Edwiser Reports vs. Moodle™ Configurable Reports

Edwiser Reports vs. Moodle™ Configurable Reports

As a moodler, have you ever felt the need to know more than what your basic Moodle™ reporting tools show you?

If yes, then maybe it’s time for you to decide if you really need something better to level up your analytics game. In this virtual community, it’s a challenging task to know what’s happening behind the scenes. 

This is when an advanced reporting solution comes to save your day. Think all-rounder, go for something that’s built powerfully yet functions smoothly and gives you valuable insights!

All-in-one!

So, today we’ll learn the difference between Configurable Reports in Moodle™ and Edwiser Reports.

We’ll discuss and compare both the Reporting players on all important aspects one after the other… Let’s get started!!

#1 Ease of use

  • With Configurable Reports – You can pull Custom reports. They contain  Moodle™ data about your courses’ performance and can be viewed on the screen, downloaded as an XLS file, or printed for further reference. 

This plugin allows you to upload pre-defined reports but doesn’t provide ready-made reports.

  • With Edwiser Reports – You can simply download both pre-built and readymade reports such as Popular courses, Course progress, Course completion, and more…

It allows you to extract all types of reports into different formats such as excel, CSV, and PDF files. Not only that, but you can also schedule them right into your inbox via email! 

Most of your work here is done only through drag-and-drop activity. 

#2 Captivating Visuals

  • With Configurable Reports – If you’re okay with a limited user interface, then configurable reports won’t be a problem. But it provides you with the data you request in tabular or bright pie diagram format. 

However, it allows you to customize the report outcome with the help of a template (but you need SQL knowledge to do that). 

  • With Edwiser Reports – You get a GOOD graphical representation of all the data you download. It allows you to analyze trends with visual reports effortlessly. 

Those pages of complicated statistics back in school days still haunt me! So if you’re like me, these simplified forms of bars and pies would be a soothing appetite for your workaholic brain. 

Without having to put in a lot of time and effort, you can grasp the data at a glance.

#3 Availability of custom reports

  • With Configurable Reports – This is originally a custom reports builder, which means that it allows you to create course reports to timeline reports but with coding.

It is designed in an organized way so that a developer can create new plugins in less than an hour.

You can find the reports on your site’s front page or a block in the course. 

  • With Edwiser Reports – You don’t need any coding skills to build custom reports with this plugin (sighs). It’s easy to use so anyone can build custom reports quickly. 

If you’re a beginner, you can still create custom reports to analyze trending courses, engagement, unpopular courses, or about users and categories. 

The list is yours, so create all types of custom reports you need to keep a record of your progress. 

#4 Permission for report accessibility

  • With Configurable Reports – While creating a report, you can choose which users can see it. It is important to be aware of who has access to your reports or nobody but you.

So, while creating a report, it allows you to add who can view the report. The user you give access to could be your supervisor, fellow colleague, a student you assigned some task, and even parents (in some cases).

  • With Edwiser Reports – There’s an option available in the dashboard to edit permissions of the block. With this option, you get to control who can access your reports. 

It comes with regulated access plus your data is completely safe with Edwiser Reports. Moreover, you can configure the blocks as you like them through customization. You can add, delete and change the blocks whenever you need them. 

#5 Report scheduling

  • With Configurable Reports  – You have to set up random database queries to act as ad-hoc reports, there’s an option for that. There can be two types of reports: one that’s scheduled to run automatically or the other that can run on-demand. 

With the right credentials, other users can also access a list of queries. And it allows you to download the results in a CSV (Comma-separated values) format. 

  • With Edwiser Reports – You can easily generate automated reports and get them in your mail inbox directly on a daily or weekly basis or on a specific day you set and so on… 

It comes with an automated system to schedule your reports in a neat way. Ergo, managing your reports becomes effortless and you can also save valuable time. 

#6 Requirement of SQL knowledge for reporting

  • With Configurable Reports – You can create custom reports without SQL knowledge which is a database query language. And the process is simple. 

But if you need some additional reports other than the ordinary ones, you will be required to edit or write a code for them. 

