By Alex Chapman, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at Middlesex University.

At Middlesex University, students are a great reflection of the diverse mix of people now embarking on their studies. Around one quarter of Middlesex undergraduate UK and EU students come from deprived areas and are also the first generation from their household to enter higher education. Around 45% of our students are attending university as the first generation in their family, 88% of our students fall into at least one of the categories for widening participation.

Being mindful of the blended learning impact

Around four in five of our UK students spend more than 40 minutes travelling to our campus. Consequently, we’ve seen many of our students choose online as an option which fits in with their other commitments, resulting in an experience which is increasingly student-led. However, as remote learning becomes more frequent, we believe that institutions need to be mindful of its impact on student belonging and cohort identity. 

As we look to move forward with newer models of teaching delivery, such as hybrid or blended, and work towards a delivery model where online learning complements on-campus activity, all of these factors need to be considered.

It has become clear that a one-size-fits-all approach to student engagement will no longer work for a vast portion of students who cannot or do not wish to spend all their time on campus. So to help ensure that every student is engaged, feel satisfied with their course and get the most out of their HE experience, universities need to look to data analytics. 

Integrating hybrid and hyflex learning

We’ve been focusing on providing support for students in this blended model of learning as they move through their course. With the support of Kortext’s StREAM, we have a centralised dashboard to keep a record of student engagement, performance, and progress at Middlesex. 

For our academic tutors, this information is vital to help them identify students potentially at risk of dropping out and give tutors the data to make decisions with the student’s wellbeing at the heart. This data will also play a key role alongside academic advising as we look to integrate aspects of hybrid and hyflex learning into the curriculum but continuing to ensure students feel the sense of belonging we focus on delivering to students.

Embedding the sense of belonging

A huge part of student engagement and participation is, of course, ingrained in wellbeing. Cohort identity has been difficult to conjure with the mix of virtual and online spaces in recent years, meaning that the discussion around belonging has had to become embedded into the wider conversation of the university experience. With higher education seeing such an acceleration in the use of new technologies, there is an increased risk that students simply don’t feel like they belong in their institution.  

We’re using data to identify different engagement patterns across specific disciplines and cohorts to show the different ways students are engaging with their programs. This means we can develop tailored answers on how we can then best support the student based on their course or cohort. Alongside things like student surveys and other formal and informal feedback mechanisms, we can get a holistic oversight on the student experience of our university programs and make improvements where the data indicates it would be beneficial. 

Revealing our digital skillsets

Data can also reveal the digital skillset of our students and staff. Many online resources have been introduced only since the beginning of the pandemic and therefore not all are comfortable or confident with this type of learning. Knowing what digital platforms and in-person approaches work best for different cohorts and disciplines will help to define how we move forward with our teaching and learning strategy.

Find out more about how StREAM is driving student success through data precision and insight.