A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
Empirical studies show that attendance and engagement correlates to retention and attainment in studies. In the STEM subjects the relatively high contact time whether in lectures labs or workshops means that students are expected to attend. In many sciences the gender imbalance towards male students may explain the tendency of many in the cohort to work to last minute deadlines with the corresponding danger of missing the deadline entirely leading to loss of motivation and engagement.
Retention is an issue for departments and students as retention data informs departmental performance indicators whilst leaving a course because of failing to manage to engage with it is regretful for the student. Appropriate pedagogy in particular the use of formative and summative assessment methods combined with analysis of data on attendance and utilising material can offer ways to identify those students who may be more likely to become disengaged and to leave the course.
This talk will consider some of the ways in which we can structure assessments and use the analysis of student attempts along with attendance data to identify and intervene in students who are at high risk of leaving their course. The author will use case studies from a science foundation year as well as from a first year in Computer Science.
