NTU’s Student Engagement Team win Collaborative Award for Teaching
A team at Nottingham Trent University, which is using technology to help students succeed in their studies has won a prestigious Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) 2019 from Advance HE.
Published on 5 August 2019
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The Student Engagement Team led by Ed Foster is based in NTU’s Centre for Student and Community Engagement (CenSCE).
The team has been recognised for its work with students, academics and professional services to deliver the NTU Student Dashboard. This dashboard uses various indicators, such as use of library facilities, to create a digital footprint showing how students are engaging with their studies. This enables constructive conversations between students and staff making it more likely any concerns are addressed promptly.
Developing the Dashboard has been a significant challenge from both an educational and technological perspective and NTU’s expertise in this growing field of learning analytics is now widely recognised across the international higher education sector. The Dashboard has been developed with the technology partner Solutionpath, and has been shaped by the views of students and staff.
Professor Eunice Simmons, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and Student Affairs, said; “There is no doubt that NTU’s award-winning Student Dashboard is changing the learning and teaching landscape. Our focus on engagement, not demographics or risk of failure, and the sharing of data between students and staff has created a positive, nuanced application of technology to support learning.”
The team’s detailed research continues to show that there is a strong correlation between engagement measured in the Dashboard and student success and those students who use the Dashboard more frequently are more likely to be successful in their studies. Furthermore, alerts raised by the system are very strong indicators that a student may be considering leaving their course. Since the launch in 2014, usage has been fantastic with student log-ins exceeding 1.7 million. The team continues to work to make the resource as useful as possible for students and for staff, particularly personal tutors. The major priority for the coming year is ensuring that all tutors fully utilise the Dashboard and make best use of it with their personal tutees.
Notes for Editors
About Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was named University of the Year 2019 in the Guardian University Awards. The award was based on performance and improvement in the Guardian University Guide, retention of students from low-participation areas and attainment of BME students. NTU was also the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2017, and The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2018. These awards recognise NTU for its high levels of student satisfaction, its quality of teaching, its engagement with employers, and its overall student experience.
The university has been rated Gold in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework – the highest ranking available.
It is one of the largest UK universities. With nearly 32,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across four campuses, the University contributes £900m to the UK economy every year. With an international student population of more than 3,000 from around 100 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook
The university is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable NTU to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. A total of 82% of its graduates go on to graduate entry employment or graduate entry education or training within six months of leaving. Student satisfaction is high: NTU achieved an 88% satisfaction score in the 2018 National Student Survey.
NTU is also one of the UK’s most environmentally friendly universities, containing some of the sector’s most inspiring and efficient award-winning buildings.
NTU is home to world-class research, and won The Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015 – the highest national honour for a UK university. It recognised the University’s pioneering projects to improve weapons and explosives detection in luggage; enable safer production of powdered infant formula; and combat food fraud.