Bluepulse

To create a Bluepulse activity:

1. On the course home page, click Turn editing on .
2. In the appropriate topic or week section, click Add an activity or resource. In the resulting pop-up activity chooser, select External tool.
   
3. On the Adding a new External tool page, type a name for your activity. From the Preconfigured tool dropdown menu, select Bluepulse.
   
   
    
4. Edit any other settings you require then click Save and display.
   
   
    
5. You can now access the Bluepulse activity from your course home page.
   
   

To access your course on Bluepulse:

1. Click the Bluepulse link from your course home page. This should take you to the Bluepulse hub page.
   
   
    
2. In the following page, click Go to Bluepulse.
   
   
    
3. This is your general Home Page for all courses. To view a specific course, use the Search bar at the top or click on Central Pulse.

4.  In the Central Pulse page, click Subjects under the What are you looking for? and look for the course you want to view. Use the Search bar and Filters as needed, and click View. 
   
   
    
5. Your course-specific Home Page will appear. For more information on the Home Page, see below.   

Your Home Page contains information about the latest activities within your course. Below are descriptions of each area on the Home Page.

Activity Feed

The Activity Feed shows your course activities from newest to oldest. Each activity feed item, also known as a pulse, gives you information about each activity within the course. For more information, see the Activity Feed tab below.

Quickpulse

Quickpulse lets you quickly share information to your course. This can range from announcements, links, to articles or sharing your thoughts about the course.

To add a Quickpulse:

1. Click the Quickpulse text box and enter your thought or question
2. Choose the type of Quickpulse you want to share by clicking on the Type dropdown menu
3. Pick the course to be shared with and click Send now!

To choose from more question types, go to Ask a question. For more information, see below.

Notifications

You can view your most recent activities by clicking on the notifications icon .

To view all your notifications, click Show All.

Profile settings

You can change various settings such as email and notifications by clicking on the settings icon . Note that not all settings can be changed and will depend on the administrator settings.

My To-do list

This list contains all the tasks and items that have been assigned to you. Clicking on the item lets you view more information and change the following settings:

• Add notes
• Mark as complete
• Set a due date
• Remove the task from your to-do list

Central Pulse

This is the dashboard that lets you view and manage your courses, thoughts, questions and feedbacks. You can also view the levels of student engagement and generate reports for each course. Click the Central Pulse block to access it. For more information, see below. 

The Activity Feed shows your course activities from newest to oldest. Each activity feed item, also known as a pulse, gives you information about each activity within the course. Each pulse gives you the following information:

• Type - Each pulse is labelled with an icon to determine its type - 
• To-do list - You can add the pulse to your to-do list by clicking on . For more information on your to-do list
• Settings - To manage your pulse, click on the settings icon at the top right . This will take you to the Central pulse page where you have the option to edit, archive and more.
• Useful - Click  to let others know that the activity was useful. You can see how many others have found the activity useful through the number displayed.
• Follow-ups - View or add comments to an activity by clicking on . You cannot view the user's identity unless they have revealed themselves when posting the activity.
• Results - you can view the responder's results by clicking on . Note that students can see the results if Share the question results was ticked when the question was being made.

Follow-ups

You can view or add comments to an activity by clicking on Follow-ups. This is useful when you want to have a conversation with a student and follow-up on their feedback. Follow-ups work differently with each activity item and will be explained below: 

• Feedback - When following up on a feedback, the conversation is shown only to the instructor and the student. This is the place to respond to their feedback and give your opinion. Note that the student's identity will be confidential unless they decide to share. Also, you can only add additional follow-ups to the feedback when the student has replied to your follow-up. 
  To add a follow-up to a feedback click on , type your reply and click Send. Optionally, you can add a quick reply by clicking on the choices below. Ending the conversation closes the feedback and no further comments can be added. 

• Question - You can add follow-ups to a question by similarly clicking  and typing your response. You can choose which students can see the follow-up by clicking Options, then selecting the group of students.
  
  
   
• Share a thought - Add a follow-up to a thought by clicking  and type your response in the text box. All students will be able to see the follow-up, but you can disable further replies by selecting Options then Disable replies.
  
