‘How are you?’

We hope you’ve had a great start to your course and are starting to settle in. We know that arriving University can be daunting, and you may find that the expectations you had are not exactly matching with the reality or you might be getting into the stride of university life. Whatever your experience of these first few weeks, we want to reassure you that there is support available and no question or concern is too big or too small. If you need help, you only have to ask someone. You can contact Hallam Help, who can help answer your question or refer you to one of the specialist services. 

We are the Student Success and Engagement Team and it’s our role to contact students when their engagement with the course is affected by circumstances in their personal lives and help them to access the appropriate support at the university. Some examples might be financial concerns, mental or physical health or bereavement.

We often receive queries from students who would like to know more about the service we provide and why they have been contacted by the university. Let’s look at some of our most asked questions we get from students and answer some of these below:

Q: What does ‘engagement’ with my studies mean?
A: Great question! Engagement with your studies could include a whole range of things including attending your teaching sessions (Lectures/Seminars/Workshops), using and interacting with the VLE (Blackboard), submitting your assigned tasks, and keeping in contact with advisors including your academic advisor.

Q: How does the university monitor my engagement?
A: You will probably be familiar with the app ‘Study Goal’ already, as students use this app to register their attendance at teaching sessions. We also use this application to monitor your attendance, submission of assignments and your blackboard/VLE usage. This gives us a combined indication of your engagement with your course and whether you may require further support.

Q: Why is the university monitoring engagement?
A: Reduced engagement can be an indication of other difficulties someone may be facing. We want to ensure that students who may be struggling with something that is affecting their engagement are picked up early so we can help them with whatever is going on and get them back on track.

Q: Who would contact me if I was struggling with my engagement?
A: The Student Success and Engagement Team are here to support you to re-engage with your course and understand any barriers that may be affecting your ability to engage. We will contact you via email or phone call to listen to any issues you may be facing or to simply provide a safe space to talk to us about how you are finding university and your course. This doesn’t not mean you are in trouble, it is simply to ensure you have knowledge of and access to all the support that is available to you.

Q: How often will the Student Success and Engagement Team contact me?
A: We will only contact you if the data we gather from the Study Goal app shows that you are not engaging well with your course. You can regularly monitor your own engagement using the Study Goal app.

We hope that you find this information useful and have a better understanding about engagement and how the university monitors this. We foster a holistic approach and aim to provide a supportive environment for you to share any concerns you have so that we can help you to re-engage with your course