Queen Margaret University - Tutor Guide generic reporting tools in the Hub
Introduction
As a tutor, you can use four generic reporting tools in the Hub
Performance Dashboard
Early Warning System
Statistics Tracking
Course Reports.
These provide further information about when your students access the Hub and what they access.
Performance Dashboard
The Dashboard provides a snapshot of the most current information about:
- when students have last accessed the module and the days since they last accessed it
- student usage of the discussion tool.
- It also shows you:
- if a student has met any of the rules created in the Early-Warning System
- which files and areas are available to the student or not through Adaptive
- release or those that have not been released
- the number of Content Items that have been reviewed by a student when Review Status has been used
To access the Performance Dashboard, go to Control Panel/Evaluation and click on Performance Dashboard. You can sort the data into ascending and descending order by clicking on the relevant column header. Further information is available by clicking on icons and numbers displayed.
[image of Performance Dashboard]
A video demonstrating the Performance Dashboard is available at:(broken Video)
Discussion Board information
The Performance Dashboard shows the number of fora that a student has contributed posts to in the discussions. This is not the total number of posts by a student. If you click on the number of fora accessed, you will then see a summary of student posts, the average posting position and the date of last post.
[image of Dashboard]
Clicking on the individual fora will then show the posts by the student. This may be useful when marking/moderating discussion postings.
Please note: the average length of the post could be ambiguous as this refers to the number of characters.
Early-Warning System information
In some cases, you may find that the data in the Early Warning System column is not as current as the Last Course Access / Days Since Last Course Access columns in the Performance Dashboard. The Early-Warning System is only updated at midnight on a daily basis but the Performance Dashboard is updated more regularly.
Adaptive release information
By clicking on the icon on the adaptive release column, you are provided with an overview of which files and tools are and are not available to students.
Items that are not available to students are displayed with a red line through an eye.
[image of Dashboard]
Early-Warning System (EWS)
The Early-Warning System can be used to identify possible lack of student engagement with a Hub area. Warnings can be generated based on graded performance, late or missing course work, or lack of course access.
A tutor needs to create a rule which will indicate that a student is not meeting that rule, for example:
- has not accessed the Hub for a set number of days;
- has not met a required grade in a formative quiz;
- has not submitted an assessment by a specified date.
Once a student has been identified by a rule, you can then decide whether to notify the student directly through email or contact the student’s PAT.
Please note: the EWS is updated at midnight every day. Before contacting students, it is suggested that you check the Performance Dashboard for an up-to-date report of student activity.
Last access rule in EWS
Setting up the rule
[image of Dashboard]
When in the EWS, click on Create Rule/ Last Access Rule. You need to provide a name for the rule, for example, “last access” and also specify the number of days that you wish to identify when a student has not accessed the Hub, for example, 7. Please note you need to make this rule available.
Running the rule
[image of Dashboard]
Once you have created the rule, you need to run the rule to determine how many of your students meet the criteria, in this case students who have not accessed the Hub in the last 7 days. Click the drop-down menu next to the name of the rule and select Refresh.
You will then see the number of students who meet this rule, as in the example below – 16 out of 18 students
[image of Dashboard]
To see the names of the student who have not met the rule, click next to the name of the rule and in the drop-down menu select Review Rule Status. The next screen lists students and identifies whether they meet the criteria or not. Click on the column Meets Criteria and this will order the students into those who do and do not meet the Rule.
[image of Dashboard]
Emailing students who meet the rule
After having identified which students meet the rule, if appropriate, you can then email these students. Select the students which you wish to contact and then click on the drop-down menu, next to Notify. You will be asked if you wish to email the students only or students and observers. In this case, you just wish to email the students only. An automatic email is then created which will be sent to the selected students. You can customise this email with your own message. The students will only see their names on the email and will not see the other students to whom the email is sent. You will receive a copy of the email which is sent to your QMU inbox.
Please note: you may find if students’ email boxes are full that you receive an undeliverable message.
Grade Rule
In this case, you can create a rule that identifies which students are below or above a certain grade. You can then email then as appropriate. To set up the rule, select Create Rule in the EWS and then select Grade Rule from the drop-down menu.
Due Date Rule
This is based on a date when an assignment or a test should be submitted. Students who do not complete the assignment or test by a specific date will not meet the Rule.
To create the Rule, select Create Rule in the EWS and then select Due Date Rule from the drop-down menu. Select the test or assignment from the Select a Grade Centre Item menu list and:
Specify Attempt: Select either the First Attempt or Last Attempt for Rule evaluation. Only items that allow multiple attempts are affected by this setting. Single- attempt items are not influenced by this setting.
Define Criteria: Determine how the due date is used by choosing either earlier than or later than.
Date Offset: Enter a value in positive integers for how many Days After or Days Before the Due Date to apply the Rule. Adding a Date Offset can take into account an extension given to students, if required.
Run the rule as in 3.1.2 above and notify students as required.
