Attendance Monitoring as an aid to Retention International Assessment & Retention Conference 12 th June 2009 Mark Byrne [email protected].

Attendance Monitoring as an aid to Retention

International Assessment & Retention Conference12th June 2009

Mark [email protected]

Contents:

What constitutes attendance?Who wants to know what?Attendance & RetentionSMART use of Smart Technology

What constitutes attendance?

What is attendance?

The act of attending The persons or number of persons that are present The frequency with which a person is present.

Sample Attendance Policies

1. The minimum attendance is 70% but departments may, if they wish, stipulate a higher percentage of attendance. Several programmes require 100% attendance, and if this should apply to you, you will be informed by your Department

2. Harvard Law School - In cases of substantial de-linquency in attendance, the Law School may, after appropriate procedures, treat students as having withdrawn from the course, seminar, or reading group in question.

3. You are reminded that unauthorised absence may affect your course progress and if applicable any government funding

4. If you are repeatedly absent from tutorials or required classes without due cause, then you will be in danger of being asked to leave the College: of being 'sent down‘.

Sample contd.

5. All students in the School of Education should be aware that any problems of non-attendance may result in some form of penalty, ultimately leading possibly to failure of a course (or courses) - even if all formal assessments have been carried out to a satisfactory standard.

6. Where your attendance fails to meet the minimum required to meet the learning outcomes of the module (as published in the module/ subject/programme handbook) you may be excluded from the assessment and be graded X in the module. If you receive an X grade you may have the opportunity of taking the whole module again with permission from the Curriculum Leader, without grade penalty, though you will have to pay the module registration fee.

Who wants to know what?

Usual internal performance/quality assurance/comparative reasonsUsual external performance/quality assurance/comparative reasons

And more recent:

UK Market changes/challenges

Attendance & Retention

What you recruit you’d better retainEarly warning systemStop silent withdrawalRecruit to replace losses*AttainmentNational Student SurveyOffice of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher EducationProfessional accreditation requirementsAudits (UKBA, HEFCE)

Caution – student attendance low!

Attitudes of staff & students

Attitudes of staff & students

• Is there an issue?• Policy not in line with practice• Incomplete/inaccurate data collection• Intervention systems focus on negative aspects• Intervention not systematic across the

institution• Lag time between non-attendance and

consequence• Communication breakdown

SMART use of Smart technologySpecific

– What data do you need now and in the future– Just attendance or integrated?

Measurable– Is student X on campus?– Is student X attending 80% of programmed events?– Has student X submitted an assessment– VLE

Attainable• Swipe or proximity• Data from other systems

Realistic– Lecturer engagement!!– Forgotten cards etc

Timely– Frequency– Promote action

Conclusions

Demand for data and information SMART data gathering Performance measures Audits/Reviews/Publicity

DATA

PROTECTION?

Conference Announcement

Retention in Tough TimesWin-win strategies for students and institutions

Southampton Solent University, UK 8th/9th September 2009

[email protected]