Originally published May 1, 2019.
Figure: The Adoption Dashboard menu.
The Adoption Dashboard is the place where users can understand Brightspace usage, drive broader adoption of the platform and inform ROI discussions. There are currently 5 visualizations: Login Trend, Course Access Counts, Tool Usage Trend, Tool Usage Comparison and Enrollment and Withdrawal Trends.
The target audience for this dashboard is LMS administrators and high-level roles such as deans, learning & development managers and principals who are interested in answering these institution, department or school level questions.
Permissions
It is important that users have permission to see the Adoption Dashboard across all org unit types, as shown in Figure 1, in order to drill through the org unit structure as intended in the course access counts and tool usage comparison visualizations.
Figure: The Can See Adoption Dashboard permission.
Users of these visualizations will see all aggregated data for the entire organization when they access the dashboard. However, as they drill into the organization structure, they will only be able to drill into course offerings that they are enrolled in with the same role that they are granted permission to the Adoption Dashboard.
For example, if in your organization you have the following org unit structure: Org, Department, Course offering, a user with an admin role will need to be enrolled, cascading or otherwise, at each of these org unit types in order to drill to each level.
Login Trend
Data Access
Data in this visualization is updated at least once per hour. Users will see all total login counts across the organization regardless of permissions or where they are enrolled except those for D2LSupport and D2LMonitor. The maximum timespan in the reporting period is 6 months.
Interaction
Users can zoom in by clicking and dragging to select a timeframe of interest. Compare the daily count to the minimum, average and maximum login count over the timeframe displayed as shown in Figure 2. Users can hover on a point to view the count. At this time there are no filters or drilling capabilities included.
Figure: Graph of Login Trend data.
Use cases
This visualization is a great starting point to begin your adoption data journey. Viewers are able to see how users are logging in which could be of particular interest during events such as shutdown days or semester start. Users are able to recognize trends to compare them to expectations or targets for a given time period.
Course Access Counts
Data Access
Data in this visualization is updated at least once per hour. Organizational unit names are refreshed less frequently and may take up to 36 hours following a change.
Users will see the count of non-distinct users who have accessed one or many course offerings in the last 2 weeks under the org unit being viewed. All non-impersonated course accesses except those for D2L Support and D2L Monitor are included. Only active courses are included where an active course is defined as follows:
- The start date is before or during the 2-week reporting period
- And the end date is in the future or blank
- Or if no dates are populated, the course is flagged as “IsActive”
Figure: Org Structure flowchart.
Clicking on a bar drills into the next org unit in the structure to a max of 6 levels or until you get to the course offering level. If a user is enrolled throughout Department 1 with cascading enrollments but not Department 2, they will be able to drill to course level course access data for Department 1 but only aggregated data for Department 2. At each level, users can hover on a bar to view the counts. There are no filters currently included in this visualization.
Figure: Course Access Counts.
Use Cases
The great part about how this visualization is presented is that viewers are always able to compare data to understand what good adoption may look like. Because targets and expectations of each course may differ, it is up to the viewer to decide how to best compare the org units to draw conclusions. This visualization may be used to identify courses, or larger groups like programs, that have robust use of Brightspace. This data complements the Login Trend by digging deeper to see where users are going once logged in.
Tool Usage Trends
Data Access
Each time a tool is accessed by a user in Brightspace, the tool usage count is incremented. The count presented in this visualization is not a distinct count per day but rather a total count of all the times a user accessed a tool. Data for all users except D2LSupport and D2LMonitor is included for a maximum time span of 12 months. Data in this visualization is updated at least once per hour. Organizational unit names, role names and tool names are refreshed less frequently and may take up to 36 hours following a change.
Presented in biweekly sums, users of this visualization will see all aggregated data for the institution when they access this card on the dashboard.
However, as they drill into the trends, they will only be able to drill into organizational units that they are enrolled in with the same role that they are granted permission to the Adoption Dashboard.
The following tools are included today with plans to expand the list on an ongoing basis:
- Announcements
- Assignments
- Calendar
- Classlist
- Content
- Discussions
- Grades
- Quizzes
- Survey
- Checklist
Interaction
At the top level as shown in figure 5, this visualization presents tool usage data as a stacked area chart over time. Users can zoom into a shorter timespan by clicking and highlighting the desired area. Users can deselect a tool from the legend to filter it out of the visualization. Clicking on a tool specific area in the visualization will drill into how the selected tool is used grouped by role. Be mindful to click on a spot between dates unless you’d like to drill into a specific date.
Figure: Tool Usage Trend data example.
Roles can also be filtered in and out by interacting with the legend as shown in Figure 6. Clicking on a role area will drill into which org units are using the previously selected tool with the selected role. The org units returned are the highest-level org units which would be the departments in our previous example above. At this level, the legend can once again be used to filter org units in and out of the stacked area chart as shown in Figure 7. At each level, users can hover on an area to view the counts.
Use Cases
Use this visualization to see how tool use changes overtime by role or org unit. This is particularly helpful for those who have expectations of their users around certain time periods. For example, some recommend instructors set up their content before the course starts and that all users engage using the discussion tool within the first week of their course. This can also be used to measure success of adoption campaigns across your organization.
Tool Usage Comparison
Data Access
Data in this visualization follows the same data model as the tool usage trends visualization but the interaction pattern of the Course Access Counts visualization. The counts reported for each org unit are the total tool usage in the last 30 days.
Interaction
This visualization behaves the same as the Course Access Counts visualization where the user can drill through the org unit structure to see how org unit’s use of various tools compare to each other. The legend can be used to filter tools in and out of the visualization. Clicking on a section of a bar (tool) or the org unit in the axis drills into the next org unit in the structure to a max of 6 levels or until you get to the course offering level. Permissions are handled the same way as in the Course Access Counts visualization where aggregated data can be viewed across higher level org units but only course level data can be seen where the user is enrolled. At each level, users can hover on a section of a bar to view the counts.
Figure: Tool Usage Comparison chart.
Use Cases
Users can make use of this visualization to compare how various groups are using the tools available to them. This is particularly helpful if a single group is piloting a new tool and you’d like to ensure the pilot is successful. Also use this visualization to highlight groups that are not using Brightspace to its fullest by leveraging key tools to help users in their everyday activities.
Enrollment and Withdrawal Trends
Data Access
Data in this visualization is updated at least once an hour. Data from the last 4 months are included to be able to give most organizations a snapshot of an entire semester where relevant. Data is summarized in daily counts of the total number of users enrolled or withdrawn from any course offering in the organization.
Interaction
Users can zoom in by clicking and dragging to select a timeframe of interest. At this time there are no filters or drilling capabilities included. Users can deselect one of the items from the legend to view enrollments or withdrawals on its own. Hover on a data point to see the value of that count.
Figure: Graph of enrollment and withdrawal trends.
Use Cases
This data can be used by those with in interest in how activity changes around key dates such as the last day to drop a course without a penalty when enrollments are immediately reflected in Brightspace. This visualization is designed to work for those with set enrollment periods and those with rolling enrollments by providing the trend over a longer timeframe.
Call to Action
Now that you’ve heard how you may make use of the new Adoption Dashboard from our perspective, get out there and explore your data. We encourage you to share your use cases in the comments to help others in the Community learn how to make data driven decisions to drive success.
