Kaltura: View Analytics About Media Usage

Kaltura Analytics allows media owners and co-editors to better understand how people are watching media (video and audio recordings, Kaltura Video Quizzes, and links to YouTube in Kaltura) published using Kaltura in Canvas and Kaltura MediaSpace. Details can include: 

• who has watched your media, from which geographic location, and what type of device they used
• how long people have watched
• which of your media are most popular
• specific domains (e.g. canvas.umn.edu) and often specific web pages (e.g. canvas.umn.edu/courses/177708/pages/example-page) where your media is published and has been viewed

In this article:

• Publishing Media So You Can Collect User-Level Analytics
• Limitations with User-Level Analytics
• Viewing Kaltura's Analytics for a Single Video
• Viewing Analytics for All Media You Own in Kaltura
• Viewing Analytics for All Kaltura Videos in a Canvas Course or MediaSpace Channel
• Analytics Filters
• Analytics Features
• Common Domains You May Encounter
• Finding Embeds That Need To Be Updated Before the Kaltura Player Upgrade

Publishing Media So You Can Collect User-Level Analytics

It is possible to view analytics down to the individual user level when a Kaltura video has been published, and if it has been viewed by users in one of the following ways:

• In Canvas, add Kaltura video to a course:
  • Add Media Using Kaltura button in the Rich Content Editor
  • Add the media to the Canvas course's Media Gallery
• In Kaltura MediaSpace, publish your video to a channel

Limitations with User-Level Analytics

Kaltura Analytics provides perspective, not definitive information. Be careful not to use Kaltura Analytics as a sole measurement for attendance or for a participation grade. 

If the analytics do not show a particular student viewing your video in a specific timeframe, that does not mean they did not try to view it:

• It is possible Kaltura could not collect information about someone's viewership. There have been cases where specific browsers, browser plugins, or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have blocked Kaltura Analytics from collecting data.
• If you set a video in Kaltura MediaSpace as unlisted, then paste a link to that video in Canvas or elsewhere, users who view the video through that link will appear in Kaltura Analytics as Unknown. 
• If you allow viewers to download your video, when viewers watch downloaded videos on their computer/device, data about their viewership will not be sent back to Kaltura Analytics.

Viewing Kaltura's Analytics for a Single Video

1. Go to My Media using one of these two options:
   • Log in to Canvas, then from the Account menu, select My Media (Kaltura)
   • Log in to MediaSpace
2. Locate the media you are interested in. To the right of the title, select the View Analytics icon 
   • Note: If you cannot find the View Analytics icon, try making your browser window wider.
3. Continue to the Analytics Filters section in this article.

Viewing Analytics for All Media You Own in Kaltura

1. Log in to MediaSpace
2. From the user name (e.g. Your Name) menu in the upper right, select My Analytics
3. Continue to the Analytics Filters section of this article

Viewing Analytics for All Kaltura Videos in a Canvas Course or MediaSpace Channel

1. Access your Canvas course or MediaSpace channel:
   • As a teacher, designer, or TA in Canvas, go to the Media Gallery. If you don't see the Media Gallery, refer to Add, Move, or Remove the Media Gallery.
     • Note: When you enable the Media Gallery in your Canvas course, your students will be able to view it as well. However, only media you specifically add or approve is visible in the Media Gallery.
   • As a channel manager, visit your MediaSpace channel.
2. In the upper right, from the Actions dropdown menu, select Analytics.
   
3. Continue to the Analytics Filters section of this article.

Analytics Filters

After you have followed the Viewing Kaltura's Analytics for a Single Video Item or Viewing Analytics for All Kaltura Videos Added Canvas course or MediaSpace Channel steps above, consider the following:

Date Filter

By default, the given date range shows the last 30 days, but does not include today. 

• To change the time period and/or date range, select the Date Range in the upper right, pick a new date range, then select Apply to filter by those dates.
• To include today's date, select Since Creation or enter a specific date range. 

Other Filters

To use other filters, expand the Filter menu.

• In analytics for a single video, you can filter by:
  • Country
  • Domain (find more details in the Common Domains You May Encounter section below) 
  • Page URLs
  • In analytics for a Canvas course or MediaSpace channel, or when looking at My Analytics for all media you own, you can also filter by:
    • Media Type: whether the media is video, audio, and/or images
    • Tags: specific tags you may have entered for the media
    • Location: Includes Country, Region, and City

Analytics Features

Canvas Course Media Gallery, MediaSpace Channel, and Media Owner Analytics

The following sections provide additional details and explanations of analytics features.

Highlights

The Highlights area shows:

• number of player impressions, which is the number of times someone opened a web page where the media appears
• number of plays out of number of played entries
• unique viewers 
• cumulative minutes viewed

Category Page Views

When accessing Analytics for a Media Gallery in Canvas, this section allows you to compare the number of times people have played media within the Media Gallery in Canvas, versus watching media that was posted to a Canvas page or other resource using the Rich Content Editor's Add Media Using Kaltura button.

