Jean Mutton, Project Manager & Jake Hibberd, Project
Assistant
“Digging for Gold” HEA Conference, NTU, June 2012
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Exploring early indicators of ‘at risk’
students; using JISC SETL (“Student
Engagement Traffic Lighting”) as a
case study
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• Builds on work of the DERBI project – student
enrolment (1st year JHS)
• Service design & enhancement techniques e.g.
blueprinting, story-telling, modelling
• Current students – focussing on retention,
progression and achievement
• Project runs from 1 March 2011 to 31 August
2012
Intended Outcomes
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• Scoping out of an IT solution to ‘traffic light’
students who may be in need of additional support
ultimately improving retention, progression and
achievement
• Academic and support staff access to this
information: not intended to be a student
facing/self diagnosis tool – but that may come later
• Supportive, university-led interventions
• Review of support mechanisms and
communications
Methodologies
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• Project committee
• Academic literature
• Statistical research
– Withdrawal calendar
– Progression & completion statistics
– “Risks” of changing study
• Student personas and storyboarding
• Service mapping
• Face-to-face contact with students and staff
• Sector practice and JISC clusters
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Academic background
The concept of “engagement” is too difficult to pin one single definition
to (Trowler, 2010)
•
“…one of the most significant periods of crisis for first year
undergraduate students is at the immediate commencement of their
studies.” (Fitzgibbon & Prior, 2006, p.18)
•
Dropping out is not always negative for the student; an institution’s
perception of withdrawal is not always reflected in certain individual
experiences (Quinn et al., 2005)
•
“Institutions often use assessment to explain why something has failed
but pay little attention to explaining why something succeeds.” (Siegel,
2011, p.13)
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•
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2008-11 Completions and Withdrawals
Withdrawn
Completed
100%
Percentage of total
80%
54.8%
60%
81.8%
40%
20%
74.2%
45.2%
18.2%
0%
No change
Specialised change
Non-specialised change
Type of change
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25.8%
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Bringing all of this together…
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• Student Dashboard – both staff- and studentfacing versions
• Improving support mechanisms (formal and
informal)
• Identifying areas of good practice
• Informing other projects where relevant
• Ongoing recommendations to the University’s
Executive
References
- Quinn, J., Thomas, L., Slack, K., Casey, L., Thexton, W. and Noble, J. (2005) From life crisis to
lifelong learning: Rethinking working-class ‘drop out’ from higher education, (York;
Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
- Siegel, M. J. (2011) Reimaging the Retention Problem; Moving Our Thinking from End-Product
to By-Product, About Campus, 15 (6), 8-18.
- Trowler, V. (2010) Student engagement literature review (York: Higher Education Academy).
- Yorke, M. and Longden, B. (2008) The First-Year Experience of Higher Education in the UK;
Final Report (York: The Higher Education Academy).
- Zepke, N., Leach, L. and Prebble, T. (2006) Being learner centred; one way to improve student
retention? Studies in Higher Education, 31 (5), pp.587-600.
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- Fitzgibbon, K. and Prior, J. (2006) Students’ early experiences and university interventions – a
timeline to aid undergraduate student retention, Widening Participation and Lifelong
Learning, 8 (3), pp.17-27.
For further information visit:
or
http://twitter.com/myderbi
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www.derby.ac.uk/ssis/JISCprojects