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Course Reports
10/18/2012 I. Course Reports Provided by the Software
A. All User Activity Inside Content Areas displays a summary of all user activity inside Content Areas for the course. Use this report to determine which students are active in your course and which content areas they are using.
2 B. Course Activity Overview displays overall activity within your course, sorted by student and
date. Data includes the total and average time spent per user and the total amount of activity the user had in the course. You can also click an individual student's name to access their Student Overview for Single Course report. This report can help you determine which days of the week students are active in your course and see how much time overall students spend.
3 C. Course Coverage Report displays data on course items that have been aligned to goals.
Must have goals and alignments setup in the system
D. Course Performance displays how a single course performs against a selected set of goals.
Must have goals and alignments setup in the system
4 E. Overall Summary of User Activity displays user activity for all areas of the course, as well
as activity dates, times and days of the week. Use this report to view student access as well as how often Course Tools are being used. – Registrar’s Office Needs This Report
5 F. Student Overview for Single Course displays an individual student's activity within your
course, sorted by date. Data includes the total overall time the student spent in the course as well as detailed information about the student's activity, such as which items and Content Areas the student accessed and the time spent on each. Use this report to check a particular student's course activity.
6 G. User Activity in Forums displays a summary of user activity in Discussion Board Forums in
the course. You can see which forums are used the most. – Must use Discussion Boards
H. User Activity in Groups displays a summary of user activity in Groups for the course. You can see if students are active in their groups. – Must Use Groups
I. Steps to Run the Reports To generate a course report:
1. On the Control Panel, expand the Evaluation section and select Course Reports.
2. On the Course Reports page, click the Click to toggle glossary term definition: <begin definition> Action Link <end definition>. for a report to access the contextual menu.
3. Select Run.
4. On the Run Reports page, select the Report Specifications. Options vary depending on the type of report.
• Select Format: Choose an output format from the drop-down list. Valid formats are PDF, HTML, Excel, or Word. Charts do not display in Excel format.
• Select a Start Date and Select an End Date: For reports covering a specific period of time, select to set beginning and ending dates for the report.
• Select Students: For reports to be run on a single student, select the student name from the drop-down list.
• Select Users: Select one or more users for the report. For Windows, to select multiple users in a list, press the SHIFT key and click the first and last users. To select users out of sequence, press the CTRL key and click each user needed. For Macs, press the COMMAND key instead of the CTRL key.
• Average Range and Target Performance Level: This is required for course performance reports. These reports can also be set to Show Unavailable Students and/or Show Unaligned Students.
5. Click Submit. If a course report includes a large number of users, it can take several minutes or longer for a report to be generated. PDF and HTML formats open directly in a new window. Excel and Word prompt you to save the file first. To print reports, use the print function in the application window that the report opened in.
Note: Enable pop-ups for your browser if you are prompted.
6. After a report is successfully run, you can:
• Save to Content Collection: If your school licenses content management, you can save the report to a folder in the Content Collection.
• Download Report: Save the report to Click to toggle glossary term definition:
<begin definition> your computer <end definition>..
• Run a New Report: Return to the Run Reports page to run the report again with different criteria.
7. Click OK when finished.
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II. Special Reports from the Database – this can be obtained by putting in a
work order with TAC for a specific incident.
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III. Early Warning System
The Early Warning System helps you recognize when a student performance problem is emerging or becoming more serious. You can use this rule-driven communication tool to send email messages to students and their observers when Early Warning System rule criteria are met. Rules are created by instructors and can be based on a test score, calculated column, due date, or course access.
You can communicate a warning in an email message to the student only, to a parent or advisor that is assigned as an observer, or both. You can use the default message or edit it. The Notification History creates a record for each Early Warning message sent.
When using the Early Warning System, keep the following in mind:
• The Early Warning System does not continuously monitor the course. You need to refresh the Early Warning System rules periodically to discover incidents that trigger a warning.
The Early Warning System does not automatically notify students and observers;
notification email messages are sent by instructors from the Review Rule Status page.
• The Blackboard administrator at your school may turn off access to the Early Warning System based on policies at the institution. If the Early Warning System is on at the system level, you may still turn it off within the course.