Top Videos

This shows a ranking of the most popular media.

Top Viewers

This lists the top viewers based on the number of plays for the given time period.

Insights

The Insights section has a rotating display including Most Viewed Domain, Top Locations, and Most Popular Device type. Select See details to jump down to more details lower in the page.

Details About Specific Viewers

For details about specific viewers, select View Engagement Per User below the video. Please note the Limitations with User-Level Analytics section earlier in this article.

Performance Over Time

Notes:

• When viewing analytics for a single video, this section is called Video performance over time.
• When viewing analytics for Kaltura in a Canvas course, or for a MediaSpace channel, this section is called Category Performance Over Time.
• When viewing analytics for all media you own, this section is unlabeled.

By default, you are in the Player Impression tab, displaying a graph of impressions. 

Impressions means the number of times someone opened a web page where media appears.

To explore engagement trends over time, use the graph to review key metrics in the additional tabs:

• Plays: Number of times users select play to watch a video
• Unique Viewers: Number of authenticated viewers; all anonymous viewers count as a single viewer, labeled "Unknown"
• Minutes Viewed: Total duration of video watched by viewers
• Avg. Drop Off Rate: An average measured by viewers reaching playback milestones of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%
  • Note: Many viewers will watch all video content but do not count as 100% completion due to "dead air" at the end of the video

Selecting View Details at the bottom of the Performance Over Time section provides additional filtering options. You can sort by Users, Entries, and Dates.

How Player Impressions Lead to Engagement

This area tracks the ways viewers interact with your media following an impression: whether they selected the media and watched it. You can select playthrough milestones for additional data.

Top Countries

This section tracks countries with the most engagement with your media, as well as impression information. Selecting a country provides more detailed location information. You can continue choosing location links for even more specific location details.

Devices Overview

This section shows which types of devices are used to access your media. Hovering over a percentage tells you how many plays occurred on that type of device. 

Top Domains

The top domains are ordered by sites that had the most number of plays in the selected time frame. 

At the University of Minnesota, typically you will only find up to two domains: kaf.canvas.umn.edu (Kaltura in Canvas) and mediaspace.umn.edu (MediaSpace). This information is useful if you are sharing a video in Canvas and in MediaSpace at the same time, and want to know which platform is more popular with your viewers.

Common Domains You May Encounter

The table below includes an explanation of domains you may encounter in Kaltura Analytics.

Finding Embeds That Need To Be Updated Before the Kaltura Player Upgrade

As noted on Kaltura Player Upgrade: Timeline and Impacts, a generational Kaltura player upgrade is tentatively scheduled for August 1, 2024. At that time, much of the University's usage of Kaltura will be upgraded without issue. However, the upgrade will break embed codes created in Kaltura MediaSpace and posted on web pages. 

Impacted media owners/publishers will need to take action in advance, but it is not possible to take those actions as of April 2024. Consider this information and the link above to be a "save the date" notice, and a place to find further information in the coming months.

Using My Analytics to Find embeds That Need to be Updated

1. Log in to MediaSpace
2. From the user name (e.g. Your Name) menu in the upper right, select My Analytics
3. In the upper right, select Last 30 Days.
   1. Change to a longer period. Suggestion: Select Last 12 Months or specify a longer timeframe.
   2. Select Apply. 
4. Select the Filter menu to expand it.
5. Under Domains, click Select Domains. The menu expands, showing all domains from which your media has been loaded in the chosen time period.
6. Select the checkbox(es) for each domain in the list, except the following (because they will be handled automatically by the player upgrade project):
   1. kaf.canvas.umn.edu (this is for Kaltura in Canvas after August 10, 2020)
   2. 958321-2.kaf.kaltura.com (this is for Kaltura in Canvas before August 10, 2020)
   3. mediaspace.umn.edu 
   • Note: Refer to the Common Domains You May Encounter section above for more information.
7. Select Apply. The page updates based on the filters you selected.
8. In the Top Domains section at the bottom of the page, select the first domain name in the list. The listing updates to show that domain. If available, there will be a list of Page URLs (specific web pages) in that domain that have your media embedded. These are embeds that will break when the upgrade occurs. There may be multiple pages of results.
   1. In the Page URLs list, select the  (Open page URL in a new browser tab) button. A tab opens, showing a page that includes a Kaltura embed created in MediaSpace.
      • Note: It is possible you will not have access to the page you are trying to open
   2. Take note of the page to be revisited and updated when Kaltura player v7 embed codes are available in MediaSpace
   3. Close the tab opened in step 9a
   4. Repeat steps 9a through 9c for each page URL in the listing
   5. When done working through the pages in that domain, select the Top Domains link to return to the domain listing
9. Continue to the next domain in the Top Domains listing, and repeat step 9 (including 9a-9e) above.