1. Transition, Tutoring and Technology
Dr David Grey Dr Emily McIntosh Jamie Rawsthorne
York St John University University of Bolton Unique Insights
UKAT Technology UKAT
Coordinator

2. Technology and Transition

3. Technology in other sectors What HE can learn Technology in HE
Technology in transition
Website:

4. Worth £31billion, 2nd biggest startup August 2008.
You know a little bit about the host, you know about what they like, what they don’t, who they’ve had stay.
They let you know the best routes to travel to the host house when you arrive in a city, using transport maps and data and mitigate all the worries that you could possibly have.
This is no accident

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Customer Satisfaction Scores: Up by 65%
Customer Service Call Volume: Dropped by 13%
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9. Citymapper: Data centralisation
Pulling in hard to access data and makes it actionable.
Millions of commuters use it
Zero £ spent on marketing

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What can HE learn?
Technology can be used as a competitive advantage
Technology adoption should be included in strategic priorities
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11. Transition: Making data actionable
Research shows 33%/42% students consider withdrawal
(McCary, J. Pankhurst, S. Valentine, H. Berry, B. 2011)
Only 23% of students actively seek central support
Just less than 75%, were worried about making friends before arriving to university
(Andrews and Clark 2011)
Application Deadline: 15th January
Arrival data: Mid September
Unique insights highlight what support individual students need and which students need it most. But before I go into it I want to go back to the research and our beginning
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12. Admissions data: University first choice? Home distance to university
Govt Funding
Accommodation distance to university
Accommodation Type
Tariff points
Independent Study Proportion
Date of birth
Previous subjects
Assessment Type

13. Unique Insights: Using data for support
Actionable Insights
Accommodation
UCAS points
Previous subjects
High exam intensity
University Choice
Distance
Parent Accommodation? Recommend societies
Make aware the extra classes available
Missing previous maths experience
Make aware exam writing techniques
Excite about the institution.
Reassure them on distance

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Strategic Objectives:
Advantages
Retention Research
Student Experience
Widening Participation
Continuation
Financial Gains
- Maximise output, minimum input
- Stand out to competitor institutions
- Address the critical transition
Personal support
Mitigating doubts
Encourage ‘doubters’ to seek support
Create Relationship
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16. Thank you, please say hello!
Website:

17. Transition

18. Personal Tutoring & Transition
What does “transition” mean in this context? What makes good pedagogy? The critical role and “agency” of personal tutors
6 Principles of Transition Pedagogy (Kift & Nelson, 2005, 2015) (1) transition, (2) diversity, (3) design, (4) engagement, (5) assessment, (6) evaluation & monitoring
The Importance of a “long” induction – 16 weeks to settle in, 12 months to independent learning
Acknowledging the Student Lifecycle & key stakeholders (Morgan, 2012)
Promoting belonging & connectedness (Thomas, 2012 & 2017)
The external environment critical to building student resilience (McIntosh & Shaw, 2017)

19. Transition In Practice
Identifying the key transition points – what are they? How do they differ across year groups?
First 6 weeks, first assessment, Christmas, Easter, end of first/foundation year
Setting short, medium & longer-term (stretching) goals, personalising learning pathways
Engaging peers groups in a conversation about transition (e.g. Peer Mentoring, Peer Assisted Study Support and other peer learning interventions)
Managing expectations – e.g. independent learning does not mean learning in isolation
Focus on pre-entry pathways to improve transition, belonging and connectedness – tutoring in FE
Identifying a model of tutoring and a mission which works for your institution and context
Building infrastructure which promotes face-to-face interaction, promoting a tutoring culture at every level of the organisation
Building communications practice around the student lifecycle and points of transition

20. Implications for Tutoring

21. What Works – A Model of Effective Practice
What Works (Thomas 2012) emphasised belonging and the importance of relationships (staff-student, peer-peer, learning communities) in the academic sphere
What Works 2 (Thomas 2017) stresses need for proactive, personalised, interventions that are mainstream, ongoing, monitored & followed up coupled with an holistic approach
Which aspects of this model can personal tutoring impact?
The What Works project (2012) identified belonging as being at the heart of student retention and success, with the academic sphere being the most important place for nurturing the engagement which creates belonging. Belonging results from meaningful interactions between staff and students; developing knowledge, confidence and identity as HE learners; supportive peer relations; an experience which is relevant to interests and future goals. Personal tutoring (individual and group based) can help address each of these aspects of belonging. What Works also emphasised the need for high-quality institutional data and the monitoring of student behaviour
What Works 2 (2017) followed up the original work and identified that a holistic, whole institution approach is required, that interventions for retention and success need to be proactive, mainstream (available to all, not bolt-ons), ongoing (not a one-off) and that individual student engagement needs to be monitored and followed up.
What Works 2 identified this model of effective practice for student retention and success – which of these dimensions does personal tutoring naturally address? (the pink ones – but possibly collaborative and evidence-informed too)
Taken from Thomas (2017) What Works 2 Supporting student success : strategies for institutional change - Final Report

