Discussions participation and analytics

Discussions in Blackboard Learn Ultra offer a variety of analytical tools to provide insight into student activity and participation. Whether a discussion is graded or has no marks awarded for participation, an instructor can view data related to student posts and responses in every discussion.

Discussion analysis algorithms should not be used as a standalone way to measure student participation or engagement. They can inform decisions and contribute to an overall picture when taken as part of a holistic view of student performance.

Discussion analysis

Discussion analysis uses a variety of metrics to provide an indepth view of each student’s participation in a discussion. The information available includes:

Active students
Average posts per student, word count and discussion grade
Participation levels
Responses with the most replies
Top participants
Discussion analysis including lexical variation
Group discussion analytics

Only instructors and graders can see the discussion analysis. Students currently do not have permissions to view these analytics.

Individual level discussion analysis and student activity

In a graded discussion, select the Grades & Participation tab on the discussion’s page to see individual discussion analysis. Here, you can select a student’s name for a closer look at how your students have participated in a discussion.

Grades and participation showing students and their number of replies

The following metrics are provided for each individual student in a graded discussion in ultra:

Substantive posts: The number of responses and replies that contribute to the discussion's development.
Sentence complexity: Average grade level readability for the student's posts.
Lexical variation: Count of content words and functional words. Content words support the student's ideas, while functional words support proper grammar.
Critical thinking level: Percentage of words and phrases within a student's total posts that demonstrate critical thinking.
Word variation: Percentage of unique words in a student's responses and replies.
Discussion details: responses, replies, and average word count for each student and the class average.

Class level discussion analysis and student activity

You can access class level discussion analytics in ultra, via the Discussions tab, or from the Course Content pages.

Accessing analytics via the Discussions tab.

From the Discussions page, select the Discussions tab along the top navigation panel.
Select the elipses (3 dots) to the right of the discussion and choose Student Activity.

Accessing analytics via the Course Content pages.

From the Course Content page, choose the location of the inline discussion in your learning content.
Select the elipses (3 dots) to the right of the discussion and choose Student Activity.

This shows the number of active students, the average number of posts per student and the average word count per post.

The Discussion tab provides an overview of the number of responses and which Participants have already replied, along with the number of replies that they have posted.