Managing Early Warning System Rules
You can create rules to determine when the Early Warning System generates a warning for a student's performance. Rules can monitor for unsatisfactory student grade performance, tardiness in completing
9 assignments, or when the student simply has not been accessing the course for a predetermined period of time.
There are three types of rules:
• Grade Rule: Based on a score for a grade or calculated column in the Grade Center. Students who score above or below the defined threshold for a specific grade trigger the notification system
• Due Date Rule: Based on a defined due date for an assignment, test, or survey. Students who do not complete an assignment, test, or survey by the due date trigger the notification system. Due date rules cannot be created for manually graded items.
• Last Access Rule: Based on the date users last accessed the course. Students who have not accessed the course for a defined number of days trigger the notification system
How to Create a Rule
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Click Create Rule to access the drop-down list, and select Grade Rule, Due Date Rule, or Last Access Rule. The associated Add Early Warning System Rule page appears.
3. In the Rule Name box, type a name for the rule.
4. Next to Availability, select the radio node next to Yes to activate the rule.
5. Under Rule Criteria, enter or select the information for the rule.
6. Click Submit.
Tip: When creating grade rules, Grade Center items are listed by their categories, such as assignment or discussion. Possible points are also included to help you determine the threshold value for the rule.
How to Edit a Rule
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Click the contextual menu for a rule and select Edit . 3. Change the rule information and criteria.
4. Click Submit.
Tip: You can change the availability of rules by selecting one or more rules from the list on the Early Warning System page and then choosing Set Available or Set Unavailable from the Actions drop-down list.
How to Remove a Rule
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Select one or more rules from the list.
10 3. Click Delete. In the pop-up window, confirm that the selected rules should be deleted.
It is also possible to remove individual rules by clicking the contextual drop-down list next to the rule name and selecting Delete.
Note: Deleting a rule is permanent and cannot be undone.
How to Refresh Rules
The Early Warning System does not continuously monitor the course. You need to refresh the Early Warning System rules periodically to discover incidents that trigger a warning. The Last Refresh column on the Early Warning System page indicates the most recent refresh of a rule.
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Select one or more rules from the list.
3. Click Refresh from the Action Bar. The selected rules run and any events that trigger the rule create a warning.
Tip: You may refresh a single rule while viewing its Review Rule Status page.
Reviewing Early Warning System Rule Status and Notifying Users
The Early Warning System helps you notify students and observers when students' performance meets pre-specified rule criteria. Rules can be created to monitor for unsatisfactory student grade performance, tardiness in completing assignments, or when the student simply has not been accessing the course for a predetermined period of time.
You can view the status of a rule to see which students generated warnings and send email notifications to them. The Early Warning System does not automatically notify students and observers. It is up to you to communicate the warning to the student and, if set, to selected observers, parents, and so on, by sending an email message from the Review Rule Status page.
How to Review Rule Status
The Review Rule Status page lists all users in the course and identifies whether or not their performance meets the criteria for the rule.
For example, if you set a grade rule to trigger an alert for users with a score less than 65, those students with a score with less than 65 would show Yes in the Meets Criteria column. The page also displays when the student was last notified regarding their performance. You can access the contextual menu for a user to review that user's status against all rules.
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Click the Action Link for a rule to access the contextual menu and select Review Rule Status.
The Review Rule Status page appears.
3. Click Display to filter the results.
11 4. You can also click Refresh if necessary to redisplay the most current rule status list.
How to Send Email Notifications
Communicating alerts to users does not happen automatically. You select which users to notify and can customize the email message.
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Click the Action Link for a rule to access the contextual menu and select Review Rule Status.
The Review Rule Status page appears.
3. Select the users requiring notification email messages.
4. From the Notify drop-down list, choose the roles that will receive email notifications associated with the selected users:
• Student Only: Notification messages are sent to the selected students only.
• Observer Only: Notification messages are sent only to users assigned as observers for the selected students. (Examples of possible observers might include parents or guardians, tutors, school course monitors, and so on.)
• Student and Observer: Notification messages are sent to the student and any assigned observers.