22. What Works – A Model of Effective Practice
What Works 2 (Thomas 2017) recommends
‘institutional data… should be used to understand the local contexts’
‘data needs to be available… staff & students need to … discuss and engage with this data to improve student retention and success’
Which aspects of this model can analytics technology impact?
The What Works project (2012) identified belonging as being at the heart of student retention and success, with the academic sphere being the most important place for nurturing the engagement which creates belonging. Belonging results from meaningful interactions between staff and students; developing knowledge, confidence and identity as HE learners; supportive peer relations; an experience which is relevant to interests and future goals. Personal tutoring (individual and group based) can help address each of these aspects of belonging. What Works also emphasised the need for high-quality institutional data and the monitoring of student behaviour
What Works 2 (2017) followed up the original work and identified that a holistic, whole institution approach is required, that interventions for retention and success need to be proactive, mainstream (available to all, not bolt-ons), ongoing (not a one-off) and that individual student engagement needs to be monitored and followed up.
What Works 2 identified this model of effective practice for student retention and success – which of these dimensions does personal tutoring naturally address? (the pink ones – but possibly collaborative and evidence-informed too)
Taken from Thomas (2017) What Works 2 Supporting student success : strategies for institutional change - Final Report

23. The Personal Relationship & Human Touch
Transition and retention literature emphasises value of personal relationships and a sense of belonging
Kandiko (2013) found that students value face-to-face interactions for learning and support
The personal, human touch is important
How do we bring this personal touch by combining the use of dashboards/analytics with our existing tutoring and support mechanisms?
Interpreting the data/insights for students and developing their understanding of the meaning and impact?
Understanding “geographies of belonging” and how students relate to their institution?
Use of analytics fits with a proactive, developmental approach
Help tutors identify students needing interventions, and facilitating those interventions

24. Unfamiliarity / Lack of Expertise
Lack of training in being an effective personal tutor well reported across the sector
Lack of staff confidence
Role performed variably - poorly or not at all in some cases
Inconsistent student experience
Lack of recognition of value of tutor role
Tutors required to use and interpret data from dashboard systems in tutoring need training to understand complex data and use it effectively
Previous sectoral efforts in training tutors does not instil confidence
Poor training will produce similar results to above
Potential of poorly informed staff (mis)using information causing more harm than good?

25. Conclusions

26. Conclusions
Personal tutors have an important role to play in supporting transition
Data analytics widely used by business to provide actionable insight, drive behaviours and provide competitive advantage
Analytics can have similar benefits for HE
Personal tutoring has the potential to impact student success and retention, but is only part of the story
Tutoring needs to be a component in a holistic, ‘whole-institution’ (Thomas 2017) student support system providing ‘multi-faceted interventions’ (Webb 2017)
Tools (dashboards, learning analytics) can help but
tutors need to proactively monitor and follow up students
comprehensive training for tutors to use the insights from analytics to best effect
MORE COMMENTS ON VALUE PLACED ON TUTORING AND GIVEN THE SAME PROMINENCE AS PERFORMANCE IN TEACHING AND RESEARCH
More academic research is required to demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of personal tutoring in supporting student success – the UK evidence base is lacking. As an organisation UKAT are seeking to address this by pushing related research further and encouraging sharing of best practice via professional development that meets the needs of tutors in modern HE.
We feel, based up on our surveys and the literature available, that in order for excellence in personal tutoring to be achieved its perceived importance amongst University leadership must be at a comparable level with teaching and research. If the field can be supported and developed in these ways it can make a real contribution to retention, resilience and persistence as part of a holistic model of support.

27. Thank you for attending
Next webinar in the autumn – tutoring, mental health and resilience

28. Relevant Literature

29. Sources
Crookston, B. B. (1972). A developmental view of academic advising as teaching. Journal of College Student Personnel Glennen, R. E. (1975). Intrusive college counseling. College Student Journal. McIntosh, E., & Shaw, J. (2017). Student Resilience. Retrieved from group.co.uk/sites/default/files/ /student-resilience.pdf O’Banion, T. (1994). An academic advising model. NaCADA Journal, 14(2), 10–16. Thomas, L. (2012). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change. Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Thomas, L., Hill, M., Mahony, J. O., & Chambers, J. (2017). Supporting student success : strategies for institutional change - Final Report. Retrieved from Webb, O., Wyness, L., & Cotton, D. (2017). Enhancing access, retention, attainment and progression in higher education. Retrieved from gher_education_1.pdf