The key to following up on student engagement appropriately is to understand the attendance statuses on Jisc and how that data feeds into the Engage app. A session is activated on Jisc either through students using the code, or through staff adjusting the register. The timetabled sessions which feed into Jisc are considered to be core/required, so once the session has been activated, any students who don’t use the code are automatically marked as ‘Not attended’. This data feeds back to the Engage app and action is taken on the basis of a student’s % attendance level as part of the Engagement Review process.

Optional sessions

There may be situations where students were not actually expected to attend a timetabled session.

• If the session is optional for everyone – do not capture attendance at all. If you don’t share the code with students, the session isn’t activated and all students will be registered as ‘Not required’ by default.
• If the session is optional for some students – retrospectively update the register to mark those who didn’t attend as ‘Not required’

Non-timetabled supervision sessions

Please note, the process for capturing attendance at supervision meetings via Jisc (UG and PGT only) was updated this semester. The updated process means attendance is only captured for the attendee(s); there is no longer a need to update the attendance status for other students on the unit, removing the risk of students being incorrectly shown as ‘Not attended’.

There is further guidance here on when to capture attendance at non-timetabled supervision session –  Final supervision session attendance capture. Follow the step-by-step guidance on How to capture attendance at supervisor meetings.

Following up on mistakes and errors

Some errors and glitches are inevitable with a new process. Although reporting errors/issues may take up time in the short-term, it will pay off in the longer term so please tell us about queries/concerns so we can investigate and resolve them. We’re using the data to follow up with students, so it’s essential that we work together to make sure the data is accurate.

• Registers can be adjusted retrospectively. Speak to your Faculty Learning Technologist if you’re not sure how to amend a register. It’s important to do this quickly, so that the right data is available for the next Engagement Review.  
• If a student queries the basis of an engagement email they’ve received and you think the attendance percentage doesn’t seem right e.g. it may include optional sessions, please email the query and student number to Academic Engagement Framework. 

Further help and guidance

Jisc Learning Analytics guidance

Academic Engagement Framework sharepoint site