Canvas LMS reports completion, progress and assessment results, but has no visibility into attention within a piece of content. Emotuit adds content-level engagement data — dwell, focus, tab-switching and drop-off position — through a sub-50KB script, alongside existing reporting rather than replacing it.
What Canvas LMS already gives you
New Analytics gives you page views, participations, assignment submissions and grade distribution. Course Statistics adds file storage and discussion counts.
What it does not
All of it is navigation-level. Canvas records that a page was viewed; it has no visibility into what happened on the page. A learner who opened a module page and immediately tabbed away registers identically to one who read it carefully.
This is not a criticism of Canvas specifically — it is true of essentially every LMS on the market. Completion and navigation data is what these systems were built to record, and they record it well. Attention is a different measurement problem, solved in the content layer rather than the platform layer.
How Emotuit fits
Add the SDK through Theme Editor → JavaScript file, which applies account-wide, or scope it to a course with an LTI 1.3 placement. Content positions map to Canvas module items, so engagement data lands against the structure your instructional designers already work in.
The SDK is under 50KB, adds one script tag, and requires no migration or infrastructure change. It runs alongside Canvas's own reporting rather than replacing it.
Details
Where the data lands
Engagement scores map to Canvas module item IDs, so reporting matches your existing course structure rather than an arbitrary timeline.
Works with
Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, embedded video, and any SCORM package launched inside Canvas.
What you get
| Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Content-level engagement | A score for every section, not one per course |
| Drop-off position | Where sessions actually end |
| Focus-adjusted dwell | Real attention, discounting background tabs |
| Tab-switch rate | The strongest single predictor of disengagement |
| Replay behaviour | Where learners went back — a confusion signal |
| Cohort comparison | A/B test content versions on real attention |
Deployment options
Emotuit runs in two configurations, and for LMS deployments in the EU the choice matters.
Signals uses behavioural telemetry only — no camera, no biometric data, no emotion inference. It sits outside the EU AI Act Article 5(1)(f) prohibition on inferring emotions in workplace and education contexts, which makes it the default recommendation for corporate L&D and education.
Learn adds a client-side facial expression layer. It should not be deployed to EU employees or students, and is intended for market research, UX and media testing contexts.
We shipped a Canvas engagement analytics app through the Instructure Edu App Center in the original 2014 incarnation of Emotuit, so this is well-trodden ground for us.
Frequently asked questions
Does this replace Canvas's built-in reporting?
Does it need a webcam?
How long does integration take?
Will it slow the platform down?
See it on your own Canvas content
We'll instrument one module and show you the engagement data before you commit to anything.