Nottingham Trent University Student Dashboard (LAEP Inventory)

Synopsis

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK has developed, trialled and deployed a Student Dashboard for all undergraduate students.

The system draws engagement data from a range of sources: library use, attendance, use of the online learning environment, ID card swipes in to university buildings, and academic grades. It uses these to generate a composite engagement score and displays this graphically compared to the average for everyone on the course, and gives a rating of high, good, average or low. Automatic alerts are sent to a student’s tutor for triggers such as ‘no engagement for a fortnight’, or ‘academic failure’.

The primary users of a student’s score are the student themselves and their tutors; the scores are also available to other tutors on the course, course administrators, and student support staff, but not to other students.

Classification

Inventory type:

example at scale

Keywords:

predictive analytics, visualisation

Context of Practice

Learning:

higher education

Geographical:

National: United Kingdom

Pedagogic:

It does not explicitly embed a particular pedagogical approach, but implicitly relies on the measures of engagement being useful indicators of learning.

Practical Matters

Tools used:

The system was developed with DTP SolutionPath’s Predictive Analytics service.

Design and implementation:

A Student Engagement Manage led the dashboard development, drawing on input from other stakeholders, with an initial trial with a smaller group of students before being rolled out more widely.

Maturity and Evidence of Utility

After pilot work in 2013/14 with 400 students, the system was made available to all students in September 2014, and enhanced further in 2015. The system won the Times Higher Education award in 2014 for Outstanding Support for Students.

Further Information

Current guide for students: http://bit.ly/1T2Ahnx

Upgrade announcement to students: http://bit.ly/1T2AoQ3