Facilitating Students’ Transition to Higher Education: Interlinking Engagement Analytics and Digital Mediation

Higher Education Institutions’ approach to monitoring, managing and maintaining student engagement is evolving, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and aligned prevalence of blended learning models. “Digital mediation”, i.e. the use of digital and analytic tools by higher education staff in managing, monitoring and maintaining students’ engagement, offers new opportunities in how interpersonal communication is facilitated and student data is collected. However, optimising its utility and effectiveness necessitates continually calibrating how digital and in-person engagement can be reciprocally and seamlessly integrated into student experiences. Here, University College Dublin’s ‘Live Engagement & Attendance Project’ (UCD LEAP) has developed an online engagement monitoring resource providing Student Advisors with real-time programme-level engagement data. This resource supports them in providing students with timely and tailored interventions following potential disengagement. The purpose of UCD LEAP is twofold: achieving a more comprehensive picture of the student experience than would be available within module-specific engagement metrics, and helping staff create additional pathways for digitally-mediated student support. This paper explores ongoing learning from UCD LEAP, alongside the growth, evolution, and institutional embedding of digitally-mediated support interventions in higher education.