Supporting Student Progress
At LCC a significant number of undergraduate students leave their courses prematurely, many by the end of their first year. This can be due to a range of factors and complex challenges students face on entering higher education. Some of these challenges are beyond our control, but many of them can be anticipated and countered with timely and appropriate support. Some new students feel out of depth academically and could benefit from Academic Support or Peer Mentoring. Some may be experiencing cultural or language barriers to participation, which the UAL Language Centre or International Office could help with. Others with financial, health or accommodation issues which UAL Student Services could help them to resolve. Course tutors are often the first point of contact for new students and are well positioned to signpost students to such support.
To help courses with this, the college has developed the Academic Progression Tool (APT) which serves as a digital, collaborative, monitoring and communication aide for prioritising support to students. The tool provides tutors with a unique combination of information about their cohort, in an interactive workbook they can add to and communicate through. The information includes the students fee and enrolment status, links to ISA documents, and grades after exam boards. Where possible, I’M IN attendance data is also included as an additional indicator of each student’s engagement.
APT emerges from the Student Support and Progression Project initiated by Adrienne Tulley in 2018-19, in which time nine LCC undergraduate courses fully participated, using the tool to prioritise support to students identified as at risk of leaving. Using data to prompt support interventions in this way is known in educational technology terms as ‘predictive analytics’, as previously written about by Lee Lewis, and at UAL LCC are currently leading the way in this area with the Academic Progression Tool.
The project is now managed by Lucy Panesar (Progression and Attainment Project Manager based in D114) and offers all LCC undergraduate courses APT to support their 2019-20 year 1 cohorts. The tool comes with additional administration support from Veronica Otero (Project Administrator based in LCC’s Academic Registry) and outreach support from Chris Bryant (Student Experience Officer based in LCC Academic Support). Colleagues can find more information from the APT 2019-20 User Guide and by contacting Lucy, Veronica or Chris.
Talking Teaching: Supporting Student Progress
Mon 23 March 1-2.30pm At LCC a significant number of undergraduate students leave their course prematurely, many at the start of their first year. This can be due to a range of factors and complex challenges students face on entering higher education. In response to this, the college has developed the Academic Progression Tool (APT) which serves as a digital, collaborative, monitoring and communication aide for prioritizing support to students in their first year. Academic and Support staff are encouraged to attend this Talking Teaching session to learn more about using APT to support their students and to also contribute to the development of the tool. The session will be facilitated by Lucy Panesar, LCC’s Progression and Attainment Project Manager.
