About Loughborough University

Loughborough is one of the UK’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sports and its underinning academic disciplines.

Loughborough University by the numbers

Key takeaways

• Immediacy of data allows institution to act and intervene in real-time
• Longitudinal value of data enables institution to identify attendance trends and plot them from one year to the next
• The integration with the institution’s timetable is critical – you need to understand where students should be before you can understand whether they’re showing up

How does campusM Attendance work?

campusM Attendance is a feature of campusM that enables students to check into classes using their mobile device or laptop within seconds. If the class is on site, universities can choose to validate check-ins with one or more of the following technologies:

• One-Time Code
• Geolocation
• Crowdsourcing using Bluetooth beacons
• IP Address

If students do not have a device with them, lecturers also have the option of quickly checking students in with just a few clicks on a desktop or taps on a mobile device. The check-in data gets stored securely in the campusM private cloud and can then be retrieved on demand using a web service within minutes of students completing their check in

Using Attendance insights to proactively support students

The University leverages Attendance data as an early indicator of when students may need more support. Looking at attendance trends on a weekly basis helps the institution identify students that look like they’ve stopped attending and reach out to them to check on their wellbeing.

“The link between low levels of attendance or sudden stops in attendance often means there’s a need for support,” shares Matt Green, Assessment & Engagement Manager at Loughborough University. “Either academic support or personal or both, as these two are often closely linked.

The University devolves responsibility for following up with students that have been flagged for attendance issues to the academic schools. Each school knows their students best and as such are best placed to help their students get back on track.”

Data Immediacy is Key

With paper-based registers, the university would find that academics were leaving them in their bags until the end of the week before turning the papers in to be keyed into the system. Sometimes, the paper registers would be misplaced and never found.

“It took a long time to notice a student disengaging from their studies and after weeks or months have gone, that’s a bit late,” says Gary Brewerton, Middleware Systems Manager at Loughborough University. “Whereas the immediacy of the data with campusM means that days afterwards we can see someone may be disengaging and that means we can get early intervention going right away.”

Measuring attendance trends at the macro level

campusM’s attendance data is imported into the University’s in-house student engagement system. The system is used by school administrators to identify broader patterns of disengagement. Along with data from the university’s lecture capture system and assignment hand-in information, Attendance data helps the university get a clearer understanding of how students are attending and not attending across the university.

One use case of how the University leverages attendance data beyond individual welfare is for a feasibility check at the start of term. Matt Green and his team look at the check-in numbers and compare them with the previous year’s data to get a better idea of what the current year’s attendance check-ins mean.

The University has built up a good understanding over several years now of using Attendance where they see general patterns of reducing attendance throughout terms and semesters, but also the further students get within their studies. First year students tend to be much more engaged with using attendance check-in and attending classes. That gives the University a general indicator to rely on – if they see first-year students that suddenly have patterns of non-attendance, the University are able to contextualise this when comparing to final year students who do the same.

Loughborough’s tips for making the most of Attendance

• Get your timetable data in order. “Unless you’ve got the timetable to start off with, you haven’t got anything to base your Attendance on,” notes Gary. Make sure the timetable data you have is reliable and robust so that you can deliver a smooth and dependable attendance check-in experience
• Onboard internal stakeholders as soon as possible. “Engaging the right stakeholders about how to adopt it across the university as early as possible is really key,” says Matt.