Operationalizing Engagement

How does this formula grab you?


Whoa! Don't touch that back button YET!
What? this doesn't 'engage' you?

How about this version and explanation?
Σ(Ci + Di + Ri + Li + Bi + Fi + Ii)
Where

“Visitor Engagement is a function of the number of clicks (Ci), the visit duration (Di), the rate at which the visitor returns to the site over time (Ri), their overall loyalty to the site (Li), their measured awareness of the brand (Bi), their willingness to directly contribute feedback (Fi) and the likelihood that they will engage in specific activities on the site designed to increase awareness and create a lasting impression (Ii).”

"The components of the Visitor Engagement calculation are:
• Click Depth Index: Captures the contribution of page and event views
• Duration Index: Captures the contribution of time spent on site
• Recency Index: Captures the visitor’s “visit velocity”—the rate at which visitors return to the web site over time
• Brand Index: Captures the apparent awareness of the visitor of the brand, site, or product(s)
• Feedback Index: Captures qualitative information including propensity to solicit additional information or supply direct feedback
• Interaction Index: Captures visitor interaction with content or functionality designed to increase level of Attention the visitor is paying to the brand, site, or product(s)
• Loyalty Index: Captures the level of long-term interaction the visitor has with the brand, site, or product(s)"

You can read about that and MUCH more in the whitepaper entitled:Measuring the Immeasurable: Visitor Engagement by Eric T. Peterson and Joseph Carrabis. Engagement in the educational experience is essential! This too is a must read -- and an opportunity to join the conversation about engagement here. And just to whet your appetite, it documents Omniture's response to the subject of measuring engagement (and the author's response to their response):

"The same guys that want you all to believe web analytics is easy has now declared that “Visitor engagement formulas are largely another fad, just like parachute pants and the Hollywood diet. It’s a measure some consultants and vendors can pitch like snake oil.”

Omniture’s point that Visitor Engagement is a bad idea because it has subjective components fails to understand the work that folks like Jim Novo, Steve Jackson, Theo Papadakis, Joseph Carrabis and others have done; it makes me wonder if the author bothered to read anyone’s work on the subject."

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Architects and Designers meet Analysts for best ROI

The article: Information architecture: Data-driven design: Using web analytics to validate heuristics system by Andrea Wiggins and a cited reference around which the article is written are must reads. Though never discussing web analytics and education directly, it explains the need for educational designers and information architects to collaborate with analysts from the beginning of the project, to maximize ROI. It begins with a very insightful quote that applies directly to education:

"...However, web analytics' greatest potential lies in improving the online user experience. When analytics data is shared with the design team, a subtler and more sophisticated user-experience design can emerge."

It discusses how web analytics can help evaluate and quantify the user experience using Robert Rubinoff's user experience audit. His audit has four main components, three of which apply very directly to education (functionality, usability and content) and the other (branding) indirectly. This is the most insightful article (and reference) I have read to date -- even though it does not address educational uses directly -- mainly because it points out the importance of analysts working with designers.
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Adopting Web Analytics in Education: Why so S-L-O-W?

In an ongoing hunt for information about the use of Web Analytics (WAs) in education, I’ve looked for answers to the questions from the domain (if,how) x (have,can). If WAs have, if WAs can, how WAs have, how WAs can contribute(d) to the understanding, measuring, and ultimately improving of educational offerings, resources, and experiences on the web. What I’ve found, or rather what I have NOT found, has led me to believe that at this point, there is little evidence that WAs have contributed (in a substantial way) thus far to those goals.
After elimination of the ‘have’ factor, what is left to explore is the ‘can’ factor. It seems only natural that the answer to the ‘if-WAs-can’ question is Yes! In fact, the summarizing statement in an article entitled: A Practical Evaluation of Web Analytics states:

“…it is apparent that the vast majority of work in this area focuses, unsurprisingly, on the business domain, in particular e-commerce. However, we would argue that such approaches could equally be applied to cultural and social settings, where understanding user behaviour has less financial impact but is crucial for the continued success of the social context.”

Though the authors did not specifically mention education by name, it too falls into both the cultural and social context where in understanding user behavior may have less (immediate) financial impact but is crucial in continued (and especially in expanding) success in an educational context. The authors do not, however, address the “how-WAs-can” question. There are several other quotes from that article that are worth-while reading from an educational perspective. However, for me they only highlight another question. This article was written four years ago, in 2004! What progress has been made with web analytics in education since then? Why has the research and early adoption been so slow, if indeed it has moved at all?

Is it funding? Is it because it’s not obvious (from research or actual implementations) that WAs can/will contribute to the “bottom line” of education as it does business? And what IS the “bottom line” of education anyway? Do we agree on this?

Is it accessibility? Is it because there is a much higher demand than supply for ‘experts’ in analytics, and business can make the investment, but education can’t?
Is it technology implementation? Is it because we are only in the first generation of web analytics (the assembly language) that is not yet accessible to educators? Will more adoption come with succeeding generations (authoring languages) of WAs?

Is it political? Have we still not reached consensus about the value and place of web-enabled resources and opportunities in the overall educational picture? Must that battle conclude before WAs in education can move forward? [There is no longer any debate about the impact or necessity of web-enabled business resources and opportunities]

Are educational goals harder to define than business goals? Or are they just harder to define in terms of what is now measured in WAs, instead of what could be measured?

Is it a matter of (excuse the recursion) education? Are there too few educators aware of the concept of WAs in general, much less the possible potential of WAs in education?

Or is it all of these things together, or something else entirely?

And the last and most important question: Which of these roadblocks that slow the adoption of WAs in education can (and will) we help to remove? Read More......