Use the Heatmap Viewer
The grid tells you a step is going wrong and the Heatmap Viewer is where you find out why, showing the screen a Learner saw, the control they were supposed to tap outlined in green, and the instruction they were given.
Why open the Heatmap Viewer?
The grid tells you that a step goes wrong and how often. It cannot tell you why, and the difference matters, because the fix is different in each case.
A step can fail because the instruction is ambiguous, because the control is hard to find, or because something else on the screen looks more like the right answer. The Heatmap Viewer puts the screen the Learner saw, the control they were meant to tap, and the words they were given side by side, so you can judge which of those is happening.
How do you open it?
Click See Heatmap inside any step cell on the step-by-step grid.
Note: It opens in a new browser tab, so the grid stays where it was behind it. Close at the bottom left returns you, and closing the tab works just as well.
What is on the screen?
Part |
What it shows |
|---|---|
| The title | The Lesson and the step, written as Lesson name: Step name |
| Step Description, on the left | The instruction this step gave the Learner, word for word |
| The screen Replica, in the middle | The screen the Learner was looking at when they were asked to do it |
| The green outline on the Replica | The control the step expected them to tap |
| Timespan, top left | Which period the data covers |
| Practice and Knowledge Check, bottom right | Which lesson modes are included. Both are on when the viewer opens. |
How do you actually read it?
Read the three things together, in this order.
Step |
Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read the Step Description. This is exactly what the Learner was told to do, and it is the most common source of the problem. |
| 2 | Look at the green outline and ask whether that control is the obvious answer to that instruction. |
| 3 | Look at the rest of the Replica for anything that competes with it. A control that looks similar, sits where the eye lands first, or matches the wording of the instruction better than the right one does. |
Best practice: Read the instruction before you look at the screen. If you look at the outlined control first, you already know the answer and the instruction will seem clearer than it is to a Learner meeting it for the first time.
How do you change the period?
Timespan offers 30 Days, 60 Days, 90 Days, Year to Date, All Time and Custom. Choosing Custom activates the Start Date and End Date fields, which stay unavailable otherwise.
Note: The viewer opens on 30 Days, which is a much narrower window than the grid you came from. A step that looks busy in the grid can look quiet here simply because the activity happened earlier. Change the Timespan before drawing any conclusion.
Best practice: Comparing a 30 day window before a content change with the 30 days after it is the quickest way to see whether a revision made any difference at step level.
The screen looks empty. What should you check?
Work through these in order.
Check |
Why |
|---|---|
| Timespan | It opens on 30 Days. If the attempts happened before that, there is nothing in range. Try All Time. |
| Practice and Knowledge Check | Both are on by default. If either has been switched off, that mode's activity is excluded. |
| Which step you opened | The viewer shows one step. A Lesson with a high total can have most of its errors on a different step from the one you clicked. |
Note: A step can also have recorded incorrect actions without the viewer having usable tap positions for them. If the outline and the instruction are shown but nothing else is, treat the Step Description and the Replica as the evidence and use the grid for the numbers.
FAQ
Where do I find the Heatmap Viewer in the menu? You do not. It opens from a step cell on the step-by-step grid, never on its own.
What does the green outline mean? It marks the control the step expected the Learner to tap.
Does it show me one Learner or all of them? All of them, across whatever Timespan and modes you have selected.
Can I see a step for one Assignment only? Not from here. Filter the grid first, then open the step you want.
How do I get back to the grid? Click Close at the bottom left, or close the browser tab. The grid is still open behind it.
Why is the instruction wrong for the screen I am looking at? That is worth acting on. A Step Description that does not match its Replica is a content bug, and it will produce exactly the kind of error rate that brought you here.
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