The Future of Education

The student population is changing. They have new and competing demands for their attention. To meet the educational needs of our future students, we need to better understand their constraints. These encompass both the barriers to, and incentives for, effective performance during their study. This paper presents analysis of an attendance monitoring project undertaken in the department of psychology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. A novel and bespoke monitoring system was developed. The software processes data from handheld barcode scanners, the student record system and timetabling software. It was designed to provide (semi-) automated reports to students, module coordinators and personal tutors regarding non-attendance incidents. Our ethos in the development of the system was to support students who may be struggling with the demands on them, while providing richer information to understand the underlying motives for their behaviors. Data has been collected over a period of eighteen months, so far. Results are presented concerning three main areas, i) technical lessons learnt, ii) attendance data collected, and iii) system implementation recommendations. The Technical implementation of the project required careful negotiation of the practical and institutional ‘corporate’ policies and infrastructure. Summary results from our (four-year Scottish) degree students revealed non-attendance levels of 26%, 33%, 43% and 38% respectively for our 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th years. Broader systems findings suggest limitations in ‘barcode’ scanning but offer considerable promise from a deeper understanding of the factors revealed. Conclusions are drawn, and recommendations made for those interested in adopting similar ‘smarter’ technologies in support of their students.

Keywords: Attendance Monitoring, Student, Support, Performance;