Activity Explorer

Activity Explorer

If you know what you want but aren’t sure how to get it, then the Activity Explorer can help. The Activity Explorer lets you navigate objects and their parent context in an intuitive tree structure. It also offers object type filters, search, and quick links to vital LRS functions.



Opening the Activity Explorer

From the Home page of your store, in the left menu, click the Activity Explorer option.


Parts of the Activity Explorer

The Activity Explorer has only two parts: a filter and search form at the top, and a tree browser below. By default, the filters are set to show All Types (blank) and Organize by Parent. The tree browser shows the uppermost level of parent activities, with all child activities rolled up.


Before you begin exploring the hierarchy of objects in the xAPI statement data in your LRS, you might want to narrow your scope.

Filter by Object Type

A frequently used filter is object type. Click the Types list box and select the item on which you want to filter the Activity Explorer. The list box includes the full IRI of the object type in case any may overlap in their use.


Organize By Context Type

The xAPI Specification includes three explicit context types: parent group, and category.



The default view of the Activity Explorer is By Parent. This shows the hierarchy of objects in the simplest tree, showing each object separated by its relative immediate upper context.
Notes
The LRS often extrapolates a parent of an object from context properties in the xAPI statements for that object. So even if the LRS never received statements about the parent itself, the LRS can learn about it from the child objects it does know.
If your data includes a group of objects for random-access (e.g., quizzes in test banks), then select By Group to see the objects in that context.

If your data explicitly uses a category context, then you can view the tree By Category.
The tree helps you navigate objects if you know where it is but don’t exactly what the name is. On the other hand, if you know the object’s name (even part of it) but don’t know where it is in the tree, then use the Search function in the Activity Explorer.

Enter any term you want to search for in the Search text entry field and click the Search button or press Enter on your keyboard. You must click the button or press Enter: The Search function does not autocomplete.

The Search function matches partial terms. If you know any part of the term you’re looking for in the name or in the ID of the object, then the Activity Explorer will show the matching items in the tree. However, remember spelling counts! You must enter enough of the term and correctly for the function to match it.

If you include multiple, space-separated terms, then the search results in the tree will include partial matches on the separate terms.
Notes
If you often sort and filter by keywords, then consider editing the canonical activities to add the terms you use. For example, add the prefix “Objective 1.01…” to the first objective in the first lesson. Repeat for all the other objectives in all the other lessons and you’ll have made them all easy-to-find using the Search function in the Activity Explorer (and the filters in the Statement Viewer and Chart Builder).

Activity Explorer Tree

Even in its default, rolled-up state, you can already start to explore. Move your mouse cursor over any of the items in the tree to see the object ID of that item.



Wherever possible, the tree shows the “canonical activity” name instead of the object ID.

Tree Controls

Click an active plus icon (+) next to an object in the tree to unroll the branch and see the objects in the next level below. A dim plus icon that does not respond when clicked shows that the LRS can find no objects nested below that one.



Click an active minus icon (-) next to an object at any level to roll-up that branch.

Tree Icons

The tree shows icons to let you quickly identify each object type. Some of the icons include:

Course or Lesson
Module
Objective
Content
Interaction
CMI Interaction
Unknown Type

Now that you can filter, search, and navigate the Activity Explorer tree, you can use it to take shortcuts to your favorite LRS functions.

Click any object name in the tree to open a horizontal menu of quick links



The menu items are context-sensitive, so they perform their function with the selected object as the argument or property.

All Statements

Click the All Statements option to jump to the Statement Viewer with the selected object as the filter: meta.relatedActivites is equal to the object ID of the selected object.

Completions

If your object ever appeared in a statement that also includes any verb commonly used to show a completed activity (e.g., completed, passed, failed, etc.), then clicking the Completions quick link shows you the Statement Viewer for those activities. It also pre-sets the Statement Viewer to show any success, complete, and score results. If the object isn’t in xAPI statements with any completed verb, then the Statement Viewer will say “No Statements Found”.

Attempts

Like Completions, clicking the Attempts quick link shows the Statement Viewer with a filter that includes verbs associated with attempts (e.g., attempted, launched, etc.), and with the timestamps showing. If the object never occurs in an xAPI statement with any attempted verbs, then the Statement Viewer will say “No Statements Found”.

Activity Definition

The tree tries to show the most legible name or description it found in the xAPI statements. If an object has a difficult-to-read name, then click the Activity Definition option to open the Canonical Activities table. There, you can edit the canonical activity name.

If the selected object is a parent, then you’ll see all the child objects too. The parent object is usually the earliest one in the table. If the LRS extrapolated the parent from a child, then it may be second earliest.

Analytics

This is the best one! For any object in the tree, select the Analytics quick link, to jump to the Activity Overview dashboard for that object. The dashboard not only inherits the object from the context in the Activity Explorer it knows the object type too, so the LRS customizes the dashboard accordingly (e.g., CMI interaction, video, etc.).

If the dashboard is mostly empty, then change the Time Range to All Time. By default, the LRS dashboards only show activity in the last ninety days, and you might have selected an object with no recent activity.

Copy ID

If you mouse-over any object, then you can see a tooltip with the object ID. However, to copy the object ID of a selected element in the Activity Explorer tree, simply click the Copy ID quick link to capture a copy into your computer’s clipboard.



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