Both students and instructors have access to a heatmap for classroom media. The Heatmap is a graphical overlay that appears above the playback bar and indicates which segments of the media have been played most frequently by users in this course.
The figure below identifies the Heatmap button available for video / audio classrooms and shows the heatmap overlay enabled. In the updated player, the Heatmap button available for video / audio classrooms has become a toggle and has moved into the Settings Menu as shown in the section below.
Note: The heatmap data is updated once daily.
The following figure shows an interactive media classroom that uses the newer version of the media player. The Heatmap option resides in the Settings menu, as shown below. Turn the toggle on (it is off by default) to display the heatmap overlay for this media.
For instructors, this information can help identify which portions of the lecture students found most interesting or confusing. For example, if the audio is garbled, students may need to review specific segments multiple times to understand what is being said or demonstrated.
For students, this information can help identify which portions of the lecture other students review most often, ensuring you are covering all required material to understand the topic.
The heatmap button and settings option both function as switches. If you turn it on, it remains on until you turn it off, either by clicking the button again or by toggling it off in the settings menu.
Keep in mind a few things about what information the classroom heatmap is showing:
- It includes both the student's and the instructor's views of the video.
- It includes only views from within this course.
- It is a relative mapping of views, showing which portions of the video have been viewed more than others, and which sections have not been viewed at all (if applicable).
If the same media is published to multiple classes within the same course, the view data reflects views across all classes in the course. If the same video is published to multiple courses, the classroom heatmap displays view data only from the course you are currently in.