How ethical is it to utilise student data to help support their engagement?

Rachel Maxwell sets out the things to consider before setting up a system that tracks students’ attendance at scheduled teaching time.

Higher education institutions can utilise the data at their disposal to improve student retention and outcomes – but doing so in real time is key.

Ed Foster examines the role that data and technology can play in supporting student engagement

In his recently published specification for education and wellbeing analytics, Professor Edward Peck, the UK Government’s higher education student support champion and Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University (NTU), highlighted the opportunity provided to universities by the increasingly sophisticated use of student analytics.

Rachel Maxwell discusses the importance of knowing your strategic priorities when it comes to enhancing the use of student data…   

Dr Rachel Maxwell is the former Head of Learning and Teaching Development: Policy and Practice at the University of Northampton. Now Rachel works for StREAM by Kortext, enabling other users to effectively implement and use StREAM, a platform to ‘provide educators with student engagement insight at cohort, course, module and individual level.’ She discusses the importance of knowing your strategic priorities when it comes to enhancing the use of student data

Rachel Maxwell considers the importance of knowing your strategic priorities when deploying student engagement analytics within a university.

In the coming years, engagement analytics will play a role in every meaningful digital transformational project across our institutions. Professor Neil Morris explains the crucial steps, before and after the tech implementation.

Recent images shared of empty classrooms and lecture halls have shown that students are continuing to utilise online teaching and learning. Alex Chapman, head of technology enhanced learning at Middlesex University, believes 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. To ensure that every student is engaged and feels satisfied, universities can look to student engagement data.

As student learning behaviours become more varied, engaging students with a one-size-fits-all approach will no longer be effective to fostering the best learning and belonging. Improving the experiences of students must be made with decisions that are data-informed and encourage cohort identity, whilst keeping student choice at the heart of it all, says Alex Chapman, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at Middlesex University.