Course Reports

You can run several types of course reports to view information about course usage and activity. You can view summaries of course usage such as which course areas are used most frequently and course access patterns for specific students.

Report data is automatically refreshed every 4 hours for all reports except activity reports. Activity data is refreshed once per day at midnight. Your institution can refresh the report data manually if needed.

About course report types

You can search the list of reports for keywords in the names or descriptions to find the report that generates the information you need.

• All User Activity inside Content Areas displays a summary of all user activity inside content areas for a course. Use this report to determine which students are active in your course and which content areas they use.
• Course Activity Overview displays overall activity within a single course, sorted by student and date. Data includes the total and average time spent per active student and the total amount and type of activity each student had in the course. Optionally, you can filter the report by one or more groups. Only students who are members of the selected groups are included in report results.
• Course Coverage Report displays data on course items that have been aligned to goals.
• Course Performance displays how a single course performs against a selected set of goals.
• Overall Summary of User Activity displays user activity for all areas of your 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 used.
• Single Course User Participation Report displays the number of user submissions in your course for assignments, tests, discussions, blogs, and journals within the chosen time frame. You don't need to grade an item for data to be included in the report. The data is provided in a Microsoft^® Excel^® spreadsheet (XLS).

  If no activity exists for an item type, no column appears. If no students submitted an assignment in the chosen time frame, no assignment column appears in the spreadsheet.

• Student Overview for Single Course displays an individual student's activity within your course, sorted by date. Data includes the total overall time a student spent in your course. You can view detailed information about a student's activity, such as which items and content areas a student accessed and the time spent on each. Use this report to check a certain student's course activity.
• User Activity in Forums displays a summary of user activity in discussion forums in your course.
• User Activity in Groups displays a summary of user activity in groups for your course.

More reports may be available. Contact your institution for assistance.

Generate course reports

If enabled, be sure to disable the pop-up blocker.

1. On the Control Panel, expand the Evaluation section and select Course Reports.
2. On the Course Reports page, access a report's menu and select Run.
3. On the Run Reports page, select the Report Specifications. Options vary:
   • Select Format: Choose an output format from the menu. Valid formats are PDF, HTML, Excel, or Word. Charts don't display in Excel format.

     The Single Course User Participation Report data is only provided in an Excel spreadsheet (XLS) format.

   • Select a Start Date and Select an End Date: For reports that cover a specific period of time, select start and end dates for the report.

     To include data from today's date, select the end date for tomorrow. Statistics are returned based on a day that begins at midnight and ends at 11:59 PM. Statistics for the present day won't be accurate up to the minute of the request. A short time delay occurs based on the time it takes the database to record the activity. If the data you want isn't in the report, wait a short while and run the report again. Please bear in mind that for some reports, this waiting time could be up to around 4 hours or even overnight, depending on the report.

   • Select Students: To run a report on a single student, select the student name from the menu.
   • Select Users: Select one or more users for the report. For Windows, to select multiple users in a list, press the Shift key and select the first and last users. To select users out of sequence, press the Ctrl key and select each user needed. For Macs, press the Command key instead of the Ctrl key.
   • Average Range and Target Performance Level: Required for course performance reports. You can set these reports to Show Unavailable Students and/or Show Unaligned Goals.
   • Select Goal Set and Goal Types. If the Goal Set appears as None, confirm course content is aligned with goals. If content is aligned with a goal, you may need to contact the system administrator to refresh report data.
     
4. Select Submit. If a course report includes a large number of users, you may need to wait several minutes or longer for a report to generate. 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.
5. After a report is successfully run, you can perform these tasks:
   • Save to Content Collection: If your institution has access to the content management features, you can save the report to a folder in the Content Collection.
   • Download Report: Save the report to your computer.
   • Run a New Report: Return to the Run Reports page to run the report again with different criteria.
6. Select OK when finished.

System hits

When you view reports that include hit or access statistics, a hit is tracked each time a request is sent to Blackboard Learn. For example, when tracking the use of the discussion board, you can view this information:

• A student accesses the discussion board—1 hit.
• A student selects a forum—2 hits total.
• A student selects a message to read it—3 hits total.

Learn more

Use of logs and user access data for decisions regarding academic integrity disclaimer