Learning, supporting and succeeding at the University of Bedfordshire – Sana’s story
We spoke to Sana Iqbal about her experiences as both a student and a staff member in the learning analytics team at the University of Bedfordshire.
Sana told us about the impact of learner analytics on student support at the university, and how working with StREAM has helped to shape her plans for the future.
Being a student
Sana started her degree, BSc Biomedical Science, at the University of Bedfordshire in 2021. She says, ‘I enjoyed every subject in my degree and overall the experience was really positive.’
A large part of this experience was down to the dedicated university staff – both academic and non-academic – who supported Sana throughout her course. ‘I was lucky to have a really good personal academic tutor, as well as lecturers and course coordinators,’ she says.
However, learner analytics weren’t part of Sana’s student journey. She explains that StREAM (known as My Engagement at Bedfordshire) was initially piloted in a different faculty from her own in 2022 and then rolled out across the university in 2024, at the end of her degree.
Becoming a staff member
The Careers and Employability Service at Bedfordshire offers Graduate Advancement Placements for recent graduates of the university. These provide valuable opportunities to develop skills and build confidence in a supportive workplace environment.
Through this, Sana spent six months as a member of the learning analytics team. She was attracted to this role because it enabled her to play an active part in student support and allowed her to apply the analytical skills from her degree.
During her placement, Sana undertook a wide range of tasks. She delivered training on the platform for both students and staff, created user guides, answered queries, conducted surveys and worked on projects to maximise the use of StREAM across the faculties.
Supporting other students
Having been both student and staff at Bedfordshire, Sana is able to share valuable insights on the benefits of learner analytics from two perspectives. She says, ‘as a staff member, I know what this platform does for students and I really wish it had been available in my time.’
Sana explains that ‘the platform acts as a vehicle to connect a student with their personal academic tutor’ and makes the experience simpler for both students and staff, providing a uniform experience across programmes, departments and faculties.
StREAM also offers students a single platform to link them with support services across the university.
This is vital, as Sana says that some of her peers weren’t aware of all the help available. Instead, they often learned about support services in a piecemeal manner through their degree.
Crucially, StREAM is the only platform that codifies data from multiple touchpoints across a university and transforms this into a daily engagement score for each student.
At Bedfordshire, students in low engagement categories receive emails checking on their wellbeing, with advice on how to re-engage with their studies and information about relevant support services. These emails are also sent to a student’s personal academic tutor.
Changing student perceptions
So how do students feel about their data being used in this way?
Sana says that some students in her training sessions initially expressed concerns about whether the platform was using their data to track them or punish them.
She was able to explain that the data gathered only relates to essential learning activities like logging into the VLE, borrowing a library book, or swiping into a campus building. The university already has all this data, but StREAM enables it to be used purposefully for student support.
Once students knew which data is used, why and how it is used, and who is able to access their data, ‘they were more positive and interested in knowing their engagement score’.
Yet StREAM is not just about low engagement. Sana says the platform is also used to ensure that high-performing students aren’t at risk of burning out. ‘It’s really good if they are engaging well with their studies,’ she says, ‘but it’s also important to enjoy your time at university’.
Taking the next step
Sana’s placement ended in April this year, and working with the learning analytics team has been a very positive experience.
In particular, she’s keen to praise the team manager, Tai Luong. She says, ‘he wanted to ensure I got the most from this placement, developing skills that I can showcase to employers.’
Sana is now planning her next steps, and the placement has helped to shape those plans. ‘After I graduated, I was unsure what I wanted to do,’ she says. However, since working on StREAM, she is keen to apply her data analytics skills in postgraduate study or job opportunities.
Bringing it all together
For Sana, the main strength of StREAM is that it brings everything together – students, academic staff and support services – into one platform.
‘The university cares about you as a student,’ she says. ‘Everyone wants you to succeed, and they are there to provide you with the right support.’
StREAM helps to make that possible.
