The success of students in a Blackboard course is often dependent on their level of engagement and their ability to stay on track with course content and assignments. As an instructor, it's crucial to have the tools and resources to monitor students' progress and ensure they are staying engaged and motivated throughout the course.

An Ultra course provides progress tracking tools to help instructors monitor how much time students are spending in the course, what content they are engaging with, and what their current grades are. This information is invaluable in helping instructors reach out to students who may be struggling or falling behind, and it also helps in retaining students who might otherwise drop out of the course. Progress Tracking is enabled by default in all Ultra courses as of SU2023.

One of the key benefits of tracking students progress is the ability to identify potential issues early on. If a student is not engaging with course content as much as they should be, the instructor can reach out and provide support, resources, or motivation to help the student get back on track. This proactive approach can help students stay engaged and motivated, and it also helps them to understand the importance of their participation and progress in the course.

The Data Science Team recently released its set of predictions for the 6-year graduation probabilities of the 2020 Freshman cohort. Below is a snapshot of the current cohort's predictions, in blue, with the 2019 Freshman cohort's predictions, in red. 

The vertical axis represents the end of 2nd semester prediction probability; the horizontal axis is the end of the 3rd semester prediction. 

The black diagonal line indicates the point on the graph at which the second semester and third semester predictions are equal. If a dot, representing an individual student, rests on the line there was no change in the student's predicted probability of graduating between their second and third semester. Points above the line mean a student's predicted 6-year graduation probability decreased from semester 2 to semester 3. 

The group of students above the line, particularly in the Moderate and Low probability color bands, are of concern as their predicted probabilities of graduation have declined over their last two completed semesters. 

The 2020 Freshman cohort was the first freshman class during COVID and one of the concerns is the effect COVID may have on student performance in later semesters. From the predictions chart there seems to be reasons for optimism. Looking at the dispersion of points, there is a greater concentration of students in the High and Very High likelihood buckets compared to the 2019 cohort, as shown by the clustering of blue dots in the upper right corner of the chart. 

However, some concern may remain. Students whose predictions fall in the Low and Moderate buckets have experienced sharper declines in predicted likelihood to graduate than students from the 2019 cohort (because the blue dots, 2020 cohort, are much further above the diagonal line than the red dots, 2019 cohort). 

The diagram we've shown in this post is produced by a tool developed by the Data Science Team.  The tool allows staff with broad student success responsibilities to identify groups of students who may need additional support to achieve their goals.  The tool is available at analytics.umbc.edu in the student success section.  Access to it requires permission.  

(NOTE: Please join us Friday, March 18th from 12-1pm, for the fourth in our series of our Spring 2022 Data Science Workshops. This predictive model will be the topic of the session. Go to this link - https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology/events/101281 to register)

Len Mancini

Data Scientist and Statistical Specialist

The Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Student Success Technologies Group is part of the Provost;s Office and the Division of Information Technology.  Our component parts include the Business Intelligence/Data Warehouse Team, the Analytics/Data Science Team, the PeopleSoft SA/Salesforce Team, and since late 2021, the myUMBC/Campus Information Portal Team.  

We're very pleased to provide you with our "annual" report (delayed by the pandemic, like so many other things).  The report details selected projects and initiatives from 2019 through mid-year 2021, our goals, and our projects going forward.  As the report is part of our assessment activities, we welcome your comments.

We are grateful to our many collaborators and partners across the campus.  Success is never final, but it is also surely a joint effort.

First-year retention is UMBC’s single biggest point of loss during the lifetime of a freshman cohort and a key focus area of the university’s student success efforts. To support this work the Data Science Team (from DoIT and the Provost's Office) and its campus partners have worked with our HelioCampus to produce the first of a series of predictive analytics reports or “playbooks.” 

The first playbook, just deployed on analytics.umbc.edu, predicts the likelihood of a first-time full-time freshman returning for their second year.  It is being used by the Academic Advocates in Undergraduate Academic Affairs to help identify students who may be at risk of not returning next fall. (Access to the playbook is role-based.)

On February 25th, at noon, the REX Analytics Group will meet to explore the factors that make these predictions change the most, how to read the dashboards, and how to interpret and use the playbook.  Please join us! Contact lmancini@umbc.edu or kjoseph@umbc.edu for meeting details.

Len Mancini

Data Scientist and Statistical Specialist

At UMBC, courses are created in Blackboard about four weeks before a new semester begins, providing time for faculty to transition instructional materials and assessments into a new site for students. All course shells are unavailable, however, requiring faculty to make sure students can see their courses and access content by the time classes start. Some instructors choose to open a course earlier, by days or weeks, to give students access to materials for preparation for a busy term.

While the semester might start on a specific date, here are five reasons why to consider opening your Blackboard course early.

