Using Blackboard Ultra's Analytics Tools

Blackboard Analytics is a course level reporting tool that can give instructors key insights into the ways that students use the tools, content, and assessments within a course. The reports provide real time learning statistics, such as logins, minutes spent, and interactions that will help faculty understand trends in student interactions and the relationship between time spent in a course and a students’ grades.

When to Use?

What is Blackboard Analytics?

Blackboard Analytics is a course level reporting tool that can give instructors key insights into the ways that students use the tools, content, and assessments within a course. The reports provide real time learning statistics, such as logins, minutes spent, and interactions that will help faculty understand trends in student interactions and the relationship between time spent in a course and a students’ grades.

Procedure

How to Use the Course Activity Report

Use the Course Activity report to identify struggling students based on their overall grade, missed due dates, the number of hours they spend in the course, and the number of days since their last access. Use the data to establish a baseline of student performance. This baseline is invaluable as you compare students that are performing well in your course versus those that may be struggling.

1. Open your Blackboard course and in the course navigation menu select the Analytics tab.

2. Select the list/table view to see a comprehensive, at-a-glance view of every student's engagement and performance in your course.

3. Click the “Hours in Course” column header to sort the list of students from lowest to highest.

NOTE: The “Overall Grade” needs to be setup in the grade book in order to display a student’s grade/score.

4. Click Select the scatter plot to visualize the relationship between student time spent in the course and overall grade. Each dot represents a student: X-axis = time in course (hours or interactions) and Y-axis = current course grade. This can help identify the correlation between engagement and success. Outliers can flag students who may need support.

NOTE: Hover over any dot to see the student's name and detailed engagement data.

Student Grades, Progress and Activity Reports

Use a student’s individual activity reports to view their engagement with and progress through your course content. With this data, you can identify and assist those students who may be struggling with the material and who may require additional support or encouragement. 

1. On the Course Activity page select the name of a student from the list/table view.
2. On the student’s Grades page there are five columns: the item or assessment’s Name, its Due Date, its Status, Grade, and provided Feedback. Each column can be sorted in ascending or descending order, which makes it simple to evaluate whether a student is meeting their due dates and how they’ve performed on individual assignments.

3. Select the Progress tab on the navigation bar to monitor the student’s progress through all of the content in your course.

4. Every content item or assessment will display a circle icon showing the student’s progress. The circle will display one of the following:

• Empty when a student has not yet accessed the item.

• Partially filled when a student has opened the item.

• Green check mark when the student has completed the item.

NOTE: Students can mark items like Documents, uploaded files, or links as completed once they have opened them. For any other items like Assessments, Tests, Journals, or Discussions, the item will automatically be marked as complete when the student completes a submission.

5. Select the Activity Log tab to view a chronological time line of a student's actions - when they accessed content, participated in discussions, or submitted work. This helps to verify patterns, respond to student questions, or document activity for academic integrity.

NOTE: Use the filters to focus on specific items or date ranges.

5. At the top of the page select the Student Activity tab to view the student’s course activity per week (hours in course).

6. The table view of the Student Activity Details report has four columns: Date, Average hours in course, Range of average hours, and Activity hours. Data is presented in rows organized by week. 

• Average hours in course are the average hours in a course spent by all students per week.
• Range of average hours are the average hours in a course spent by all students per week.
• Activity hours are the hours in a course accumulated by the student per week. Hours in course are counted from the time students select something within the course to when students select something outside the course. 

NOTE: If a student is logged out from their course session, only the time before their last action within the course is counted.

7. Select the line chart to view a detailed dashboard of a student’s hours in the course per week in comparison to other students in the course. The selected student’s activity displays in purple and average course activity is in gray.

   1. Select a dot to see exact dates and hours in course for a student or the course average.

   2. Zoom in or out by selecting the + and – icons at the top right. To focus on a specific region, select somewhere on the chart and drag to zoom in.

   3. Combine this with feedback messages or progress tracking to enhance support.

8. Select the Download button to save any of the reports and visualizations for use either with the student or their advising team.

Overall, Learn Ultra Analytics provide instructors with actionable insights that help identify at-risk students, evaluate engagement, and improve course design. By turning data into evidence-based teaching decisions, analytics support timely interventions, targeted feedback, and continuous improvement, that can ultimately foster a more effective and responsive learning environment.