Segue Usage Analysis

The Curricular Technology (CT) team has reviewed many of the course sites and curricular resources developed in Segue and other platforms over the years.

Over 5000 sites have been created in Segue since it was introduced in 2003 at Middlebury.  Many sites are copies of course sites from previous semesters that have been reused/refined over the years.  Many sites are personal sites or “custom” sites, sites that are used for departments or areas or curricular resources.

Below is a summary of the number of  course sites created in Segue and in course folders since 2005.

Semester Segue Course Folder
Fall 2009 135 ?
Summer 2009 140 ?
Spring 2009 132 0
Winter 2009 28 2
2009 Total Number of Course sites 435 ?
Fall 2008 178 8
Summer 2008 125 0
Spring 2008 139 7
Winter 2008 23 5
2008 Total Number of Course sites 465 20
Fall 2007 184 10
Summer 2007 115 3
Spring 2007 157 15
Winter 2007 33 2
2007 Total Number of Course sites 489 30
2006 Total Number of Course sites 421 20
2005 Total Number of Course sites 381 20

Users

A total of over 12,000 distinct individuals have created accounts in Segue since 2003.  Most of these are Middlebury faculty, staff and students.  In addition, a sizable number of people outside the Middlebury community have created Segue users accounts (2,155 visitors account were created in Segue v1 between 2003-2008).

Types of Usage

About a third of the sites created in Segue are course sites.  30-40% of the sites created in Segue are personal sites and about remaining sites are created for departments or organizational groups or curricular resources.

Sites Segue v1 Segue v2
(as of 12/1/2008)
course sites 1,853 (50%) 203 (36%)
personal sites
(these may include sites that may eventually become custom sites)
1,201 (32%) 253 (45%)
custom sites
(these are sites set up for project/depts/groups)
621 (17%) 112 (20%)
Total 3,675 568

Segue has been used primarily to publish text and distribute files.   Many Segue sites also include RSS feeds and embedded audio and video from other sources.  Amongst the most heavily used Segue sites are those containing language instruction resources.  Below are some examples of such sites:

French in Action Al-Kitaab
Reflets Golosa
Beginning Mandarin Chinese Rails
Beyond the Basics Nakama
Deustch-Na Klar!

Note: Many of the above resources were initially created in static html sites.  These static html sites referenced media files that were stored on a separate media server.  Some of these language instruction resource sites still refer to the same server location.  Others have had their media files migrated from the media server directly into Segue’s media library.

Online Discussion

Over 43,000 discussion posts were made in Segue v1 since 2003.  Between 25-35% of Segue sites have active online discussions.  In the fall of 2008, there were an average of 27 discussion posts a day.  During this same time period, 400 students and 25 faculty contributed discussion posts.

Discussion Segue v1 Segue v2
Content blocks enabled for discussion 36% 24%
Total number of discussion posts 43,529 4,881
Sites with active discussions 79 (14%)
Average number of discussion posts/day
(between 9/1-12/1)
27
Average number of discussion posts/month
(between 9/1-12/1)
573
Average number of discussion posts/site
(only sites that have discussion)
62
Most discussion posts in one day (September 16) 84
Most discussion posts in one month (September) 894
Most discussion posts on one site
(
Introduction to Comparative Politics)
870
Number of students who wrote discussion post
(between 9/1-12/1)
402
Number of faculty who wrote discussion post
(between 9/1-12/1)
25
Number of staff who wrote discussion post
(between 9/1-12/1)
10
Number of visitors who wrote discussion post
(between 9/1-12/1)
6

Online Discussion Statistics
September 1 – December 1, 2008

Access Control

Many Segue sites have access restricted to either the Middlebury College community or particular groups within the community.  In 2009, half the course sites created were restricted to students in the class.  Many course sites specified different levels of access across the site, with different roles defined for different individuals and groups.

Segue v2 Role Assignments (9/1/08 – 12/1/08)
full-site access *
partial-site access **
Faculty Site Adminstrator
335
2
Staff Site Adminstrator
97
0
Student Site Adminstrator
96
0
Author/Editor role assigned to faculty
59
63
Author/Editor role assigned to staff
22
25
Author/Editor role assigned to class
10
9
Author/Editor role assigned to student
17
28
Author/Editor role assigned to visitor 4 2
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to public
188
116
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to Middlebury community
215
123
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to faculty
47
36
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to staff 17 11
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to class
86
9
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to student 19 15
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to other midd proup
4
2
Viewer/Commenter role assigned to visitors
4
4
* full-site access = role has been applied to all content in the site
** partial-site access = role has been assigned only to some sections, pages or content blocks on the site