Higher Education Institutions’ (HEIs’) approach to monitoring, managing, and maintaining student engagement has evolved in recent years. The proliferation of digital resources and a need to adopt hybrid engagement models in response to the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to this development. In particular, ‘digital mediation’, i.e. the use of digital and analytic tools in facilitating students’ engagement, is transforming interpersonal communication and data collection methods within HEIs. Against this background of ongoing technological innovations, the UCD Live Engagement and Attendance Project (UCD LEAP) critically examines the principle and practice of student
engagement. Alongside constructing a conceptual model outlining its core components, UCD LEAP is developing a digital oversight resource providing Student Advisors (SAs) with real-time programme-level engagement data. This resource offers SAs more comprehensive insights into students’ experiences than could be captured by module-specific engagement metrics and creates additional routes for data-driven student support. This presentation outlines ongoing learnings from UCD LEAP, including a discussion on our approach to embedding digitally-enhanced student support within our HEI.

Authors: Maurice Kinsella, John Wyatt, Niamh Nestor, Jason Last, Sue Rackard

Published in: Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2022)

• Date of Conference: 18-20 October 2022
• DOI: 10.20533/IICE.2022.10.0008
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-47-1
• Conference Location: Virtual (Dún Laoghaire, Ireland)