Hi all,
Does anyone know whether it possible to implement a page visit counter for tracking different book chapters? Also, is there a way to install Google Analytics?
Mark
@zinnmark2 Hi Mark, are you talking about a page visit counter & Google Analytics on books that are in the Rebus Press, or another Pressbooks instance? Or an open textbook hosted elsewhere? If you’re talking about books on Pressbooks, I’d suggest taking a look at this thread about Google Analytics in Rebus Press: https://forum.rebus.community/topic/1248/google-analytics
Thanks for your reply. It would specifically be to count the number of page visits and downloads of the textbook hosted on Rebus. At some point, we may branch out to other platforms.
@zinnmark2 Hi Mark, no worries. Currently, Google Analytics can only be set up for the network-level (as opposed to the book level). Unfortunately, setting up book-level filters would take a considerable amount of configuration for every user who wanted specific information about how their book is being accessed or downloaded. This config has to be done by network admins, not users, and with the number of books and institutions they represent that we have on our network, it’s just not feasible for us to manage this. However, if in the future, Pressbooks can provide a feature to more easily track book-level analytics, we’ll gladly make this available to users on the network.
Hi @apurva :
We are making good progress on our Community Psychology Intro book, and we have put a question on the Rebus Community Forum about a counter to find out how many viewers we will get, a question that our sponsoring partners (including the Society for Community Research and Action) have indicated they would like an answer to. It appears the only way around this is when our textbook is adopted by other platforms, that do offer these features, we will then be able to track downloads and views. I just wonder when you are planning on implementing google analytics or a simple page counter on the book level, as opposed to just the network level. Is there anything that our group at DePaul could help you out with this issue as we do have some expertise in this area?
Best,
Len Jason
@openaccesscptextbook Hi Len, thanks for following up here. As you noted, once your textbook is released and submitted to repositories, you may be able to receive statistics including downloads of the textbook. For instance, see BCcampus Open Education displays statistics: https://open.bccampus.ca/open-textbook-stats/.
Regarding your second question, as I noted to Mark, setting up book-level filters would take a considerable amount of configuration for every user who wanted specific information about how their book is being accessed or downloaded. This config has to be done by network admins, not users, and with the number of books and institutions they represent that we have on our network, it’s unfortunately just not feasible for us to manage this. If in the future Pressbooks can provide a feature to more easily track book-level analytics, we’ll certainly make this available to you and other users on the network.
