Mix technology and personal contact to support students

By August 2020, it had become increasingly clear that students would be unable to return to university campuses for the new academic year. For returning students, that year (and, as it turned out, the next) was going to be nothing like “normal”. The cohort of students who were starting university for the first time were going to find it doubly challenging.

The transition to university always tests students’ ability to be independent, self-reliant, resilient learners; this cohort was going to make that transition alone, at home, unable to meet with friends or visit libraries, and would be accessing their new institutions and learning communities only through computer screens.

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For some students, this could have been even more daunting. At the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), for example, a high proportion of students are the first in their families to study at university or are mature learners with families of their own. There were no parents at home to offer advice or support.

Our commitment to widening access to higher education also means that UWS has more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, so ensuring access to technology and support are key priorities. At UWS, one of our truths is that “we are here for our students”.

The question was: how to be there for students we would never see, except online?

Models from around the world

Our first task was to acknowledge that, while the pandemic was unprecedented, the task of supporting students online was not new. I joined UWS in August 2020 from Australia (in fact I worked remotely, at night, for the first three months before finally making it to Scotland in October). Australia has a long history of successful distance learning. As such, one of our first sources was an important report from 2016 on success for online learners by Australian academic Cathy Stone.

Stone’s findings emphasised how important it was to create personal contact with online students, conduct continual two-way communication and use good analytics to ensure we were reaching the right students at the right time. We looked at models such as EdPlus at Arizona State University, which supports online students using teams of academic advisers and sophisticated learner analytics. And, of course, the UK’s own Open University has a venerable history of supporting learners online.

The UWS Student Success Team

Like all universities, UWS rapidly pivoted its student services online. Counselling, academic skills, and financial, careers and disability support switched to online appointments. But it was clear we needed something new: the online equivalent of a welcoming smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder, proactively reaching out to support students who seemed anxious, troubled or disengaged.

UWS established the Student Success Team in August 2020. The team was built around core staff, augmented by student peers called “digital buddies”, working to reach out to students who we felt might benefit from reassuring contact. This contact was almost always in the form of a phone call. Given that all the students’ other interaction with the university was through screens, we felt that the phone was a way to make the contact more personal. It also made the contact two way; we wanted to listen to the students more than anything, to hear and share their experiences and anxieties rather than instruct them. 

The team explicitly avoided any form of compliance communication; while some triggers for a call might be that a student had missed a deadline or tripped up at an administrative hurdle, the purpose of the call was entirely supportive and sought to offer support for the student to continue their studies effectively.

Metrics of success

Within weeks, we were overwhelmed with how successful the initiative seemed to be. About 83 per cent of the students we contacted reported they had more confidence to succeed in their studies as a result. And 71 per cent told us they might not have known where to find answers to their questions or solutions to their problems if we hadn’t reached out. 

Simultaneously, the digital buddies were reaching out to students on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, generating the online equivalent of a supportive learning community usually found in our libraries and shared study spaces.

By the end of the year, UWS had bucked the national trend and reported a 2.9 per cent improvement in student retention, compared with the previous year. 

Learner analytics at the heart

While the actions and outcomes of the Student Success Team were all about the personal contact, at the heart was an analytics model that became increasingly sophisticated and vital over time. With more than 20,000 students to support, and limited staff to make the call, it was important to target students who needed them most.

Initially, it was the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE) that provided the data. Students who hadn’t accessed the VLE for six days were automatically scheduled for a call. But by the end of the first term, we’d developed an algorithm that generated a “student engagement score” derived from their activity on the VLE, such as accessing material, posting content or commenting on discussion forums. The trigger for a student receiving a call became when their individual engagement score dropped off from that of their cohort. After receiving a call from the team, 72 per cent of students’ engagement scores increased again.

What’s next?

As we start our first academic year where students are returning to campus “normally”, the Student Success Team has entered a new phase. While the pandemic is receding, using technology to support students, and to connect with them on a genuine and personal level, is here to stay. The team has been placed at the core of a new Student Success Hub, consolidating all student-facing interactions and communications of the university.

The ethos established during the pandemic by our team of data-driven, personalised and success-focused support staff will underpin all interactions with students going forward. At UWS, we will not allow technology to make students feel that university support is alienating or depersonalising. It will simply give us more and better ways to be “here for our students”.

Jonathan Powles is vice-principal of learning, teaching and students at the University of the West of Scotland.

The University of the West of Scotland’s Student Success Team has been shortlisted for Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards 2022. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be found here.

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