1. Introduce Students to Class

Opening the class earlier gives you and your students time to start getting to know the course requirements, required course materials, and common questions or other logistics via a course FAQ. Orientations also allow you to find and fix unexpected issues with course content, including hidden files or broken links. 

• Clarify expectations for how your course will be facilitated, especially if it’s fully online or hybrid, and what learners will achieve on their journey (Quality Matters, 2018). 
• Provide a course tour so students can explore the structure of the course and find their way around the content and organization without the pressure of due dates. 

2. Refresh Prior Knowledge  

If your course has prerequisites or is part of a multi-part course, course materials and resources might include references to materials from prior courses or review materials. Opening your course early helps students to assess and refresh their knowledge before new content is introduced. 

• Consider Panopto videos, reading material, interactive exercises, or self-check quizzes to refresh knowledge.
• Support potential remediation with early access to materials and activities.
• Include review materials for test preparation, especially for cumulative or certification exams.

3. Complete Early Course Content

Some courses require that students complete practice problems, homework exercises, and other prerequisite activities to meet comprehensive curricular needs and learning objectives. As with refreshing prior knowledge, early content requirements may include non-assessment resources such as videos and reading materials, which can be valuable to student success (Weiss, 2019).

• Inform students about prerequisite requirements well ahead of due dates.
• Allow ample time for students to complete any scaffolded assignments and come to classes prepared to learn new material. 

4. Encourage Student & Instructor Engagement 

Opening your course early welcomes students into your virtual classroom and fosters greater interaction between you and your class. Early course access allows students to review the syllabus and complete introductory assignments, like a syllabus quiz or Quiz 0. Students can engage with course messages and announcements.  

• Connect students with each other through an introductory discussion, FAQ discussion, or VoiceThread. 
• Add your own welcome video for a personalized touch and post your instructor introduction to help build trust and community with your students (Bain, 2004).
• Send regular messages and update course announcements to establish essential instructor presence (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). 

5. Support Student Success

Getting started early helps students start the semester on the right track with access to course materials, digital resources and textbooks. Early access to a course helps with student awareness of the course schedule and their own performance. Knowing when due dates occur and how they're doing, thanks to frequent and timely feedback, can help students become more successful in your courses.

• Create opportunities for students to practice with course tools, such as a low-stakes, zero-points quiz with Respondus Lockdown Browser. This can reduce stress ahead of required exams.
• Ensure students know they can leverage Ally’s alternative file format to support their learning preferences. This step aligns with the guiding principles of Universal Design for Learning and empowers their learning process (CAST, 2018).

By default, the starting date for all Blackboard courses are set to 2 weeks before the semester begins, allowing you to open the course any time during that period. If you’d like to open a course earlier than 2 weeks before the semester starts, you can change the date for an Original course using this FAQ, but Ultra courses will require a ticket for support.

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources
• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

~ by Mariann Hawken, Josh Abrams, & Laura Wyatt

References

Bain, K. (2004). Chapter 6: How do they treat their students? From What the best college teachers do. Boston: Harvard Press.

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2/3), 87-105.

Quality Matters Rubric, Sixth Edition (2018).

Weiss, H. L. (2019). Work in progress: Using videos for improvement in knowledge of prerequisite material. 126th Annual Conference & Exposition. American Society for Engineering Education.

Mathematics is a powerful tool.  We use applications from math all day, every day, like when we drive over a bridge or look at our email.  

Math is very difficult for many people, and they struggle with it.  Many students at our university (and almost all others) need to repeat a math class to progress in their program and complete their degrees.

Our research has uncovered some important facts:

• Many students repeating math classes often must do so more than one time, which extends their time to degree and could prevent them from graduating.  

• Students who use the Math and Science Tutoring Center improve their chances of passing their math courses.

• The positive effect from math tutoring is especially large for students who are repeating a course.  “Repeaters” increase their chances of success by roughly 15 to 20 percentage points!

• But, we found, only about 10 percent of students repeating math were going to tutoring

The Data Science Team, supported by DoIT and the Provost's Office, designed a pilot program in conjunction with the Math Department to “nudge” students repeating 100-level math courses to use tutoring.  

A nudge is a message designed to provide information to many people at very low cost that changes behavior over time.  An example of a nudge you see in everyday life is the roadside sign that says “Click it or ticket.”  Our nudges let students know not just that tutoring is effective, but also how effective it is.

This semester (Spring 2021) we sent nudges to 114 students using a myUMBC personal post.  About 70 percent of students receiving the nudge read them, and we have evidence that suggests that the nudge leads to an increased use of math tutoring by roughly 30 percent.  

The pilot is now in its 8th semester.  During that time we’ve nudged over 1800 students repeating their courses.  

In addition to this program, we’re using what we’ve learned about nudges to help students in other ways that support their success, including combining them with predictive analytics for enhanced early alerts.

By Bob Carpenter