Session Outline

When tutoring meets data: creating bespoke student support

Nicola Watchman Smith (Teesside University)

This lightning talk will provide a snapshot into the models, processes and preliminary outcomes of a new academic tutoring process built around student engagement data. With a focus on improving student retention, enhancing student engagement and supporting student attainment, the model centres on offering a bespoke 1-1 programme of tutorials for students most at risk of disengaging.

During this session we will share our vision for tailoring student support around each individual's specific academic needs. The session will provide insight into how we gather this information via engagement analytics, online diagnostic tools, student-led needs analyses and a network of cross-institutional referrals, and how we then build a university-wide academic tutorial offer for all of our HE learners, irrespective of course, discipline or level of study.

Online or face to face? That is the question.

Stacey L Mottershaw (University of Leeds); Anna Viragos (University of Leeds)

This session will outline initial findings from a project exploring student preferences for online or face to face academic personal tutoring, shedding light on a question that has dominated headlines in the sector since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. We focus especially on under-represented and international students, whose circumstances are likely to have the most impact on their engagement with different modes of tutoring. The audience will be asked to briefly share their own experience of tutoring in different modes.

The objective of this session is to share the findings of our project exploring student preferences for online or face to face academic personal tutoring and to provide the audience with a starting point for considering this in their own context(s).

Power to Progress: a digital approach to progress tutorials

Hannah Emery (Blackpool and The Fylde College)

In April 2021, colleagues at B&FC developed Power to Progress, a digital, self-paced tutorial package to develop students’ academic, professional and personal skills (Wingate, 2011). Students at each level are asked to complete a range of core and elective modules on the Canvas VLE, and progress tutors are able to track completion and identify students who may benefit from intervention. The lightning talk will explore how this innovative programme supports retention and achievement. Moreover, we will present some initial outcomes.