Student Attendance Monitoring

I am presuming as a response to the value being attached to the Student Engagement System (SES) data warehouse a new project is to be undertaken to introduce a student attendance data warehouse alongside the SES.  This is at the initial planning phase but quick progress is being made.  The project will be in three phases.  UHF RFID equipment will be installed at University entrance/exists.  This will be of great benefit to the SES as there will then be full coverage of people onsite so that those requiring further support, as they have not been on the premises, can be quickly contacted and any problems can be rapidly resolved.

The second Phase will be to install monitoring stations in all University classrooms and last but by no means will least be a data warehouse project to link the attendance data with the student record system and the timetabling system.  Although, this will be a large scale development it will provide a crucial role in supporting several prominent business imperatives that are in the new draft strategic plan.

Student Engagement System

On Friday 20th April the revised Student Engagement System was presented to the Monthly Head of Department meeting.  There was a live demonstration of the fully functioning system and an explanation of how the system worked, how it was being used and future a related projects.  It was explained that the original concept of the system remained the same as back in 2009 and all the technical issues had been resolved.  The positive influence on the system of the JISC BI project was discussed and it was explained that a second section "Dev Tab" of the system was available to all users and they had been tasked with evaluating enhancements that had come about because of the project.

Concept: A system to automatically identify students who are starting to disengage but not impose any extra administration by using data that is already being stored in University systems and then analysing what has happened in the last few days, while recognising the patterns will vary from course to course

SIMSE project meeting on 20 March 2012

SIMSE project team members met on 20 March 2012. The project team shared information on university wide IS development and updates on the current project development. Below is an outline of project development and issues discussed in the meeting:

• Draft implementation plan was made ready for discussion.
• The original BAG participants questionnaire was revised based on the initial feedback. The revised questionnaire was sent to BAG members again. Six responses have been received so far.
• · The first SG meeting was scheduled on Monday 26 March. The agenda and documents to be sent were ready.
• Reminder emails were circulated to all faculty managers regarding the use of tracking devices in class rooms. This was to remind students to swipe their ID card when attending lectures.
• The team members had extensive discussion on how best to implement JISC’s Strategic ICT Toolkit for the strategic use of SES. They shared their understanding and views, raised questions, and challenged their current thinking. For examples. what is the wider context of making the best use of SES, should the data be managed by the university’s planning department in the register office? Should the SES outputs be integrated directly with DVC’s student retention dashboard? Would our project benefit from an institutional level ICT maturity audit to know where we are now even it may be beyond the scope of the SIMSE project?
• It was agreed that all six key enablers in the Strategic ICT Toolkit should be considered in the implementation plan. Some of the key enablers, e.g. EA, may needs more attention and in-depth investigation. The revised implementation should be sent for approval by the SG meeting.
• The team had useful discussions on the purpose of the next SG meeting. It was agreed that it was to review and approve the implementation plan. SG members serve as the critical friends to evaluate the progress and outcomes. Two formal meeting were planned, but the SG members will be regularly updated with the project progress and milestones for their feedback.
• Marcus offered to showcase the SES to SG members on Monday morning 26 March.