In 2018, the University of the West of England (UWE) began to take a cross-institutional approach to gathering and using student engagement data to help students reach their full potential during their time at university. UWE implemented Solutionpath’s student engagement platform StREAM to support their engagement and retention goals and more specifically actively support student’s wellbeing.
Over the past four years, the StREAM platform, (named by UWE as MyEngagement) has enabled them to track undergraduate engagement levels and accurately identify early indicators of students at risk of withdrawing from their course and those who may be in most need of additional support. . In 2021, the Student Advice Team explored new methodologies to make outreach to those students with low engagement, including a phone calling campaign and the use of online forms.
A key benefit to the team has been their ability to respond more quickly, as form submissions are routed to a specific engagement email address rather than to our Information Point or another e-mail address, to then be forwarded on to MyEngagement or the Student Support Advisers. It has enabled Student Advisors to prioritise students who have asked for help.
In addition, the team can identify when students don’t need any support and to make a
note on the system. Louise Carey, Student Advice Coordinator says, “We can quickly check and eliminate them from receiving text messages and phone calls. What’s more, it allows us to focus more time on those students that do want that help.”
Find out more about UWE’s holistic approach to engagement analytics and their plans to offer support to students in the next academic year.
