Talis Aspire Advanced MIS Documentation

Data dictionary: Timeseries events

Timeseries data differs from the raw data in that it is grouped by a number of dimensions and then rolled up into a sliding window. This compresses the amount of data significantly, which is useful for dashboarding and trend analysis.

There are several different views representing different sliding window lengths and history:

1. f_event_timeseries_1hr
   • where the event counts and sums are per hour
2. f_event_timeseries_24hr
   • where the event counts and sums are per day
   • up to 36 months historical data
3. f_event_timeseries_24hr_last_3_months
   • where the event counts and sums are per day
   • up to 3 months historical data
4. f_event_timeseries_24hr_last_6_months
   • where the event counts and sums are per day
   • up to 6 months historical data
5. f_event_timeseries_24hr_last_12_months
   • where the event counts and sums are per day
   • up to 12 months historical data

Each sliding window has its own data retention policy which is documented here. Data ages out on a daily basis, so 3 months ago is 90 days from today’s date.

Both tables share a common schema, with up to four dimension_* columns available. The definition of these columns depends on the event_class in question and is documented in detail below.

All rows

Events with class annotations.readingIntention

This event is emitted when a user adds or changes a reading intention on a list. This event can tell you how often the reading intention feature is being used.

Events with class login.success

This event is emitted when a user has successfully logged in.

Events with class bookmark.created

This event is emitted when a user has created a bookmark.

Events with class addToList

This event is emitted when a user has added a bookmark to a list.

Take a look at list.edit which includes additional detail about what has been added to a list and when.

Events with class list.publish

This event is emitted when a list is published.

Events with class player.timer.2

Talis Elevate allows you to upload video or youtube clips, or ‘play’ pdf files. This event tracks how long a user spent viewing some content in the Talis Elevate content player. The user could be the owner of a resource or a contributor.

Events with class player.timer.2.contributors

DEPRECATED

Talis Elevate allows you to upload video or youtube clips, or ‘play’ pdf files. This event tracks how long a user, who is not the resource owner, spent viewing some content in the Talis Elevate content player.

A contributor is a user other than the owner of the resource being viewed, and typically a student.

Events with class player.view

A view of a resource by anyone.

digitisation.view is also recorded by the Talis Elevate player when the content has originated from Copyright Clearance. This is in addition to player.view.

Events with class player.view.contributors

DEPRECATED

A view of a resource by a user who is not the resource owner.

A contributor is a user other than the owner of the content being viewed, and typically a student.

Events with class player.annotate.createannotation, player.annotate.createannotation.highlight, player.annotate.createannotation.pin, player.annotate.createannotation.classcomment, player.annotate.createannotation.personalnote, player.annotate.createannotation.anonymouscomment

A user has added a comment to a Talis Elevate player resource.

A player.annotate.createannotation is emitted for every comment created. The sub-class events player.annotate.createannotation.highlight, player.annotate.createannotation.pin,player.annotate.createannotation.classcomment, player.annotate.createannotation.personalnote, player.annotate.createannotation.anonymouscomment are emitted in addition to the player.annotate.createannotation event, to indicate the type of annotation created. Each player.annotate.createannotation event will be accompanied by:

• either a player.annotate.createannotation.highlight or a player.annotate.createannotation.pin event
• either a player.annotate.createannotation.classcomment, a player.annotate.createannotation.personalnote, or a player.annotate.createannotation.anonymouscomment event

When aggregating event counts, these groups of sub-classes should be treated as distinct sets, to avoid counting the same event multiple times.

Replies to initial comments are counted in a separate event player.annotate.createreply.

Events with class player.annotate.createreply

A user has replied to a comment on a Talis Elevate player resource.

Events with class player.download

digitisation.download is also recorded by the Talis Elevate player when the content has originated from Copyright Clearance. This is in addition to player.download.

Events with class modulemanager.timer

DEPRECATED

How long a user with access to the module manager spent in the module manager. This is typically an academic user.

Events with class player.profile.complete

DEPRECATED

A user has completed filling in their profile.

