Engagement in online assessment and learning
Contents
Online Learning
In 2023/24, it continues to be important for all students to engage fully with asynchronous online course material.
Blackboard Learn has a selection of reports that teaching staff can use to give an indication of whether students are engaging with course content. Many of the reports can be run at both Blackboard course summary level and to show data for individual students.
Within a module area, reports can be found under Course Management, in Control Panel / Evaluation.
For example, Performance Dashboard gives a Last Course Access Date (for anything within the module), as well as showing how many days since the last course access date. If it is relevant this report will also show how many times a user has contributed to a Discussion Board for the module.
Making use of Blackboard Learn Data provides some tips and tools for making use of data available through Blackboard Learn. It aims to help staff gauge if students are engaging with course content.
Blackboard Logins
The Blackboard Logins report shows an overall Last Accessed Date for Blackboard across all of a student's modules.
This is available in Power BI and is held by Support Centre / Henley Programme Administration teams to use as needed with their Schools.
Any Academic Tutors, SDATs or SDTLs who have a concern about a particular student should contact the relevant Student Support Co-ordinator (or Programme Administrator in Henley Business School) for this information.
During weeks 1-3 in particular of the autumn and spring terms, the Blackboard Login report will be run where possible by the Support Centre to pick up new Part 0 or 1 students who have not logged into Blackboard at all during this period. An email will be sent to these students directing them to support (please see our email template), and their Academic Tutor will be informed.
Coursework & Assignments
Coursework Submissions
A new Coursework Submissions report was launched for the start of AY 21/22. This shows any assignments (summative & formative) that have been set up in Blackboard, for a student’s enrolled modules, in the selected academic year. It also shows whether the student has attempted to submit coursework against each assignment.
For more details, please see Coursework Submission Report User Guide.
Non-Submission of Coursework
An email will be sent to students who miss mandatory coursework deadlines. In some cases, this will be automatically generated and in others, it will be sent by the Support Centre teams. In some cases, coursework submitted late will incur a penalty, unless there is an accepted justification. If assignments have still not been received by the end of the marking period, the student will be given a mark of 0 and a grade Z in RISIS.
There is also report, available to Support Centre / Henley Programme Administration staff, to show all confirmed coursework non-submissions (those that are confirmed as having a mark of 0 and a grade Z). This is available on RISIS: Working with modules / Module data / Assessment – Grade Reports / Non-submission report.
Where a student's grade is based on the best mark of two submissions, a non-submission may not be an indicator of non-engagement, but rather a choice made by the student to focus their attention on one assignment, rather than submit two.
Exceptional Circumstances Forms (ECFs)
If students have exceptional circumstances that impact on any of their assessments, they should be encouraged to complete an ECF. The completion of an ECF could be, in itself, an indicator that the student remains engaged in their course and it also provides staff with information that enables the appropriate support to be offered.