Instructor Dashboard Guide - Tracking Student Usage
Welcome to the VitalSource Instructor Dashboard, a learning analytics dashboard designed to help you manage your classroom.
The dashboard is focused on the following areas:
The dashboard gives you visibility to the courses you instruct. When you launch from your LMS to the VitalSource platform using your instructor account, VitalSource both recognizes you as an instructor and provisions dashboard access to the course from which you launched. Depending on your LMS, VitalSource will also gather roster information via a synchronization process that happens both shortly after your launch and nightly thereafter.
Log In
There are two ways to access Instructor Dashboard:
- Visit analytics.vitalsource.com
- Click the Instructor Portal tab in Launch via your LMS
Note: You may not see an Instructor Portal tab in Launch. Contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.
Homepage
Upon initial access, you can opt to utilize our self-guided tour of the Instructor Dashboard, highlighting the features and functionality. To view or revisit the tour at another time, simply select Guided Tour from the user menu on the top right of your screen.
Instructor Dashboard provides high-level statistics for each course you instruct. Each course section is represented as a different card, allowing you to quickly compare courses. Clicking on a course card will direct you to the course details page for a specific course.
The summary metrics section at the top of the page is designed to provide quick insights into the active, inactive, or overall courses you instruct.
Total Students The total students metric displays the number of unique students in the courses given the current course filters. If a roster integration is not present, the course detail page will only report students who have accessed the book via the link inside the course.
Total Book Access The total book access metric displays the percentage of students who have opened at least one of the course materials included in their courses given current course filters. If a roster integration is not present, the course detail page will only report students who have accessed the book via the link inside the course.
Average Session Length The average session length metric displays the overall average session length for all students given course filters. Data is formatted to display hours, minutes, and seconds.
Search & Sort
Search The search field allows you to search for a course using the course’s name or identifier. Searches are performed based on the text only, irrespective of letter capitalization.
Sort The sort option allows you to order the courses in a specific tab by course name or course start date.
Display The display option allows you to toggle the course listing into either a grid of cards or a list view.
Course Status
Courses are organized based on their status on the current day.
Active The active courses tab contains courses that are currently in progress. If the current day is between a course’s start and end date, the course is considered active.
Inactive The inactive courses tab contains courses that are not currently in progress. If the current date is either before or after the course start and end dates, the course is considered inactive.
All The all courses tab contains all the courses you instruct, irrespective of whether or not the course is active.
Course Metrics
Each course list item or card displays information about the course. Course names and course labels are gathered directly from your LMS.
When you click on a course card you're brought to the Course Detail page. This page provides metrics about a specific course section. If a roster integration with your LMS is configured, this page will display all students registered in that course section, highlighting the students who have not opened the book. If a school does not have a roster integration, they will only be able to access data from students who have accessed the book.
By default, the course details page displays aggregate metrics from all books in the course. If you wish to view metrics for only one of the adopted books in your course, select the book in the book filter.
Click on the course name in the secondary menu to quickly navigate to another course that you teach. You can also click on the Instructor Dashboard link to navigate back to the My Courses page.
Use the student search field to search for a student in the context of the current course. Clicking on a student in the search results will navigate you to the student detail page.
Open Rate
Within each course, the open rate donut chart allows you to quickly see how many students have accessed at least one of the books in the course. Clicking on a section of the donut chart or the chart legend will display the corresponding students in the course roster: either those who have opened the book or those who have not opened the book. This metric is only available to those courses that have roster integration.*
The average session length metric displays the overall average session length for all students in the current course. The total students metric displays the number of students in the current course.
Student Usage
The student usage chart allows you to ensure students read consistently throughout the semester. Engagement is displayed in week-level groups relative to the course start date, and several course-level metrics are included beside this chart. Clicking on these metrics will plot the selected metric on the chart by week in course.
Avg. Session Length The average session length metric displays the overall average session length for all students in the current course.
Avg. Pages/Session The average pages per session metric displays the average number of pages students read in a single study session for the current course.
Avg. Total Sessions The average total sessions metric displays the average number of study sessions per student in the current course.
Avg. Annotations/Session The average annotations per session metric displays the average number of annotations created in a single study session for the current course.
Engagement & Student Study Habits
The last two charts on the Student Usage page shows Engagement Groups and Student Study Habits.
The engagement groups section provides insight into how course engagement is distributed across the enrolled students. Students are segmented into quartiles based on their total time on task: the total amount of time the student has interacted with the course materials during the period in which the course is active. Aggregate metrics are provided for each quartile, and clicking on a given quartile will display a list of students contained between the selected quartile and the quartile below the selected quartile. Clicking on a student in this list will navigate you to the student details page.
The study patterns scatter plot provides visibility into how students are engaging relative to their classmates. Each student is represented as a dot on this graph. By juxtaposing a student’s total number of study sessions against their average session length, students are distributed by their study habits. Using this data, you may notice that students with relatively few study sessions that are longer and near exam dates may be cramming. Clicking on any of the points will navigate you to the student details page.
Student Roster
Click on the Roster tab on the Student Usage page for a listing of students for the current course. Each student is represented as a separate row containing the student’s aggregate engagement statistics during the course. Using the book filter, you can quickly filter to students who have opened the book or those who have not opened the book. Note: This filter is also set when you click on the open rate donut chart in the header (roster integrations only).
Student quartiles are determined by total time on task. The sparkline on each row provides a visual indication of the student’s engagement throughout the course. Clicking on a student’s row will navigate you to the student details page.
Accessed The accessed filter allows you to identify students who have or have not accessed the content during the course. This feature is available through rostered integration only.
Definitions & FAQ
Total Time The total amount of time the student engaged with course materials during the course.
Sessions The total number of study sessions completed by the student. Study sessions are delineated by 30-minute gaps in reading activity during the course. If a student goes idle, we will backdate that study session to when they went idle and add 90 seconds to their study time. Bookshelf® does not count idle time as study time.
Pages The total number of pages a student viewed during the course. Pageviews less than three seconds in length are not counted.
Annotations The total number of bookmarks, notes, and highlights created in the content during the course.
Session Date The time the study session started, localized to your time zone.
Week The week relative to the course start date that the session occurred.
Book Title The title of the book read during the study session.
Session Length The total time engaged with the content during the study session.
Q: How are student activities captured?
A: When students interact with their course materials on the VitalSource platform, their learning data is captured and made available for analysis in the Instructor Dashboard. When students read online, their activity is reflected in the dashboard with the next dashboard refresh. When students read in offline mode, their events will be reflected when the student comes back online.
Q: How often is data refreshed?
A: The Instructor Dashboard organizes student engagement data using the course roster provided by your LMS via a synchronization process. Roster synchronization timing varies based on the LMS type and the number of students in a given course. In addition to synchronizing the roster, data on the dashboard is updated with new course, student, and engagement data every hour. Student engagement data is typically reflected in the dashboard within 1–2 hours.
Q: What learning activities are scoped?
A: Student learning activities are scoped to activities that occur during the course. Activities occurring prior to the course start date or after the course end date are not reflected in the dashboard.
Q: How are course dates determined?
A: Course dates are typically gathered from your LMS as part of the course roster. When course dates are not received from your LMS, the course start date is inferred from the date when the first learning activity is recorded and the course end date is calculated at 15 weeks from the inferred course start date.