The EAC Visual Data building block for Blackboard allows instructors to view more detailed course-level data on student learning. It streamlines the process of collecting and reporting student performance on Blackboard Learn tests and rubrics across all courses (both present and past) where the user has the course role of Instructor.
Things To Know Before Using EAC Visual Data
- EAC Visual Data works BEST in Google Chrome. Some users have experienced loading issues when using IE/Edge/Safari (and the EAC site specifically says not to use IE/Edge – it will not work!). If you are going to use EAC Visual Data, please make sure that you access it while in the latest version of Chrome for the best experience possible. (Don’t have Chrome? Click here to download it!)
- EAC Visual Data can only provide analytics on objective test questions (multiple choice, true false, multiple answer, etc). If you run EAC Visual Data reports for a test that contains both objective and subjective (free response, short answer, etc.), you will only get analytical data for the objective questions.
- EAC Visual Data is a read-only reporting service. EAC Visual Data collects information from the course grade center that already exists and creates the report based around that information. Running EAC Visual Data will not affect what has already been reported to the grade center. There is no way to change a student’s grade or outcomes of the test from the EAC Visual report. It is a read-only report with no functions for changing student graded work.
Where is it in Blackboard?
EAC Visual Data is already available to you in your Blackboard courses. When you are in a course, you can go to Control Panel –> Course Tools –> EAC Visual Data to access the EAC Visual Dashboard.
How to Use EAC Visual Data
When you click on the EAC Visual Data link from Blackboard, it will open up the EAC Visual Data dashboard in a separate tab in the browser (it will not overtake or close your Blackboard tab). Make sure that you do not have a pop-up blocker turned on or it could stop the new tab from opening.
When the EAC Visual Data dashboard opens, it is very likely that you will not see anything in your Test List area. And that is okay! The Test List area is meant to show a list of tests based on the date range that shows at the top of the page (and the default date range only looks at the past week). If you are not seeing the test that you want listed in the Test List area, adjust the start/end dates at the top of the dashboard and click on the small blue button on the right of the search field to run a new search.
Once a test list has appeared, you will be able to see a table with several different columns.
- Test – This column provides you with the exact name of the test as it shows in Blackboard. Notice that the tests that appear in this column can be from ANY COURSE where you are an instructor (not just from the course you clicked on the link from).
- N – Ignore this column
- Course Name – This is the name of the course where the test is located
- Course ID – This is the name of the Blackboard course ID where the test is located. Also notice here that you will see multiple course IDs listed from all courses where you are an instructor (not just the course that you entered EAC from).
- Date – This column shows the most recent date that the test was taken by a student.
If you would like to sort the table to make it easier to find the test you are looking for, you can click on the column heading of any column and it will sort by that column. The example image below is sorted by CourseID.
Look through the list of tests and select the one that you would like to review the analytical data for. Click on the hyperlinked name of the test.
The results for the test will open in a new tab. Depending on how large the test is and how many students have taken the test, it could take from several seconds to several minutes for the data to populate into all of the tables – so be patient with it! The first message you will see will say “Getting Questions” and “Getting Responses.” The second message you see will say “Processing ##.# %”.
You will know that your data is ready for review when the top of your page list the name of your exam, the date range, and gives you options for PDF/CSV downloads of the data.
Interpreting and Using the Data
Once you’ve used EAC Visual Data to generate analytics for your test, you can start using the data to help you determine how reliable your test questions are and how well your students are performing. At the top of your report you will have the option to view and download the data as a PDF (Standard and Summary report) and also as an Excel file.
Additionally, if you look at the individual tables contained within the report, you will notice that each one has an option for “Export to Excel” feature in the bottom left corner. You can download the information for individual tables if you would like to work further with the data in excel (to make charts, comparisons, etc.)
On the report page you will see multiple tables. Here are the tables you will see, and what can be found in those tables:
- Summary Statistics – The summary statistics table provides overall test-level statistics including the KR20
- Item Analysis – The item analysis table provides reliability statistics for each question including a p-value, point biserial correlation, and Cronbach Alpha with Deletion.
- Distractors – The Distractors table provides information on how well each answer choice “works” for each question. Consult the Distractors Key next to the Distractor table to see if answer choices are useful or not.
- Student-Questions – The Student-Questions table provides the raw student scores with which the reliability statistics are computed. In this table, a “1” means the student answered a question correctly (i.e., the student earned 1 point for that question), and a “0” means the student answered the question incorrectly (i.e., the student earned no points for that question).
The tables contain a large variety of information for your review and interpretation. Understanding some of the information provided in the tables may require an advanced level of knowledge in statistics (like KR20, point biserial correlation, etc). If you are unsure of what is contained in a column, or how to interpret the meaning, please consult the EAC Visual Data Glossary link listed below. The Glossary does fantastic job of describing different value areas of the EAC report and provides examples and suggestions of what to look for when looking at the data.
If you have any questions about how to access or use EAC Visual Data for your tests, please let us know and we’d be happy to help!