Investigating tuition attendance in Arts & Humanities: Stage 2

• Project Team: Robin MackieSteve PadleyMaddy SharmanJen ShepherdAstrid Voigt
• Subject Discipline: Arts and Humanities
• Theme: Equality, diversity and inclusionOnline and blended tuition
• Project Aim: Enables more students to achieve their study goalsImproves and enhance the learning experience of studentsPromotes equality diversity and inclusion including reduction of degree awarding gap
• Status: Complete
• Date: June 2020 to January 2021

In our previous project we were able to use data from the LEM system to explore student attendance in tuition from across the Arts & Humanities programme. Our report gives the Faculty far more detailed insight into student participation in LEs than has hitherto been available. Although the report has just been submitted, we very much hope that it will provide a useful basis for developing Faculty policy and practice in ways that enhance the learning experience for students.

This is a period of considerable change in tuition, both in terms of student behaviour and of University policy. In writing our report, it was apparent that data from two years (and two years that saw great change in policy) was quite a slender foundation for identifying patterns of change. We think many of our conclusions would be stronger if they were based on a third year of data. We also identified a number of areas that we were unable to explore either for lack of time or because we did not have all the data we needed.

We would therefore like to collect and analyse data for 19J in the areas listed below:

• We think it would be useful to investigate data for a third year for a number of modules that have seen little change in tuition in 19J to check if trends identified in 18J have continued. We propose to do this for the following modules: A225, A226, A229, A326, A330, A334, A335, A340.
• We also identified a few modules where tuition worked less well in 18J and so was changed in 19J. We think it would be useful to know if the changes worked. This includes A230.
• We have identified a new module, A233, which has adopted a significantly different tuition strategy than its level 2 counterpart (A230). It would be useful to know how they compare.
• Problems with tuition on AA100 have long been identified and, as a result, the tuition strategy for A111 is very different. Our report on AA100 provides a strong base for comparisons and we would like to investigate how well these changes have worked.
• In our previous report we were able to link data on tuition attendance and module completion. Although useful, our investigation suggests that we need to take this a step further and look at attainment too (i.e. not only who completed, but how well they performed).
• We would like to explore the possibilities of linking the data on attendance with specific student characteristics (BME, disability, prior educational attainment).