Brightspace Insights Portal

By Robert Egan | August 9, 2022

Tools for Data-driven Teaching and Learning

In recent years, as online learning becomes more and more common, data analysis and visualization tools known collectively as learning analytics have emerged to help instructors and students take advantage of the information that can be gathered in an online teaching and learning environment. This data can help an instructor or instructional technologist better understand things such as the efficacy of course material and structure and make adjustments based on this feedback.

To accomplish this in NYU Brightspace, the Brightspace Insights Portal, a set of dashboards built for (and with) faculty that address common instructional and curricular challenges, was launched in advance of the fall 2022 semester and is available to all NYU faculty. 

Why use it?

The Insights Portal is a great companion to other Brightspace Course reports. An instructor can use dashboards to identify inactive students across courses, analyze quiz or grade trends over the semester, and better understand how students use course material. You’ll also find dashboards designed for helping you with curriculum review and course revisions.

When to use it?

The Insights Portal is updated daily and is designed to keep you informed about many facets of class activity. For example, the Recent Content Use dashboard can help prepare an instructor for an upcoming class session. Quiz dashboards can help instructors prepare class-wide feedback after an assessment. 

Getting started with the Insights Portal

The Insights Portal can be accessed directly from the “Course Reports” menu in a Brightspace course site, or from the Brightspace Home page. There’s no additional setup required—as long as you have content and students using your Brightspace course site, it will automatically populate the Insights Portal dashboards.

Guidance for Course Site Design

Getting good information from a course site requires designing with Brightspace’s Content area in mind. To get some suggestions on building out a site, review our design tips for ensuring compatibility with Brightspace Course Reports.

Ready to learn more?

The NYU Learning Analytics team partners with faculty to explore how data can help answer your questions about a course and ensure the course is designed to meet your vision. Book a consultation or use this form to submit a question to our team!