New partnership to support academic personal tutoring

Leeds has chosen Solutionpath as its institutional provider for Learning Analytics.

Leeds has selected a Learning Analytics provider

A student sits in a big chair typing on a laptop computer. December 2020.

The platform will radically transform the academic personal tutoring experience for both students and staff, providing more contextualised and nuanced student support.

The five-year partnership, starting in early 2021, will support the delivery of our vision to enhance academic personal tutoring as part of Leeds for Life, and will work seamlessly with our existing partnership with the PebblePad e-portfolio platform.

Students will also be able to engage with their learning journeys independently to have autonomy and agency over their learning.

The Solutionpath platform – StREAM – will provide easy access to learning analytics through intuitive dashboards, which will enable students and staff to work in partnership, ethically and transparently, to understand further individual learning experiences.

The partnership with Solutionpath also reflects our commitment to effectively use digital technology to improve the student experience, in line with the development of the University’s Digital Transformation strategy.

Professor Neil Morris, Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Digital Transformation, said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that in five years, we will be supporting our students to succeed in their education much more effectively through use of data derived from their interaction with, and use of, a wide range of online systems and tools.

“This data will enable more detailed, personalised and focussed conversations between tutors and students, which will help students to plan their studies more effectively.

“I’m also convinced that the data we will derive from Solutionpath’s StREAM system will help us to tailor our curriculum model, learning, teaching and assessment to ensure they’re inclusive and appropriate for all of our students, in line with our strategy to support all of our students to achieve their educational goals.”

Transparent approach

Demonstrating learning progress via StREAM will help academic personal tutors to understand in more detail the barriers to success and enable more informed conversations to support student success.

Professor James Pickering, Academic Lead for Learning Analytics System Implementation, said: “The potential of StREAM to radically change our approach to student education is really exciting.

“Students will be able to have increased autonomy over their learning and, through enhanced academic personal tutoring, they will have support that is more tailored to them as individuals to help them in achieving their full potential.”

The StREAM dashboards will also enable the University to have meaningful insights and increased visibility into how students interact with the various digital education tools that are made available to them.

This will help us understand and enhance our pedagogical approach by providing the data needed to drive adaptations to the curriculum and assessments – for example in order to make learning materials more accessible.

Focusing on student success

Understanding students’ responses to student life and learning is essential to help personal academic tutors provide the right support.

Leeds recognises the importance of an approach that retains and progresses students, which is also personalised to the learner, and the use of Solutionpath’s StREAM platform promises a refreshing way to boost engagement.

Please contact Gail Hardwick, Digital Education Systems Programme Manager, for more information.

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