Improving Student Engagement and Retention Through Small Group Tutorials

Abstract For some time now retention has become a major issue in terms of the number of students failing to progress or dropping out from their studies. In addition to this lecturers are also concerned at the lack of student engagement they experience in the classes. This is particularly evident among first year students and, consequently, has a knock on effect for subsequent years. Staff at the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems (SCIS) in University of Ulster have addressed this issue by the implementation of small group tutorials for first year students studying computer science, computer games and electronics engineering. Students exhibited a willingness to participate and were appreciative of the individual attention they received. The results show that these small group tutorials are an effective teaching tool, as its use can enhance student engagement by increasing their participation in class, give lecturers valuable feedback on student understanding, make the classroom more ‘enjoyable’ while re-enforcing learning.