Overview
This report provides a summary of student engagement — including sessions, page views, prints, notes, highlights, and bookmarks — broken out by course, user, and asset for each week in the year. It draws on Bookshelf engagement event data and helps institutions track engagement trends over time, compare current activity to the same period in prior years, and understand adoption at the course, user, or asset level.
Key Questions This Report Answers
How is student engagement trending week over week for a given course, user, or asset?
Which courses, users, or assets show the highest or lowest engagement in a given period?
How does year-to-date engagement compare with the same period in the previous two years?
How to Use This Report
Start with the filters — Set the Date Range filter first; it defaults to Last 7 Days. Narrow further with Asset Item ID/Name, Course Name, Instructor, User, Device, or Platform as needed.
Interpret the results — Review Sessions, Avg Session Length, Page Views, Page Prints, Notes, Highlights, and Bookmarks alongside Week in Year and Weeks in Course to see how engagement builds or tapers over the term. These are cumulative counts, not unique — a user re-reviewing the same content multiple times adds to the total each time.
Take action — Compare current year-to-date trends to the same period in prior years to spot meaningful shifts in engagement and inform outreach or support decisions.
| 💡 Tip: When exporting this report, select "As displayed in the data table" to include additional engagement data by Device and Platform for each engagement type. |
Filters
Filter Name | Description | Required? | Default Value | Example Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Date Range | Date range for when engagement took place | Yes | Last 7 Days | "Last 30 Days", specific date range |
Asset Item ID | Unique identifier for the item, typically an ISBN or VBID. Supports multi-search of up to 16,000 values via comma-separated or pasted column values (semicolon-separated values are not supported). | No | — | <ISBN or VBID> |
Asset Item Name | Name of the content accessed | No | — | <Title Name> |
Publisher | Name of the publisher related to the distributed content | No | — | <Publisher Name> |
Course Name | Name of the course the engagement is associated with (if available) | No | — | <Course Name> |
Instructor | Name of instructor, shown with a safe email for distinction | No | — | <Instructor Name> |
User | First and last name of user, shown with a safe email for distinction | No | — | <User Name> |
Device | Format of device used to access the content | No | — | "Desktop", "Mobile" |
Platform | Online platform used to access the content | No | — | "Bookshelf Online", "Bookshelf App" |
Fields & Metrics
Field Name | Description | Data Type | Example Value |
|---|---|---|---|
User | The name of the student | Text | <Student Name> |
User Email | The student's email address | Text | <student@example.edu> |
User Reference ID | Reference associated with the user, set by the Distributor | Text | <Reference ID> |
Course Name | LMS course title from Launch | Text | <Course Title> |
Course Label | LMS course label from Launch | Text | <Course Label> |
LMS Course ID in Launch | LMS Course ID stored in Launch | Text | <Course ID> |
Asset Item Name | Name of the content accessed | Text | <Title Name> |
Asset Item ID | Unique identifier for the item. Derived from Asset ISBN-13, else eISBN, else VBID. | Text | <ISBN or VBID> |
Week in Year | ISO Week Date Standard week number. Week numbering starts at the first Monday of Week 01. | Number | 48 |
Weeks in Course | Week number since the course's Term Start Date, where available. Reports '0' if the ISO week is in the future relative to Term Start. | Number | 3 |
Sessions (Overall) | Total unique sessions across all users. A session ends after a 30-minute gap in activity. Sessions spanning multiple devices count once under Overall but also once under each device used, so device-level sums generally won't equal the Overall total. | Number | 12 |
Avg Session Length (Overall) | Average time users engaged with the content | Text | 00:12:45 |
Page Views (Overall) | Total number of pages viewed (cumulative, not unique) | Number | 204 |
Page Prints (Overall) | Total number of pages printed | Number | 5 |
Notes (Overall) | Total number of notes created | Number | 3 |
Highlights (Overall) | Total number of highlights created | Number | 8 |
Bookmarks (Overall) | Total number of bookmarks created | Number | 2 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why don't my engagement numbers match another engagement report?
A: Engagement metrics on this report are cumulative counts within the filtered date range, not unique counts, so repeated interactions with the same content are all counted. Other reports may de-duplicate or scope activity differently.
Q: Why doesn't "Sessions (Overall)" equal the sum of the device-specific session counts?
A: A session that spans multiple devices is counted once under Sessions (Overall), but also once under each device used, so the device-level counts won't sum to the Overall total.
Q: Does this report include publisher courseware activity?
A: No. Engagement events reflect activity within Bookshelf only; publisher courseware activity is not included as VitalSource does not have access to publisher platform activity data.
Q: How much history does this report cover?
A: The report includes the current year to-date plus the previous two calendar years.