Intelligent Agents (IAs) are communication tools that can send email notifications to instructors and students when particular tasks/actions are completed in a course. IA’s also have a automated data reporting functionality instructors may find useful. You can use Intelligent Agents to:
- Gather information on student engagement and disengagement in a course
- Identify students at risk of low performance
- Identify students at promise of improved performance
- Build reports that satisfy a combination of the agent Criteria Fields, such as completion or non completion of work, or login details (see below for a more complete list)
Because IAs are targeted to specified course criteria and are automated to notify instructors, using IA’s can be more efficient than other methods of course data reporting. The efficiency of IAs is particularly useful for high enrolment and merged courses. When interpreted in the context of the course, course data can signal where further investigation or action might be required, such as reviewing an assessment for revision or following up personally with a student.
WARNING! Data reports can be misleading or can obscure student engagement that occurs in less traditional/standardized methods. For example, a student may download the course content at the start of the course, and may interact with the content many times offline. Offline interactions would not be captured by data reporting. For this reason, Intelligent Agent data reports should not be considered comprehensive or complete indicators of student performance and engagement despite the variety of search filters and functions. Rather, data reports should always be considered in the context of the course and other performance indicators.
Working with Agent Criteria Fields
The three Agent criteria fields—Login Activity, Course Activity, and Release Conditions—can be used alone or in combination to create data reports. For Example, you can create an Agent that searches for students who received less than 50% on the mid-term (Release Condition) and have not accessed the course in the last 7 days (Course Activity), but have signed into Brightspace in the last 7 days (Login Activity).
Using Release Conditions to Collect Data
The Use Case Table below provides some examples of how you might use the Release Conditions Criteria, in combination with other Criteria and Action settings, to generate engagement and performance reports. For instructions on how to access and download reports, see our support page on exporting the results of an Intelligent Agent run.
| Use Case | Release Condition | Additional Criteria and Action Settings |
| Assignments | ||
| Identify students who have not submitted an Assignment | No Submission to Folder
|
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
|
| Identify students who have receive a specific score on an assignment | Score on Associated Rubric | In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
To search according to the Overall Score of an assignment, use the Grade Value on a Grade Item Release Condition. |
| Classlist | ||
| Limit search results to members of a Group that has been created in the course. | Group Enrollment |
Selecting the name of the Group Category will consider all groups within that category. Alternatively you can select an individual group within the category. |
| Limit search results according to course code enrollment | Section enrollment |
This Release condition is best used for crosslisted/merged courses. |
| Content | ||
| Identify students who have not yet taken part in the course | Not Visited Content Topic
|
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
You can also stack release conditions for different content areas of your course. Once you have created several Not Visited Content Topic release conditions, select All conditions must be met to identify students who have not visited any of the content you’ve chosen. Note: The distinction between “completed” and “visited” in Brightspace is dependent on your completion tracking settings. For more information, see our support site on setting up Completion (Click) Tracking. |
| Identify students who have are marked as having completed a Content Topic | Completed Content Topic |
Use to identify students who are marked as having completed a Content Topic. If automatic completion tracking is enabled, this is achieved by “visiting” the Content Topic. If manual tracking is enabled, students would need to click the checkbox to indicate completion.
Note: The distinction between “completed” and “visited” in Brightspace is dependent on your completion tracking settings. For more information, see our support site on setting up Completion (Click) Tracking. |
| Identify students who have viewed a specific Content Topic | Visited Content Topic |
Use this release condition to identify students who have viewed a particular Content Topic. This includes individual items, such as media items,PDFs, and even HTML templates.
Note: The distinction between “completed” and “visited” in Brightspace is dependent on your completion tracking settings. For more information, see our support site on setting up Completion (Click) Tracking. |
| Discussions | ||
| Identify students who have received a specific score on a Discussion Topic | Score on Associated Rubric | In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user. |
| Identify students who have not yet posted to a Discussion Topic | No Posts Authored in topic
|
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user. |
| Identify students who have created a minimum number of threads and/or replies in a Discussion Topic | Posts Authored in topic |
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user. |
| Grades | ||
| Identify students who have received a specified score on an item in the Gradebook. | Grade value on a grade item | In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
This value can further be defined as greater/less than, equal to, or corresponding to an inclusive or exclusive range.
|
| Identify students who have not yet received a grade on an evaluation | No Grade Received
|
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
In this instance, it might may be useful to email another member of the teaching team (e.g., TA or co-instructor) and remind them that grading needs to be completed. To do this, you can use the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied Action and have your teaching team members as the recipients.
You can also stack release conditions and select All conditions must be met. For example. you could use No grade received in conjunction with Submission to folder to identify students who have completed work and not yet received a grade.
|
| Quizzes | ||
| Identify students who have completed a quiz a specified number of times. | Completed Quiz Attempt |
The number of attempts that can be selected matches the quiz’s Attempts Allowed setting. |
| Identify students who have not completed a Quiz | No Completed Quiz Event
|
In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
|
| Identify students who have received a specified grade on a quiz. | Score on a quiz | In the Actions menu, select Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user.
This value can further be defined as greater/less than, equal to, or corresponding to an inclusive or exclusive range.
|
Additional Support
For more instructions and help guides for Intelligent Agents, please visit our support site Setting Up Intelligent Agents.
If you require additional assistance with Intelligent Agents, data reporting in your course, or with any Brightspace questions, reach out to TLS Support for a consultation.
Was this page helpful?
1 Person found this useful
Still need help? Contact us