Recording students’ engagement and attendance as staff

We have introduced a new Engagement and Attendance Policy in September 2024 that aims to support our students by identifying when they may need extra support or intervention.

We want our students to experience the full benefits of their time with us. These benefits include the positive impact that attending and engaging with the teaching and learning environment have on academic success and personal development. We want to be able to support students and extend a helping hand but we also need to know when that support may be needed.

Monitoring attendance and engagement will enable us to reach out, enabling us to provide tailored assistance, helping students to flourish academically and personally, and ensuring they make the most of their time here at Oxford Brookes.

How does the process work?

Attendance Capture – Recording student attendance at timetabled sessions, and monitoring their engagement with various tools, such as Moodle and Panopto
Teaching Staff and Module Leaders (Faculties)
Attendance Analysis – Distributing Engagement and Attendance data to various dashboards for analysis, including Learning Analytics
Internal Student Reporting and Business Intelligence (Academic and Student Administration)
Attendance Support – Monitoring Engagement and Attendance data. Two new Engagement Coordinators will follow up with students where there is evidence that they may be in need of support from the University
Engagement Coordinators (Academic and Student Administration)

Attendance capture

Every module in Moodle already has the Module Attendance activity in the Key Resources section, so there is no manual setup required. At any time during the session, lecturers will need to display a QR code and password for students to record their attendance.

There is also the option for tutors to manually record student attendance, for instance if the student doesn’t have access to a suitable device. The attendance record can also be updated after the session, for example if a mistake was made or a student was not able to raise this during a session.

Attendance support

The Engagement Coordinators are responsible for contacting students where the data suggests some support might be required. They work with Academic Advisors, Student Support Coordinators and other student support services to ensure a coherent approach for students.

The engagement coordinator role

The University’s Engagement Coordinators are responsible for reaching out to students where there are concerns about their engagement or attendance.

Engagement Coordinators will regularly monitor students’ attendance throughout the academic year. The Engagement Coordinators are made aware of student cases from:

Attendance and engagement data
Direct referrals by Academic Advisors (made via ServiceNow).

Depending on the student’s profile, the Engagement Coordinators, will:

Email students where attendance is a concern
Work closely with key University contacts - such as Academic Advisors, Student Support Coordinators and Student Support Services - to provide a unified approach to student support
Refer visa-holders to the International Student Advice Team

For more information about how students are being supported to re-engage with their studies, please refer to the Student Engagement & Attendance Policy.

How to contact the engagement coordinators

Academic Advisors who have concerns about their student’s engagement and attendance should submit a referral to the Engagement Coordinators via ServiceNow.

For any other enquiries, please contact the Engagement Coordinators by emailing studentengagement@brookes.ac.uk.

Why are we monitoring engagement and attendance?

Supporting student wellbeing

Disengagement from academic studies can be an early warning sign that a student is experiencing problems. By monitoring these indicators and contacting students who are showing signs of disengaging, we can offer tailored support.

Better understanding of the student experience

The more we understand about our students’ participation with their programmes, the better our understanding of the true “student experience”, and this affords a better opportunity to provide the truly “student-centred, transformational education” to which the University is committed. The reasons underlying this can be summarised in the 4 Cs:

Coherence
Programme and module teams expect students to attend all sessions and the attendance activity will help monitor students who haven’t attended and ensure staff are able to intervene.
Community
By encouraging student attendance, all students are able to engage with discussions from the same starting point.
Consistency
Students should be familiar with attendance across all modules.
Choice
It allows students to record their attendance using their device of choice and view their attendance record to keep track of any synchronous sessions/activities that they may have missed and need to catch up on.

Meeting external body requirements

The University reports to a variety of external bodies. The Office for Students, UK Visas & Immigration and various professional bodies all require that we have a process for tracking engagement and attendance.

How will engagement and attendance be monitored and supported?

Students who are not engaging well will be assigned a Level (1, 2 or 3) depending on their level of non-engagement and non-attendance, so that relevant proportionate support is offered. A student may move between levels during the semester depending on their pattern of engagement, as the data is refreshed at two-week intervals.

The likely actions to be taken by Engagement Coordinators according to the student’s level are outlined below:

Level of concern	Indicators	Actions
No Engagement Concern	n/a	n/a
Level 1	Low attendance at scheduled / timetabled classes (students in the lower quartile for their programme) AND Low VLE engagement (students in the lower quartile)	Engagement Coordinators email students to reiterate importance of attendance and to signpost sources of support, including their Academic Advisor and Student Support Coordinator.
Level 2	Academic Advisors flag an engagement concern (via Engagement Coordinator referral form) OR Assessment deadline missed (end of teaching period check) OR No attendance at any timetabled teaching OR Two flags for Level 1 concerns at consecutive monitoring points	Engagement Coordinators email students to offer support, and may follow up by phone where there is no response from the student. Engagement Coordinators may refer students to relevant support services, and visa sponsored students may be referred to the International Student Advice Team.
Level 3	Multiple flags across the semester (If a student has been flagged on more than two occasions, they will be flagged here at the end of semester). For more information on Level 3 criteria, please see Section 7 (Exceptional actions linked to poor engagement) in the policy	Engagement coordinators, in liaison with Student Services, may provide information to the Academic Registrar on students who have been flagged at Level 3. The Academic Registrar may make a recommendation to the relevant examination committee for referral to Support to Study, withdrawal or other exceptional actions.

For more detail, please read the Student Engagement & Attendance Monitoring Policy.