Blackboard Course Content: Track Student Views & Run Statistics Reports

Blackboard's Statistics Tracking feature allows instructors to view detailed access and usage statistics for selected content items in their course. This feature must be manually enabled in the settings of each content item you would like to track. It may be turned on after students have already interacted with the item, but the report will not include their previous activity.
 

Activate Statistics Tracking

This feature operates on an item-by-item basis; to use it for multiple items, please repeat the instructions below for each assignment/document/etc.

  1. Locate the desired item and click the grey circle/arrow to its right. From the drop-down menu, select Statistics Tracking (On/Off).Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > drop-down menu > Statistics Tracking (On/Off)
  2. This will open the 'Statistics Tracking' setting page. Click the radio button next to On, then click Submit to save the change. 
    Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > Statistics Tracking page > 'On'
  3. Back on the course content page, you will now see Enabled: Statistics Tracking below the name of the item, indicating that the activation was successful.
     

Use Statistics Tracking

After Statistics Tracking has been enabled, it will track all user interactions with that item from that point on. Please follow the steps below to use it to generate a detailed activity report.

  1. Locate the desired item and click the grey circle/arrow to its right. From the drop-down menu, select View Statistics Report.
    Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > drop-down menu > View Statistics Report
  2. Click the grey circle/arrow to the right of to Content Usage Statistics, and select Run. Wait for a few seconds — a new page will open.Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > drop-down menu > Content Usage Statistics > Run
  3. On the 'Report Details' page, select the report format and set a date range (up to 180 days). Then select students to be include in the report; click to highlight one user, ctrl-A to select all, shift-click to select a range, or ctrl-click to select multiple non-consecutive students. Then click Submit to run the report (processing may take a few minutes).Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > Run Reports > Report Specifications options
  4. A new page will open, displaying a 'Please wait' message as the report is generated.Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > 'Please wait' message
  5. The report will open in a pop-up window; use the options available in the top menu to download or print the document.Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > pop-up window: report with menu options (download or print)
  6. Back in the main browser window, three options will be available: Save to Content Collection, Download Report, and Run a new Report (run it again on the same item, but with different criteria). Click OK to return to the course content page.Screenshot of a Blackboard course site > Successful Run: Content Usage Statistics page with options: save/download/run
     

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Blackboard Ultra has built-in reports that instructors can run to view information about course usage and activity.
You can run several types of course reports to view information about course usage and activity. You can view summaries of course usage such as which course areas are used most frequently and course access patterns for specific students.