Unleashing the Power of CoursePlus Data: Making Data-Informed Course Management and Redesign Decisions

September 18, 2023 | 3 Minute Read

This guest post is by Lauren Dana, Instructional Design Support Specialist at the Center for Teaching and Learning.

The new 2023-2024 academic year has started, and whether you are already in the classroom or redesigning your courses for future terms, we know that you have the goal of improving both your teaching experience and your students' learning experience.

What if, instead of making course adjustments with the hope of improvement, you could achieve your goal by making data-informed course management and redesign decisions? You may wonder where you can even find this data. The good news is that CoursePlus collects a plethora of student data. This data (available under Faculty Tools > Administrative Tools in your CoursePlus site) can be a game-changer for making data-informed improvements to your course management and redesign strategies.

What Quantitative User Data Is Available to Me?

In the Student Activity Reports section, you’ll find the following key data on your students’ behavior:

• Lecture, content pages, and discussion forum access
• E-mails sent during the course offering
• Site access
• Discussion Forum activity and responses
• LiveTalk Attendance (for online classes)

You can even download this data as an Excel spreadsheet or PDF. However, keep in mind that CoursePlus doesn’t capture any student activities that occur outside of CoursePlus like group work or independent reading.

***Quiz Generator can also provide quantitative data on assessments created within the tool. We recommend reaching out to your Instructional Designer for more information.

Applying Insights to Improve Course Management and Redesign

So now that you know where and when to access this data, it is time to start analyzing patterns and trends that can support you in course management and redesign.

If your course is currently running, here are some questions to guide you in your data analysis:

• Are there any students who have not logged in after the first week or log in infrequently that may need to be contacted?
• Have my students been rewatching a particular lecture? Is it a sign that they need extra support in that area?
• Are there students who seem less engaged with the content? Could this data help me meet with them and create an action plan?
• Do my students participate more when I and my TA provide consistent feedback? Should I adjust my feedback approach for future discussion forums?
• Do certain discussion forum topics have more engagement than others? Can I recreate that engagement by adjusting the topics of my future discussion forums?
• Is there a higher attendance for my LiveTalks when they are held on certain days at certain times? (for online courses)

Reflecting upon these questions while your course is running will help you create effective interventions for struggling students, improve the overall student experience, and make data-informed changes to your course in real time.

If your course has already run, here are some questions to guide you in your data analysis for course redesign:

• Does engagement with the course increase, decrease, or remain consistent throughout the term?
• Is higher or lower interaction with the course site reflected in student achievement?
• Is there any relationship between accessing lectures and student achievement?
• Which core resources are most viewed, and which formats of content (interactive activities? videos? PDF documents) are most viewed?
• Is there any relationship between accessing different representations of course content and student achievement?
• When are students accessing course pages and activities?
• Does the frequency or quality of discussion posts vary across topics or modules?

Reflecting upon these questions after your course has run can help guide you with which course areas, from production to assessments, may need to be revised or redesigned for next year.

Next Steps

Now that you have harnessed the power of quantitative data, it’s time to conquer the next academic year! We will explore the power of qualitative data in a future blog post, but for now, if you need additional guidance, don’t hesitate to contact your instructional designer or the Center for Teaching and Learning. We are here to help you navigate this data-informed journey of course management and redesign!