This is usually used by moodlers who are developers as well. 

  • With Edwiser Reports –  You don’t need to know any coding language to create or manage reports. In fact, it’s easy to create report blocks instantly!

You can also create reports in the language of your choice, so there’s no language barrier. It comes with translation, so you can label the report categories that resonate with your own language.

#7 Email notifications for reports

  • With Configurable Reports – You will have to use the Ad-hoc database queries plugin to send email notifications to more than one recipient. After that, it allows you to email reports on a day you set, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. 

So, the reports can’t be mailed to your students or supervisor. But if you want, you can download it if there’s an option and later send it to them. 

However, there’s no option to directly send through email.

  • With Edwiser Reports  –  You know that reports can be automated with Edwiser Reports. It is specially made to send reports to yourself or some other person, keeping in mind the importance of keeping a record and having a backup.

Things may hardly go wrong, but you will have all the data that you gathered since day 1! 

The bottom line is – it keeps you notified about the reports in the best possible way.

#8 Tracking daily activities 

  • With Configurable Reports – You’ll have to create report blocks that update you about the activities happening in your MoodleTM course site every day.

It may take some extra time and effort if you’re new to it. Or you can consider seeking help from some professional. 

It depends on your class size and the important activities that you want to monitor. But once you learn to create blocks and manage on your own, you’ll slowly get used to it. 

  • With Edwiser Reports – You get all the options to track all the valuable insights about your learning platform. Be it gauging a learner’s behavior, knowing what’s popular in your house, or monitoring key engagement indicators such as course progress and course completion rates. 

It has a daily activities block (predefined report) which allows you to understand what happens in your LMS on a daily basis.

Just head to the smart dashboard, it’s configurable and allows you to customize reporting blocks so that you can easily glance through without any hassle.

You can count on Edwiser Reports for all kinds of reporting and analytics work! 

#9 Tracking inactivity on LMS 

  • With Configurable Reports – Just like other reports, you’ll need to create new blocks for tracking inactivity of your students. Tracking inactivity is as important as tracking activity, it could give you really useful information regarding your learners.

If you don’t want to track inactivity then you can resort to a traditional way of recording attendance. 

But if you want to spot some crucial inactivity through this plugin then it’s inevitable to spend some time creating blocks.

  • With Edwiser Reports – You get a ready-made Inactive user list to understand which learners have been inactive for a longer duration on the platform. 

By keeping an eye on inactive users, it allows you to reach out to them and understand why they had to discontinue or drop off halfway.

As a result, you’ll be informed about inactive users and plan accordingly.

#10 Certificate Stats 

  • With Configurable Reports – you’ll need a strong base on creating not only certificates but all kinds of stats. Unless you need a bigger picture of total certificates earned by users, this may not be a problem. 

But if you’re really concerned about the statistics and want to view them graphically, you can try requesting a new feature because it’s a fair necessity in Configurable reports. 

  • With Edwiser Reports – You can clearly understand the number of certificates given out to the users at the display. As you know certificates are imperative when it comes to learning any course, so it’s good to stay updated about it. 

Edwiser Reports also lets you know which courses harness the most certificates so that you can show it to attract prospective learners!

#11 Exporting of reports 

  • With Configurable Reports – You can download any report but it lets you export in only xls format. If you’re skilled and have some time, you can convert it by yourself when needed. 
  • With Edwiser Reports – You can export any report in excel, CSV, and PDF. So you get to decide the format as per the usage of the report. The reports can be ready to print if you want to keep their hard copies. 

Conclusion

We’re at the end of this comparison, hope you found it useful and we believe that we were able to give you the right information.

So, who among the two players do you think can be worth trying?

Reporting and Analytics are way more important than we think, it helps you make informed decisions about the courses on your LMS.

If you want a holistic and robust reporting plugin then you should check Edwiser Reports out, without fail. It’s absolutely FREE! And there are no hidden charges 🙂

So, you choose the winner now. Go ahead and decide the right Moodle™ reporting tool for your LMS based on your reporting needs.

All the Best!

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