ALEKS - Assessment and Learning
   

7.3.5 Interpreting Bar Graphs

 

Bar graphs appear in several of the ALEKS report styles. Although the meanings of the bar graphs vary by report style, 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 a knowledge check.

Light Blue
Means that tentative mastery was achieved in Learning Mode.

Grey
Indicates the part of the course material not mastered.

Blank (white)
Indicates a knowledge check is in progress.

Aquamarine
Shows progress made between the first and latest knowledge check.

Asterisk
Appearing by a greyed-out bar graph or any other color indicates, in some reports, that a new knowledge check 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 blue under the bar graph indicates that the blue portion of the bar is 25% of its total length. You can also view student progress by the number of topics. Simply click on the Percent or Topics link in the Course Progress 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 associated with knowledge checks 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, used to sort the column.
  • You can also 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. 7.3.18).
  • Clicking on the date for a knowledge check takes you to a detailed (pie chart) report for that knowledge check (Sec. 7.3.8).
NOTE. On some reports, if students have previously been in a different class, 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.