In this article we show how the collection of data from one event can be used to create charts that highlight various statistics and trends.
We will use the example of the assessment marking event to illustrate how charts can be created from your event data. This event is fired each time a facilitator or marker marks a learner’s assessment.
Firstly you must start collecting the events that you wish to analyse. In this example we are interested in Marked an assessment.
In order to start collecting these events we must first capture these events and feed them into a data store (in this instance we will be using a spreadsheet). You cannot create these type of reports retrospectively so the sooner you start capturing event data, the sooner you will be able to start analysing it.
Throughout this article we will referring to an example spreadsheet that contains a template, example data and charts.
Capture the events into a spreadsheet
In this example we will be using Zapier to capture the events from the Event Hub and then send the data to Google Sheets.
Create a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Open the example spreadsheet. The column headers represent all of the data that is sent with this event.
Copy the column headers from the sheet named Template and paste them into your new spreadsheet.
Create a new Zap in Zapier to capture the event Marked an assessment and send the data to your new spreadsheet. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, please read these detailed instructions on how to use the Event Hub with Zapier.
Ensure that your Zap is turned on and test it to make sure it is working correctly.
Your spreadsheet should now be ready to start collecting data.
Creating the charts
Once a suitable period of time has elapsed you will be able to interrogate your data. The following examples show the variety of reports that can be generated from this one event.
Distribution of marks
Here we are interested in the results of our learners and the spread of marks. In order to visualise this we want to create a histogram that charts the frequency of marks in selected ranges (or ‘buckets’).
Note that this method will only work if your mark scheme is based on numbers. If you use a different scheme then you will need to convert your marks into numbers first.
Select the column containing your marks.
Go to Insert > Chart.
Change the chart type to Histogram.
Change the bucket size to something that suits your marking scheme. For example, if your marks are from 0-100 then you could use a bucket size of 10 to create 10 different ranges.
Tidy up the names of the chart and axises as desired.
Your chart should be similar to this:
This is taken from the example spreadsheet linked above and can be found in the sheet Chart: Distribution of marks. In this example, it shows that the highest frequency of marks could be found under the 60-70 range.
You could also filter your data to include only specific assessments such that you could compare marks across different assessments.
2. Facilitator workload
You may also be interested in how many assessments facilitators have been marking in order to judge workload. In order to generate a suitable chart, follow this procedure:
Select the column containing the last name of your facilitators.
Go to Insert > Chart.
Change the chart type to Column.
Tidy up the names of the chart and axises as desired.
Your chart should be similar to this:
This is taken from the example spreadsheet linked above and can be found in the sheet Chart: Facilitator workload. In this example, it shows that the facilitator with the last name Singh had marked the largest volume of assessments.
3. Marking activity by month
You may want to know what the distribution of marking work was completed over a fixed period of months.
Although we do not have the data in the direct form of a month, we can create it easily enough using our Timestamp field.
Create a new column in your sheet called Month. (In our example spreadsheet we have used a separate sheet for this column called Calculated data.)
Utilise the formula =TEXT(timestamp, ”MMM”) in your new column where timestamp is the relevant cell containing the timestamp of the event.
Select the Month column.
Go to Insert > Chart.
Change the chart type to Column.
Tidy up the names of the chart and axises as desired.
Your chart should be similar to this:
This is taken from the example spreadsheet linked above and can be found in the sheet Chart: Marking activity by month. In this example, we can see that the largest volume of assessments was marked in February.
The use of months is just an example in this instance, you could use whatever time categories fit your level of analysis e.g. weeks, quarters or years.