Brightspace offers a lot of reports to give teachers insight in the progress of the students within the course and the interaction between students and the course content and each other. Most of these reports can be found in the Class Progress and Content Reports section. In this article we explain what study data can be found here and how this information can and may be used.
Class Progress - What is it?
Class Progress offers teachers an overview of the students within the course, meaning, their progress within course activities. Students also have access to Class Progress, but they can only see their own progress and activity here and not that of other students within the course.
All the data that is available in Class Progress is a summary or an overview of data that can be found elsewhere in the course. In other words: there is no "new" data in Class Progress. Example: through Assignments teachers can find per assignment who submitted it and when. Class Progress will give you this information per student, so you don't have to open all assignments to see if a specific students has submitted it.
GDPR
The Content Reports and some parts of Class Progress are not available because they are not GDPR compliant. This is the case for Login History, System Access History and Course Access. These reports make it possible to see how often the student has opened Brightspace, when and from which IP address. This information has no didactic added value and is therefore not available to lecturers (and students).
The Class Progress functionality provides insight into student activities, which is only possible when viewing study material in Brightspace. The invasion of the student's privacy is significant, because the lecturer can gain a greater insight into the way in which the student shapes his/her studies. But, with the use of the data that becomes available via Content Reports, we would limit the privacy of the student, according to the DPIA (= Data Protection Impact Assessment, a privacy risk analysis). These circumstances led to the decision at the time of the DPIA that the functionality could not be put into use.
Shortly put, the use of the data from Content Reports is not permitted because of strict conditions under the GDPR.
Content Reports - What is it?
Content Reports would provide insight into the use of the available content in the course by students. The overview page shows to how many students certain content is available, how many students have actually viewed it, and how long students have visited the content on average.
In the Content Reports it is possible to click through per content item to see individual information per student: how often the student viewed the item, how long in total, how long on average per time, and when the student last viewed the item.
Please note: the data under Content Reports is an indication of the use of the content. This applies to both the overall overview and the individual report. Browser settings, the use of ad blockers and the exclusion of cookies can cloud the picture. The data in Content Reports can therefore not be used as the sole source of information to make decisions about (the supervision of) students. Therefore, check in another way whether the content has been used; for example by asking students this or by using formative quizzes. In case that is not possible, the reports can be used. See the use cases at the bottom of this article.
For now, the Content Reports have been disabled due to the strict Dutch privacy laws.
Available Reports - What is available? And why?
What information is exactly available to teachers in the reports? And why is it available?
In general, Class Progress gives the lecturer insight into the progress and (online) activities of students within the course. Lecturers can use the information to gain insight into the support students need in the course. For example, if a teacher notices that students are struggling with a particular assignment, the teacher can use information from Class Progress to understand why that is the case. Do they actively participate in online assignments and discussions?
It is definitely not allowed to use the reports to assess students, but only to gain a better insight into the progress of students, their interaction with the course material and with each other. The only exception is the Learning Outcomes Report. Lecturers at programs that assess programmatically can, for example, use the Learning Outcomes Report to gain a better insight into how the student is doing.
How can you, as a teacher or team, use the available data?
First of all: it is important to form a complete picture of the student and not rely solely on the statistics from the available reports. The rule of thumb is: “Wait to make a judgment until you have the full picture.”
- As already stated, student activity should not be used to assess students.
- Discuss with your teaching team which data you use and how you use the reports, so that you work in the same way as a team.
- Discuss the use of the reports with students at the start of your course, so that students are not faced with any surprises. Ask what they think of you using this data. Always indicate that the goal is to supervise students as well as possible and to improve the teaching material.
- View the reports together with students during the course. Is the data that Brightspace has collected, such as the duration of viewing content, correct? If not, is there perhaps a good explanation for it? Remember: the aim is to guide students, not correct them on their use of Brightspace.
Below are two use cases that describe whether and how Class Progress can be used in education. This list is not exhaustive. If you have another case and want to test whether it is also suitable for using Class Progress, please discuss it with your program manager or educational advisor at your faculty.
Usecase 1: Blended program
A teacher from the Industrial Product Design program has designed her lessons in a blended way according to the Flipped Classroom concept. Students prepare the lessons online, so that they have time during the lessons to work on their design under supervision.
For the next lesson it is important that students come prepared, otherwise they will come for nothing. The teacher has therefore created an assignment so that the students can hand in their preparations in advance. The lecturer checks the Gradebook to see whether the students have indeed prepared. She sends a reminder to the students who have not yet done so to point out the importance of proper preparation for the next meeting.
She does this carefully:
- Before sending the e-mails, she discusses this working method with her colleagues prior to the lectures.
- During the first lecture she discussed this working method with her students. She also indicated that this information will not be used for any assessment.
- They draft the text of the message in such a way that it is a recommendation and that there is a caveat that if this information is incorrect, they can report this or ignore the advice.
Use case 2: Guidance by the Study Career Coach
A Study Career Coach from the Nursing degree program has periodic discussions with his students about their study progress. He has already spoken to all students once and then made agreements with them about the use of Brightspace for supervision. This week he has a follow-up appointment with two students. He prepares the conversations by looking up the progress of the students in some courses in Brightspace.
Through Class Progress, he gains insight into the number of assignments that the students have submitted compared to the total number of assignments. He sees that this is all right. During the conversation, the teacher looks at these overviews with each student, so that the student can explain what he or she has done and where he or she needs guidance.
Last week, one of his students did not come to a scheduled follow-up meeting. The student also does not answer his telephone and does not respond to e-mail. The teacher can see via Discussions that the student has also participated in the online assignment in the Discussion board. Maybe the student just forgot the appointment? No reason to panic at the moment. Fortunately, the student still seems to be on board. Perhaps the student just forgot the appointment. The SLB-er is not taking any further action for now.
The Study Career Coach will proceed carefully in this respect:
- Before he looks up these reports for his guidance, he discusses this approach for guidance and follow-up with his colleagues prior to the semester.
- At the beginning of the academic year, he discussed this working method with his students in the first meeting. He also indicated that this information will not be used for any assessment.
- In any communication about the insights from the system, he states that this is an indication and that there is a caveat that if this information is incorrect, the student can report this ignore the advice.
| Report | What is it? | Why is it available? | Can it be used for assessing students? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grades | Shows an overview of all that can be graded within the course, such as assignments, quizzes etc. | The grades overview gives both teacher and student insight in the progress of everything in the course that can be graded. The information in this report is also available per assignment, per quiz etc. | No |
| Learning outcomes | Learning outcomes can be linked to assignments in order to track the student's progress on learning outcome or competence level. | This report is mainly used by programs that assess programmatically. It gives a good picture of the level of the student, based on learning outcomes or competences. | Yes |
| Discussions | Overview of posts read, threads created and replies posted in discussion boards within the course | The report gives a reasonable indication of the use of the discussion fora in the course | No |
| Assignments | Overview of submitted assignments. Shows number of submitted assignments as part of total assignments. | The assignments overview gives both teacher and student insight in the progress of all assignments. Also gives easy access to feedback. |
Yes |
| Quizzess | Summary of Quiz completion | The report provides insight into whether the student has taken available (practice) quizzes and how they performed. It is intended for formative use. | No |
| Surveys | Summary of Survey completion | The report gives insight into participation in surveys in the course. Please note: Surveys in Brightspace are usually used to find out what students need in relation to the content of the education ("which topics do you find difficult"). DICE is used for periodical evaluations. | No |