Enabling Successful Student Transitions into University: Using Curriculum Design and Data Monitoring to provide Student Support

Authors

Jennifer Stott, Dagan Lonsdale, Iain Greenwood and Emma Baker (St George’s, University of London)

The first year of university often marks a challenging transition for many students. Research indicates that dropout rates are particularly high during this initial stage of undergraduate studies, with increased risks for those who struggle to adapt. Recognising the significance of student engagement and attendance as key indicators, this article explores the crucial role of curriculum design and data monitoring that we have used in the creation of a new degree programme to help enable targeted support and enhance the first-year experience.

Curriculum design for community: Building foundations for success

The foundation of student success begins with effective curriculum design. An effective curriculum should create a positive transition into university life; exciting and engaging learners, providing opportunities for connection amongst students and staff and, crucially, establishing a course community. We have built a course around this ethos, one which has consistently ~80% attendance in year 1 (without any mandatory attendance components!) and is student-rated 100% positive for student voice and academic support in the latest NSS.

The idea of building communities on our courses can sometimes sound woolly, but highly tangible steps can enable this. Frequent small group teaching (SGT) sessions in first year, twice a week on our course, can ease students into university life, providing ready-made peer groups to help overcome the fear of sitting in a large lecture theatre surrounded by strangers. Mixing up students between different SGT formats or in larger workshops creates constant collisions between the cohort so that students can get to know as many people as possible. SGT also provides a forum for peer-to-peer learning and skills development, and effective learning design can echo this within larger teaching sessions throughout the curriculum, embedding active learning methods where students support each other in their learning.  Frequent, small stakes, summative in course assessments embedded within SGT provides motivation for students to keep on top of their learning and to attend.

Student-student interactions are vital in creating course community, but so too are student-staff interactions. One fundamental strategy we have for this is that for year 1 students, their SGT tutor who they see on a weekly basis, is also their personal tutor. This is an incredibly powerful tool in enabling staff to form great connections with their tutees, and to be able to monitor student progress, identify potential issues and provide timely, early support. Underpinning this, we have developed a data monitoring system to help to identify struggling students early.

Creating a dialogue: Personalised data reports for student feedback

Creating a community within a course helps to embed students into university life and enable them to seek support from peers or staff. However, there are always some who might reject being part of a community or struggle with asking for help. Therefore, it is important to have processes in place to catch any students who may be having issues with the transition.

Monitoring student attendance, engagement and performance are key data that can be utilised for early detection of problems and to allow us to intervene if possible. We have done this using attendance monitoring, assessment marks and data analytics from our virtual learning environment (VLE), which captures how many page views students have as well as how often they have engaged with learning opportunities online (such as completing formative quizzes). Modular data shows that attendance and VLE engagement correlate strongly with student assessment scores, so we thought about how we could best use this data to identify when students are struggling, as well as to enable students to take charge of their learning.

Using our attendance data, assessment scores and VLE analytics, we programmed the creation of a personalised report from a bespoke code to pull together this information for individual students in year 1. As our year 1 students have weekly summative assessments which span 6 different modules, the report breaks down student assessment scores by module and allows us to be able to check in at any time point within year 1. The report contains information for students regarding their current module mark, VLE engagement data and attendance %, and offers a comparison of their data to the rest of the year. The reports also provide some guidance should students want to seek support and, crucially, is shared with their tutor prior to formal personal tutor meetings to inform those conversations. A whole year report is also prepared for module and year leads, as well as for course directors. This report flags up students who have low attendance and/or are failing individual, or multiple, modules.

Students identified as at risk through a discussion of this data are highlighted to personal tutors and are invited to a meeting with the course directors at the end of semester 1 to discuss any issues and find a way forward. This proactive approach has led to a 93.3% progression rate of our year 1 students last year and is the foundation of our student support network, ensuring students feel seen and cared for throughout the course.

Through thoughtful curriculum design, data monitoring, and proactive student support we can create courses which enable students to thrive. By addressing the challenges of the first year through this comprehensive lens, higher education institutions can create an environment that not only enhances engagement and attendance but also ensures the long-term success and retention of their students.