• Other: This option allows you to manually enter email addresses for the recipients of the notification.
5. Edit the Subject and Message. The notification can include attachments. Selecting Include list of recipients delivers a copy to the sender and includes a list of recipients.
6. Click Submit to send the notification.
How to View the Notification History
The notification history serves as a record of Early Warning System communications and is used to confirm that students were made aware of performance problems. The notification history lists each notification by individual user. It includes a search function for narrowing the results.
1. Scroll down to the Control Panel, click the Evaluation section to expand it, and select Early Warning System. The Early Warning System page appears.
2. Click Notification History in the Action Bar. Use the Search function or sort by column to find specific notifications.
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IV. Performance Dashboard
The Performance Dashboard provides you with a view into all types of user activity in a course or organization. All users enrolled in the course are listed, including instructors, students, teaching assistants, graders, observers, and guests, with pertinent information about that user’s progress and activity in the course.
To access the Performance Dashboard, scroll down to the Control Panel and select Evaluation to expand it. Click Performance Dashboard.
The Performance Dashboard page appears and displays a summary of information for the course:
• Last Name, First Name, and Username: The user's name, and the user name they use to log in to Blackboard Learn.
• Role: The user's defined role within the course. Examples of roles include instructor, student, grader, teaching assistant, guest, observer, and so on. It is possible for a user to have one role in a course, and a different role in another. To learn more, see Course Roles.
• Last Course Access: The date and time when the user last accessed the course.
• Days Since Last Course Access: The number of days that has elapsed since the last time the user accessed the course.
• Review Status: Displays how many items have been reviewed. To view a detailed view of reviewed items, click the number shown. If the Review Status tool has not been enabled for the course, this column does not appear.
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• Adaptive Release: Displayed only if the Adaptive Release tool is enabled in the course, clicking on the icon opens a new window showing a directory tree overview of the entire course relative to the user, and the access status. For more details, see Linking to Adaptive Release Controls.
• Discussion Board: Displayed only if the Discussion Board tool is enabled in the course, this column lists the number of Discussion Board comments created by this user. Clicking a number link opens the Discussion Board page listing all of the selected user's Discussion Board comments in the course.
• Early Warning System: Displayed only if the Early Warning System tool is enabled in the course, this column shows the number of triggered rules and the number of total rules that may trigger a warning. For example, 2/6 would mean the user has triggered two rules out of six total.
Clicking on the data in this column will display a page showing the Early Warning System status for the user. The Early Warning System column will only display if the tool is turned on in the course.
• View Grades: Displayed only if the Grade Center is enabled, this column provides direct links to the Grade Center: Fully Grade Center.
You can click Print to open the page in a new window in a printer-friendly format. All applicable columns may be sorted.
Understanding the Review Status Indicator
The numbers provided in the Review Status column of the Performance Dashboard indicate the number of items that the student has marked as Reviewed.
Using adaptive release rules in a course creates multiple tracks for students to progress through. This allows for the possibility that each student will have a different requirement for marking certain items in a course as Reviewed. At any time in a course, items in a student’s track may or may not be visible to them. The Performance Dashboard provides an at-this-moment view of the item availability and the student’s progress on reviewing items.
The Review Status number for each user links to a list of the items that the user sees as Reviewed and Mark Reviewed in the course.
The Review Status column is only visible if the Review Status tool has been enabled for the course.
Linking to Adaptive Release Controls
The Adaptive Release indicator in the Performance Dashboard for each user opens a course map tree view of the Course Menu, showing every possible item in the course. Icons beside each item in the course map indicate the visibility of an item to that course user, and the review status of any items with a review requirement, if applicable.
Adaptive Release and Review Status icons
Adaptive Release and Review Status Icons Visible: This item is visible to that course user.
Invisible: This item is not visible to that course user.
Reviewed: This item has been marked as Reviewed by the course user.
Mark Reviewed: This item is displayed as Mark Reviewed to the course user, but has not yet been marked
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Adaptive Release and Review Status icons
Adaptive Release and Review Status Icons as reviewed.
Note: The Adaptive Release column is visible only if the Adaptive Release tool has been enabled for the course.
