How are They Going?: A Project to Monitor Student Engagement

Abstract

The transition from school or work to university studies is not always a smooth change for many students. The university context may appear threatening, strange and isolating for some students, whether the courses be offered in on-campus or online contexts. While most modern day universities offer a raft of support services for students, including both academic and non-academic services, problems of low retention and high attrition rates still plague some institutions and some sections of particular institutions in the higher education sector. This paper presents an innovative program that uses technology-supported strategies within a regular learning management system (LMS) to arrest problems that may lead to students withdrawing from their courses. By focusing on students engaged in their first year of study, early intervention systems, known as the Virtual Mentoring Program (VMP) and the Learning Engagement Analytics Platform (LEAP), are presented as examples of how higher education institutions can reduce attrition and increase retention.