Events with class player.search

DEPRECATED

A user has searched for something.

Events with class list.entry_point

Only available when using new list view and new list edit from November 2019 onwards

Use this event to see whether users are viewing lists directly, or coming through an LTI tool.

This event also allows you to identify whether the user followed a link to the list, section or item. Remember this is the entry point, subsequent clicks by a user are recorded in the list.item.click event.

Possible values of list.entry_point dimension_3

The value can be split on a colon (:) into parts. Each part has a different meaning. In an SQL query you might use these values like this:

select
    split_part(dimension_3, ':', 1) as view_mode,
    split_part(dimension_3, ':', 2) as launch_method,
    sum(event_count)
from f_event_timeseries_1hr
where event_class = 'list.entry_point'
group by view_mode, launch_method;

Events with class list.view

DEPRECATED instead, see list.entry_point

Events with class list.edit

This event is designed to give detail about the types of edit events happening to lists. Only available if using new list edit.

Possible values of list.edit dimension_2

The value can be split on a colon (:) into parts. Each part has a different meaning. In an SQL query you might use these values like this:

select
    split_part(dimension_2, ':', 1) as thing,
    split_part(dimension_2, ':', 2) as edit_action,
    sum(event_count)
from f_event_timeseries_1hr
where event_class = 'list.edit'
group by thing, edit_action;

Events with class list.item.click

Only available when using new list view and new list edit from November 2019 onwards.

This event will give you an overview of how users are interacting with the reading list.

This should be seen as a expression of desire to do one of the click actions and doesn’t necessarily mean that the thing clicked on was viewed.

Possible values of list.item.click dimension_3

The value can be split on a colon (:) into parts. Each part has a different meaning. In SQL you might use it in a query like this:

select
   split_part(dimension_3, ':', 1) as view_mode,
   split_part(dimension_3, ':', 2) as action,
   split_part(dimension_3, ':', 3) as sub_action,
   sum(event_count)
from f_event_timeseries_1hr
where event_class = 'list.item.click'
group by view_mode, action, sub_action;

Events with class list.item.view

DEPRECATED instead, see list.item.click

Events with class list.item.external_link.click

External link clicks are triggered from the reading list and signal an intention of a user to go and view the thing clicked on. They don’t necessarily mean that they go there, get past authentication and actually view the destination.

For example, they might click then immediately hit the back button if they didn’t mean to actually go through and view. Or if they are not a logged in user, they may have been browsing the list but then not been able to actually view the digitisation when presented with a login challenge.

It is best to think of an external link click as an expression of desire to view a particular type of item, rather than a count of actual views.

Events with class lti.link.followed, lti.link.best_guess.found_list, lti.link.best_guess.search, lti.link.best_guess.homepage

Events with class reviews.actions.status.1

Events with class reviews.actions.setOutcome.1

Events with class reviews.actions.assignUser.1

Events with class user.identified

This event is emitted after a user has successfully logged in, and after we have been able to match the user to an existing Talis profile.

This event can be useful to map users in Talis Aspire back to identifiers that make sense to other university datasets.

Events with class resource.edit

This event indicates that a resource used on a reading list has been edited.

Events with class digitisation.view

This event indicates that a digitisation has been viewed.

Events with class digitisation.print.showModal

This event indicates whether the user has opened the print modal window in the copyright clearance viewer. It is a measure of intention only, as we have no direct way to ascertain whether a user has actually physically printed the digitisation. The download of a digitisation for printing is also recorded as a digitisation.download.

Events with class digitisation.print

This event is only emitted from Talis Elevate if the resource being viewed is a digitisation request. It is NOT emitted from Copyright Clearance. See note on the digitisation.print.showModal event.

Events with class digitisation.download

This event is emitted whenever anyone requests a download of a digitisation in Talis Aspire Copyright Clearance. This could be either a direct request to download or via the print modal form.

This event is also emitted in Talis Elevate when the user requests to download a resource which is copyright cleared.