Standard Google Analytics reporting takes the URL from the page to track the views. With Moodle this means that it is not possible to easily track which activity URL belongs to what course within the Analytics. This presentation looks at the work done to help address this issue and at the test of the solution during the Ireland & UK Moodlemoot. Gavin Henrick was the original founder of this idea and together we found a solution.

1. MOODLE AND
GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
BAS BRANDS

2. BAS BRANDS
I am a part freelance part employed webdeveloper. I enjoy programming with Moodle
because of it’s excellent community and truly open source character

3. INTRODUCTION
Standard Google Analytics reporting takes the URL from the
page to track the views.
With Moodle this means that it is not possible to easily track
which activity URL belongs to what course within the
Analytics.
This presentation looks at the work done to help address this
issue and at the test of the solution during the Ireland & UK
Moodlemoot.
Gavin Henrick was the original founder of this idea and
together we found a solution.

4. ABOUT GOOGLE
ANALYTICS (GA)
Advanced features :
- User behavior
- Custom charts
- Mailing of reports
- Pageload speed
- Traffic sources
- Demographics
- Mobile usage
- Visitor Flow
- Live statistics

5. HOW TO GET GOOGLE
ANALYTICS FOR MOODLE
1. Register on: <script type="text/javascript">
http://google.com/analytics
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
2. Add your website _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-000000-4']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
3. Receive the JavaScript
code snippet
(function() {
4. Embed in your Moodle
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type =
theme layout files 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ?
'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>

6. SAMPLE ANALYTICS
PAGE ON CONTENT

7. SAMPLE OF A STANDARD GA
REPORT OF MOODLE

8. DEFAULT MOODLE REPORT IS
HARD TO READ
- Which course is the
course with id = 13 ?
- In what course was the
dialogue activity visited?
- What course category
was visited most?

9. SAMPLE OF A GOOGLE ANALYTICS
REPORT OF WORDPRESS

10. DEFAULT WORDPRESS REPORT
IS EASY TO READ
- I can see which articles
are viewed
- I can break it down into
year, month, day
- I could create graphs of
most viewed articles in
May

11. STANDARD MOODLE
URL’S

12. QUESTIONS WHEN LOOKING AT
STANDARD MOODLE URL’S
- Which section is that
resource linked in?
- Which course is that
resource part of?
- Which category is that
course in?
- Was it a student or an
admin who clicked that
link?

13. THE MOODLE URL’S
WE WANT

14. URL DESIGN
http://moodle.moodlemoot.ie/2012/delegatepack/Pre-
Conference+Workshops/A+Moodle+2+Tool+Guide+for+Teachers
Category
Course Short name
Section name
Activity name
(Activity type)

15. STANDARD ANALYTICS
GRAPHS USING THESE URLS

16. STANDARD ANALYTICS
GRAPHS USING THESE URLS

17. NOW THE FUN STARTS!
COURSE OVERVIEW

18. NOW THE FUN STARTS!
COURSE OVERVIEW

19. CREATING CUSTOM
DASHBOARDS

20. COURSE STATISTICS

21. COURSE STATISTICS

22. USER FLOW

23. ANOTHER LOOK AT THE
GA JAVASCRIPT CODE
- JS snipped loaded by our
browser
- setAccount var
- trackPageview var
- https://developers.google.
com/analytics/devguides/
collection/gajs/?hl=nl

24. FEED A URL TO THE
JAVASCRIPT SNIPPET

25. GENERATE A CUSTOM
URL IN PHP
Code snippet that shows
part of the URL design
- Section
- Activity type
- Activity name
- Action type

26. GENERATE A CUSTOM URL

27. THE FUTURE OF THIS
PROJECT
Page related variables
- category, role, department, uid ??
Logging of events
- activity completion, user created
Grades
- get grade statistics on course
Get GA data back into Moodle
- the emailed report
- creating your own graphs in Moodle

28. GET GA DATA BACK

29. GET INVOLVED
More info on what has been done:
Blogpost by Gavin Henrick
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/04/18/ireland-uk-moodlemoot-analytics-to-the-front/
Blogpost by Bas Brands
http://basbrands.nl/2012/04/18/google-analytics-with-moodle/
More info on
The GA JS snippet
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/?hl=nl
Google analytics Query explorer
http://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/explorer/?csw=1
Getting Google analytics data using php
https://code.google.com/p/gapi-google-analytics-php-interface/
http://www.codediesel.com/php/reading-google-analytics-data-from-php/

30. CONTACT US
Bas Brands
bmbrands@gmail.com
Twitter: bmbrands
Gavin Henrick
ghenrick@gmail.com

31. Q&A / DISCUSSION
What about privacy?
Alternatives?
• Woopra
• Clicky
• Piwik (open source)
• Open Web Analytics (open source)
Read more: http://imimpact.com/web-stats-alternatives-to-google-analytics/
What about performance?