  

Central Pulse is where you can manage your courses, thoughts, questions and feedbacks. It lets you edit your activity settings and view important statistics by using the My Reports tool.

What are you looking for?

You can search for existing activities or items in Central Pulse and edit their settings as needed.

To look for a specific activity or item:

1. Navigate to Central Pulse through your home page.
   
   
    
2. Select the activity type you are looking for.
   
   
    
3. Use the search and filter bar as needed to find your activity. Each item gives you information about that activity, including the current status and related course they are visible in.
   

Activity Settings

To manage your activities, click the icons as shown below:

• If your Question is still in draft mode, click the Play icon  to publish the question to the course.
• If you want to create a similar existing question, click the Duplicate icon  and change the other settings as needed.
• You can edit the settings of your activity by clicking the Edit icon . Note that if an activity is already active, you cannot change the course it has been published to and the question type.
• View the results of a question by clicking on the Question results icon .
• To delete a question, thought or feedback, click the Archive icon . This permanently removes the activity from your Central Pulse and course Activity Feed.
   

My Reports

Bluepulse lets you view detailed statistics of the activities within your course. This can be useful in determining the level of engagement within your course or when planning for future activities.

To view a report of your course:

1. Navigate to Central Pulse.
2. On the top right of the page, click My Reports.
   
   
    
3. Click Update now at the top of the page to use the latest data.
   
   
    
4. Select a time frame for your report.
   
   
    
5. Find the course you want to view and expand the tab by pressing the + button as shown below.
   
   
    
6. Here, you can view detailed information about your course including:
   • Engagement level - View the engagement level of each activity type in your course. 
     
     
      
   • Engagement over time - A graph that shows the engagement level over a period of time.
     
     
      
   • Most engaging activity - A list of questions/shared thoughts/feedback that students were most engaged in.
     
     
      
7. Download the reports by clicking Download Excel or Download Pdf based on your preferred file type. Note that popup blockers have to be disabled when downloading as a pdf.
   
   

As an instructor, you can ask questions that your students can answer anonymously. Combined with the Feedback tool, this is useful in understanding what students think about the course.

To ask a question:

1. Navigate to your Home Page and click Ask a question. 
   
   
    
2. Type the question name in the text box.
   
   
    
3. Pick a question type and fill in the required information if needed. You can choose from the following:
   • Choice - Allows students to select one or more choices from the set of responses.
   • Likert Scale - Gives a range of possible answers to choose from.
   • Open Ended - A text box that lets students enter a free-form answer to the question.
   • Rate and Comment - Displays values from 1 to 5 that best describes the student's view on the question. You can also add an optional comment to the rating.
     
     
      
4. Select which course you want to publish the question in.
   
   
    
5. Choose when you want to publish the question to the course and the duration it stays open for responses. Note that only Likert Scale and Rate and Comment question types can be set as a recurring question.
   
   
    
6. Select whether you want to add the question to students' to-do list or share the question results to the course.
   
   
    
7. Once you finish the question settings, publish the question or save as a draft for another time.
   
   

Install and configure the Bluepulse App

1. Open Moodle on your mobile device and click on the link of the Bluepulse activity in your course. 

2. Click the link to open the Bluepulse app. 

3. Install the app through Google play or the App store. 
4. On the Bluepulse website, navigate to Profile Settings and click on Show my code. 

5. On the Bluepulse app, enter this code. 
6. The Bluepulse app is now configured. 

Overview

The menu at the bottom of the app can be used to access several features of Bluepulse. 

Activity Feed

The activity feed is displayed when you open the Mobile app. Here you can view the latest activity in all your courses.

1. To share a Quickpulse, click on the Quickpulse text box. 

2. Enter your thought or question. 
3. Choose the type of Quickpulse you want to share by clicking Type.

4. Select the course you want to share the Quickpulse with by clicking To and click the send button. 

To do

The To Do tab displays all the new activities that are in your To-do list and the To-do activities that you have recently completed. 

Subjects

In the Subjects tab, you can search for and view general information about your Bluepulse courses. 

Notifications

The Notifications tab displays notifications for all the latest activity in your courses. 

Settings

In the Settings tab, you can change settings such as email and notification settings. 

If you have any queries or need further assistance, contact contact.pvce@unsw.edu.au