Instructor Insights - DL/HY Faculty Only

What is Instructor Insight?

Instructor Insight™ uses data from the learning management system to provide an overview of an instructor’s actions and performance in each course. We create charts and graphs showing frequency of LMS log-in, timeliness of grading, grade distribution, overall percentage of at-risk students in a course, snippets of grading feedback and other performance data. Instructor Insight allows schools to identify their best instructors, as well as instructors that could benefit from coaching. We help to significantly reduce the time it takes to perform instructor evaluations.

Key Benefits of Instructor Insight

• Gives you a real-time window into your online classrooms
• Allows you to see and define “normal” instructor actions and activity
• Raises immediate “red flags” for lack of activity or abnormal grade distribution
• Ties instructor behaviors to the overall risk level of the students in that class

If you have additional questions about Instructor Insight and the specifics on who can access this information, please review the PDF accompanying this article on the right hand side of the page.  Please be sure to scroll down if necessary to view it. 

It is recommended that faculty review expectations for online asynchronous/hybrid teaching published on college website that detail expectations for faculty that were passed in January 2023.  There is also a link to the course delivery checklist at the bottom of the page.  Here is a direct link to that page:

PGCC Online Asynchronous\Hybrid Standards

Accessing Instructor Insight

To access Instructor Insight, log into Canvas. The menu option will only show up in courses that you are teaching that are online asynchronous (DL) and hybrid (HY). Students do not see this menu item.  Just like Ally you should not turn it off or it will impact your access to this reporting.   You should scroll down on the navigation menu until you see Instructor Insight as shown below:

Login Frequency

The login frequency indicator will alert you to your access as the instructor of the course versus your peers.  The upper bar indicates that the instructor accessed the course on that date. A flat-line along the bottom of the graph indicates that the instructor has not logged in.

Using the example above, we can see an example of a course just recently starting. Let’s assume that in this example, the term started on October 5th. If there were a break prior to the term start, it would be normal that the instructor was not regularly accessing the course.

For more information on the instructor’s access to the course, click on the ‘Course Access Report’ link on the upper right of this chart. This link will take you to the instructor’s access report for that course within Canvas.

Student to Instructor Ratio

The student to instructor ratio is provided so that you can determine if the course has an especially large or unusually low number of students. This information should be taken into consideration when viewing the remaining charts applicable to the course.

To view a list of the users enrolled in the course, click on the ‘Course Enrollments’ link. This link will take you to the ‘People’ page in that course within Canvas.

Instructor Insight makes the assumption that online courses will have discussions and that instructors are expected to participate in those discussions. The total weekly instructor posts area will alert you to an instructor that is not regularly participating in discussions. A numeric indicator is included to indicate the number of posts made by an instructor and the peer average in the past seven days. 

To view recent discussion posts made by the instructor, click on the ‘Recent Posts’ link.

Note:  It is understood that discussion and the amount that occurs may be dependent on content.  That being said, all online asynchronous/hybrid courses are expected to have at a minimum at least a student's question discussion. 

Discussion Participation (Days Per Week)

In addition, you will have easy access to determine how many days per week an instructor is participating in course discussions, compared to their peers.

Note:  It is understood that discussion and the amount that occurs may be dependent on content.  That being said, all online asynchronous/hybrid courses are expected to have at a minimum at least a student's question discussion. 

Discussion Participation (Percent)

The ‘percent’ chart illustrates out of all discussion posts made in a 7-day period (student and instructor), what percent were made by the instructor. It answers the question, ‘Of all discussion posts made this week, what was the instructor’s share of them?”

Note:  It is understood that discussion and the amount that occurs may be dependent on content.  That being said, all online asynchronous/hybrid courses are expected to have at a minimum at least a student's question discussion. 

Average Student Posts

Student participation in discussions will often mirror that of instructors. The ‘average student posts’ shows the average number of posts made per student over a 7-day period. This is a great indicator of student engagement.

Note:  It is understood that discussion and the amount that occurs may be dependent on content.  That being said, all online asynchronous/hybrid courses are expected to have at a minimum at least a student's question discussion. 

Discussion Topic Breakdown

The discussion topic breakdown provides an at-a-glance view of the total number of posts made by an instructor and the average number of posts made by students for each discussion in the course.

Click on the ‘course discussions’ link to view all of the discussions in the course within Canvas.

Note:  It is understood that discussion and the amount that occurs may be dependent on content.  That being said, all online asynchronous/hybrid courses are expected to have at a minimum at least a student's question discussion. 

The 'Submission Counts' chart provides the following information:

• Number of submissions graded per day for your course for the past 30 days
• Number of submissions that remain ungraded for your course for the past 30 days

Submissions that are auto-graded by Canvas are not included in the count of graded submissions (as they are not graded by the instructor). The entering of zeros for work not submitted is not included in the count of graded submissions because there is no "submission". If a student submits an assignment and earns a zero on the submission, that will be included. Re-submissions of a graded assignment are not included in the count of ungraded submissions.

There are two links on the upper right corner of this chart. The Grading History link will take you to the applicable page in Canvas that details submissions graded on a daily basis. The Teacher Activity link will take you to the applicable page in Canvas where you may see a list of ungraded assignments.

This chart will inform you when the ungraded submissions were made. You can ascertain how long the submissions have been left ungraded.

Grade Distribution

The Grade Distribution shows the distribution of total (overall) course grades for the students in the course. Grade distribution can be a fantastic indicator of how much time and effort an instructor is putting into grading of course assignments. In general, student grades should be distributed across a bell curve. If grades are heavily consolidated into either direction (very high or very low), additional time should be spent to determine why. If the majority of students have an ‘A’ in the course, is the instructor giving a grade of 100% to all students? If the majority of students have very low grades, is the instructor being too rigorous in their expectations?

Click on the ‘gradebook’ link to be taken to the gradebook for the course within Canvas.

The ‘grading feedback’ area is a powerful time-saving tool. It displays examples of the grading feedback provided to students. If the feedback column is empty, then no comments were provided back to the student. Keep in mind that the instructor may have used a rubric; information entered into a rubric is not accessible in the comments area. Observe whether the feedback is personalized to each student, or whether it is ‘canned’ (same comments copied and pasted to each student). Finally, compare the feedback provided to the score. Are the comments in-line with the grade given? By default, ten assignments will be listed. You may view the feedback on all graded assignments by clicking on the 'View All' link.

Click on the ‘Dropout Detective’ link to be taken to the course-view of Dropout Detective for that course for the current date.

Need Help?

Have questions or need assistance with Instructor Insight? Please contact eLearning@pgcc.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 instructor’s activity report for that course within Canvas.