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6.2.5 Interpreting Bar Graphs

 

Bar graphs are used in several of the ALEKS report styles. The meaning of the bar graphs varies by report style, but there are some common features.

Bar Graph Colors
The colors used to fill the bar indicate the level of mastery of the class contents at a particular time. The bar is filled from left to right.

  • Blue means that mastery was shown on assessment.
  • Green that tentative mastery was achieved in Learning Mode.
  • Yellow means the part of the class material not mastered.
  • Blank (white) indicates that an assessment is in progress.
  • Grey means the student was moved from a different course product; any assessments from the earlier course product will appear greyed out in the new class. Student performance prior to August 1, 2012 may also appear as a grey bar in report histories.
  • Aquamarine shows progress made between the first and latest assessment.
  • An asterisk by a greyed-out bar graph or any other color, in some reports, indicates that a new assessment is underway.

Values underneath Bar Graphs
Underneath the bar are percentages corresponding to the like-colored portion of the bar graph; for example, a "25%" in dark blue under the bar graph indicates that the dark blue portion of the bar is 25% of its total length. Instead of percentages, you can view student progress by the number of topics. Click on the "Percent" or "Topics" link in the Course Mastery column to toggle between the two views.

Multiple Bar Graphs
Where there is more than one bar graph per student, the bar graphs represent different points in the student's learning history, generally associated with assessments taken by the student. Bar graphs showing a segment of the student's learning history are stacked, with the earliest on the bottom and the most recent at the top.

More Features
There are several ways of accessing student data using reports:

  • The list of students in a bar-graph report can be sorted on any of the report columns by clicking on the text in the header for that column. Clicking on the text in the header section of the column will bring up an ascending or descending arrow, which can then be used to sort the column.
  • You can navigate to other kinds of reports by clicking on hyperlinked names or dates. Clicking on a student's name takes you to the detailed learning history for that student (Sec. 6.2.12).
  • Clicking on the date for an assessment takes you to a detailed (pie chart) report for that assessment (Sec. 6.2.7).
NOTE. On some reports, if a student has been in a different ALEKS class previously, it is possible to toggle between viewing their total time in ALEKS and their total time in the current class. This toggle will appear below the report. For students who have only been in one ALEKS class, the displayed time will be the total time in the current class.