Running Item Analysis

Item Analysis allows instructors to view detailed statistics on the exam such as the exam difficulty and item discrimination.

Accessing the Grade Center

Image of the Blackboard Control Panel open at the Grade Center heading with the following annotations: 1.Click on Grade Center.2.Select Full Grade Center.

Log into your Blackboard course and go the Control Panel:

  1. Click on Grade Center.
  2. Select Full Grade Center.

Locating the Grade Column

Image of the Grade Center with an arrow pointing to the column header for a test.  Instructions read to click on the chevron that appears in the column header. A menu is shown on screen with the Grade Questions option outlined with a red circle.  An arrow is pointing to this option with instructions to Select Attempts Statistics.

Locate the grade column for the test in the grade center.  Click on the chevron in the column header, and select Attempts Statistics from the menu.

Running Item Analysis

Image of the Item Analysis screen with the Run button outlined in a red circle with an arrow pointing to it with instructions to click Run

On the next screen, select the test you wish to run a report for from the dropdown menu and click the Run button. After a few moments, Blackboard will generate the item analysis report.

Accessing the Item Analysis Report

Image of the Item Analysis screen with an arrow pointing to the report title with instructions to click here to view report.

After running the report, the bottom of the screen will now show an image similar to the one above, with the label "Available Analysis" and the name of the exam and the date of when the analysis was run.  Click on the exam name and date to view the report.

Viewing the Item Analysis Report

Image

The report will appear on screen similar to the image above.

  1. The Test Summary box provides a summary of all the test attempts completed
  2. The Discrimination box reports on the number of questions the system reported as being good or poor questions.
  3. The Difficulty box reports on the number of questions that the system has determined to be easy, medium, or hard.
  4. The Filter Questions function allows instructors to view questions that meet specific difficulty or discrimination characteristics.  Use the dropdown menus to select the filters and hit Go to apply the filter to the results
  5. Each question is listed here and shows how many students answered the question, the discrimination level, the difficulty level, the standard deviation, and the average score.  Instructors can click on a specific question to view more details.

Viewing Question Details

Image of the question details screen.

After clicking on a question, instructors can see details related to that specific question, such as the overall statistics, and how each quartile performed on that question.