Statistics Tracking
Setting up Statistics Tracking
It is possible to track how often a document, a tool, a folder, a web link, or a dropbox has been accessed by enabling Statistics Tracking. Select the item that you wish to track and select Statistics Tracking (On/Off). A further screen asks you to confirm that you would like to enable Statistics Tracking.
Please note: when you initially upload the file, create the folder, add the web link or the dropbox, you should enable Statistics Tracking. Statistic Tracking will only function from the date you enable the tool.
Viewing Statistics Tracking
To view which students have accessed the item, select View Statistics Report from the options menu beside the item. Then you need to select: Content Usage Statistics and run this report for the appropriate timeframe. The longer the timeframe that you select, the longer the report will take to run.
[image of Dashboard]
You can select to run the report for individual students by selecting them from the list. If you do not select any students the report will run for all students on the module.
The report opens in a new window and shows:
- Access by Date
- Access by Hour of Day
- Access by Day of Week
Please note: Statistics are only stored in the system database when Statistics Tracking is turned on. If Statistics Tracking is turned on after users have accessed a Content Item, the record of their activity is not recorded. If Statistics Tracking is turned off after it was turned on, existing data is preserved, but it cannot be viewed and new data will not be collected. Turn Statistics Tracking back on to view existing data.
Course Reports
There are generic reports in the Hub providing detailed information about student activity (as a collective, as a group and individually) in your module area. These reports are updated at midnight every day except the Course Enrolments which is updated four times a day.
To access the reports go to Control Panel/Evaluation and click on Course Reports. You will see a list of reports, some of which are described below. To run the report, click to the right of the report and select Run. In most cases, you can then filter the report by date and, often, you can select the output type: PDF, Excel, Word or HTML. It is recommended that you do not run the reports at peak times during the day (between 11am and 2pm) as it will take longer for the reports to run.
[image of Dashboard]
In most cases, reports are provided in table format with some charts.
Please note:
Some reports are linked to goals which are not used in Queen Margaret University including:
- Course Coverage Report
- Course Performance Report
In some cases you may find a large number of columns which report zero activity. This is because these are generic reports, for example, there is a column for all tools although you may only have selected a few tools.
Reports only provide access information about days, for example, which day a student accessed a tool or a content area. The reports do not provide detailed access times, for example, 25th February at 02.31. Use the Performance Dashboard for detailed time access to a course.
The following table provides a quick overview of the course reports. Detailed information is available for some of the reports.
[ Table here]
All user activity inside content areas
This report shows when and how often learners (individually and collectively) have accessed a specific content area, for example, the assessment area or the learning resource area.
[image of Dashboard - pie chart]
Report showing cumulative access to content areas
[image of Dashboard - pie chart]
Report showing individual student frequency of access to content areas
The report also shows on which day/s the students accessed particular areas.
When designing a module, it is worthwhile considering if you need to determine if students are accessing a particular area, which students are not accessing a content area and how frequently they are accessing a content area. For example, you may want to use content areas rather than folders to provide this detailed tracking information.
Enrolled User Numbers
This provides a quick up-to-date, overview of student numbers in your module as well as teaching assistants and instructors. For detailed information about which students have accessed go to Control Panel/Users and Groups/Users.
Overall summary of user activity
This report details which tools have been used by students in total and on an individual basis. In the example below, only a few tools are used; hence, 0 appears by a lot of the tools as these are not used by the students and tutors.
[image of Dashboard - pie chart]
The report also shows how often the learners individually have accessed the tools and on which days.
[image of Dashboard ]
Finally, it shows a cumulative table on which days the learners have accessed your course. This may be appropriate if you are asking your students to undertake a regular task.
[image of summary graph]
To gain an overview of your students, it is probably worthwhile using both user activity for content areas and overall activity.
User activity in forums
For a quick overview of individual student activity in forums, use the Performance Dashboard. The Overall Summary of User Activity also provides some information about discussion usage.
This report details activity about the different fora that are used, for example, which fora students are accessing (how much) and which they are not. Two charts detail:
- the number of times the forums have been accessed
- the number of times the messages have been accessed.
In the example below, you can quickly identify which fora are and are not being used.
[image of Dashboard - pie chart]
Following this report, you will see a table which shows how often individual students are accessing the different fora. You can also see which days the discussions are being accessed individually and as a group.
In the design of your module, it is worthwhile thinking about setting up different fora as you will see more information about access rather than having one forum for everything with lots of threads. This may be particularly useful when checking that students are engaging in activities as they progress through the module.
User activity in groups
This shows which groups are active in the Hub module. It also shows individual student activity and provides dates and times.
[image of Dashboard - pie chart]
Where to find help
- Further information about each of the generic reporting tools is available within the Hub – select More Help for context specific information within each of the four generic reporting tool areas.
- The Help section at the bottom of the Control Panel provides access to Blackboard Help for Instructors (an online guide), as well as access to video tutorials.
- Contact: HUB Email Address
