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Drbunbury
Participant
June 22, 2020
Answered

Internal links & analytics

  • June 22, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1119 views

I want to understand how students interact with an educational PDF that relies on internal links. I can send HTTP post requests for page changes using PAGE_VIEW. Is it possible to do something similar with internal links.

I want to understand at an individual student level what their flow through the document is- how much time do they spend on each page? Do they click the links? Where do they go next?

Thanks for your help.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Joel Geraci

There's no direct way to detect an internal link but I agree that this would be a good feature to add. Until then, you can infer than any non-sequential page number change was due to a link if the bookmark click event didn't also happen. So if you see the page number change from 10 to 50 without scroll events or bookmark events, but you do see a "PREVIEW_PAGE_CLICK" you can infer that they clicked on a link.

2 replies

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Test Screen Name
Legend
June 23, 2020

What happens though if the student opens on a mobile device, in a browser, or Apple Preview, or with JavaScript off or...

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DrbunburyAuthor
Participant
June 23, 2020

Hmm, I am a bit new to this- my background is more academic. The plan is for a group of study participants to complete a survey on an external website then be directed to the website hosting the PDF. Participants could be asked to access from a desktop. I may need to create a page to check if JavaScript is allowed and highlight if not.

The alternative is to set up a series of web pages and use google analytics to monitor flow through the textbook.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
June 23, 2020

The fact is that there are many PDF viewers, of very different capabilities. Many of them do not support JavaScript completely or at all, so your code just won't happen. IF you control the filling - for example by sitting the students at a computer you provide, in a controlled flow, you can make this happen. If however, you expect the students to go away and do this, the project is probably unachieveable.

Joel Geraci
Community Expert
Joel GeraciCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 22, 2020

There's no direct way to detect an internal link but I agree that this would be a good feature to add. Until then, you can infer than any non-sequential page number change was due to a link if the bookmark click event didn't also happen. So if you see the page number change from 10 to 50 without scroll events or bookmark events, but you do see a "PREVIEW_PAGE_CLICK" you can infer that they clicked on a link.

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    DrbunburyAuthor
    Participant
    June 23, 2020

    Thank you, that is a good idea. I will need to divide the appendix so it is one item per page so I know which link they are following. 

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