“I’m Not a Number, I’m Someone to Them”: Supporting Commencing University Students’ Through Technology-Mediated Personalised Communication
Open accessAbstract
As universities offer more flexible delivery options there are parallel concerns about increasing levels of engagement. Withdrawal and disconnection from study is most common during the first year of university as students experience social, cultural and financial adjustments and attempt to understand the nuances of academic learning. This article reports on the impact of a technology-enabled support system delivering timely, personalised and actionable feedback on online activity and support emails at critical periods in two courses. Learning analytics data was used to identify appropriate engagement metrics for personalising feedback to students with results indicating an improvement in course grades. While the learning analytics approach provides a technology-mediated means for scaling personalised feedback and communicating with large cohorts of learners, the qualitative results indicated that students felt they were noticed as individual learners, were more willing to contact educators for support, and more motivated to engage with the online course learning materials.
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Interview data is used for providing personalized, predictive, reflective, adaptive, and recommendation feedback.
“Reviewed publications indicate that this kind of data is used for providing personalized, predictive, reflective, adaptive, and recommendation feedback (Conijn et al., 2020; Hunt et al., 2021; Lewis et al., 2021; Lim, Dawson, et al., 2021).”
From A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education (2022) · cites this paper as Lewis et al., 2021
Assessment data is often used by LA in feedback studies to provide recommendations, assessment, predictive feedback, and personalized feedback.
“Assessment data is often used by LA in feedback studies to provide recommendations (Lewis et al., 2021; Tempelaar et al., 2018), assessment (Chaudy & Connolly, 2019; Tempelaar et al., 2018), predictive feedback (Arnold & Pistilli, 2012; Baneres et al., 2019), and personalized feedback (Iraj et al., 2020; Lim, Gentili, et al., 2021).”
From A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education (2022) · cites this paper as Lewis et al., 2021
Interview data is used by LA for exploring student experiences, preferences, and perceptions of feedback.
“In feedback studies, interview data is used by LA for different reasons such as exploring student experiences, preferences, and perceptions of feedback (Conijn et al., 2020; Hunt et al., 2021; Lewis et al., 2021; Misiejuk et al., 2021).”
From A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education (2022) · cites this paper as Lewis et al., 2021
LA services increase students' motivation for learning engagement.
“increase their motivation for learning engagement (e.g. Lewis et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2019)”
From A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education (2022) · cites this paper as Lewis et al., 2021
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
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- Authors
- Lewis, S., Heath, G., Lim, L., & Roberts, R.
- Affiliations
- University of South Australia (AU)
- Venue
- Student Success
- Publisher
- University of Southern Queensland
- Published
- 2021-03-15
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-34
- ISSN
- 1838-2959 (ISSN-L)
- 2205-0795
- OpenAlex
- W3096078931
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 2.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Student Success (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UniSA Research Outputs Repository (University of South Australia) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Keywords
- first-year students, student engagement, learning analytics, personalized feedback, technology-mediated communication, student support, student withdrawal, online learning, student motivation, course grades
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