For example, when generating a report on Visits, selecting None will indicate which site participants did not visit the site during the specified time period.

Tip: When creating a report with a Custom list of users, hold down the Shift key while clicking or using the up and down arrow keys to select several consecutive users. To select select several non-consecutive users, Ctrl + Click (on a PC) or Command + Click (on a Mac).

Select how to present the results.

In the Totals by box, select which columns should appear in the report's table of results. You will be able to sort the results by any of the selected options.

The following options are available, depending on the type of report you are creating:

In a Visits report (all three are selected by default):

  • User: When selected, two columns are included in the table of results - User ID (UVA computing ID or non-UVA email address) and Name.
  • Event: The type of event, i.e., Site Visit.
  • Date: When the site was accessed.

In an Events report:

  • User (selected by default): When selected, two columns are included in the table of results - User ID (UVA computing ID or non-UVA email address) and Name.
  • Tool: The title of the tool, e.g., Assignments, Resources.
  • Event: The type of event, e.g., Assignment submit, Content opened.
  • Date (selected by default): When the action was taken.

In a Resources report:

  • User (selected by default): When selected, two columns are included in the table of results - User ID (UVA computing ID or non-UVA email address) and Name.
  • Resource (selected by default): The file or folder name.
  • Resource action: The action taken on the file or folder, i.e., Read, New, Revise, or Delete.
  • Date (selected by default): When the action was taken.

Tip: Hold down the Shift key while clicking or using the up and down arrow keys to select several options in the list.

Limit the number of results. (Optional)

To limit the results:

  1. Select the Number of results check box.
  2. In the Limit to box, enter the maximum number of results desired.

Select the report's format.

From the Presentation menu, select one of the following formats for the report:

  • Table (selected by default): Organizes results in a table, with columns corresponding to the options selected in the Totals by box (described above).
  • Chart: Creates a bar, pie, or time series chart of the results, based on options you select (described below).
  • Table & Chart: Displays results in both a table and chart.

Select chart options.

If either Chart or Table & Chart was selected:

  1. From the Chart type menu, specify the desired type of chart:
    • A Bar graph,
    • Pie chart,
    • Time series (line),
    • Or Time series (bar).
  2. From the Chart data source or Chart series source menu (the menu label depends on the type of chart selected), specify the data that will be graphed. For a bar chart, you can also use the Grouped by menu to organize the data.

Generate or save the report.

  1. If you do not plan to run the same report again later, select Generate report. Skip to the step for viewing the report.
  2. Alternatively, select Save report to save it to the site's list of custom reports.

Run a saved report.

If you saved your report, you will be returned to the Reports page with a message indicating that the report was successfully saved. Select the title of the report to run it.

View the report.

The report will display based on the options you selected.

Pictured above is an example of a Resources report from the Last 7 days that was Limited to resources found in the Resources tool. The report only includes activity by Users in the Role of Student, and it displays a table with five columns:

  1. User ID: Each student's UVA computing ID.
  2. Name: The name of each student who accessed a file in Resources during the week.
  3. Resource: The name of the file the student accessed.
  4. Date: When the file was accessed.
  5. Total: The number of times the student accessed the same file on the specified date.