EXPLORING THE BALANCE BETWEEN AUTOMATION AND HUMAN INTERVENTION IN IMPROVING FINAL YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENT NON-COMPLETION

This paper examines the research methods used in the 'Pedestal for Progression' project, a project that set out to determine why students at Loughborough University fail to complete their final year. It demonstrates how methods adopted can be used to enhance student experience and improve retention. Initial research with students found that the difference between student experience in initial and final years can be characterised by the independent study of the dissertation project and associated worries of managing workloads with competing deadlines and of relationships with technical, administrative and academic staff. Research also found that the final year can be flooded by concerns over employability. Fundamental to these issues are student relationships with both the University staff and with external employers. These relationships that can be described as intergenerational. Using the methods of Service Design and Data Mining the project designed, implemented and assessed a number of initiatives aimed at alleviating these student concerns. Key to the theory of Service Design is the management of points of contact with service providers and vital to Data Mining is the identification of patterns of behaviour that could predict non-completion. The methods can be used in a complementary manner, but each derives from different paradigms of knowledge and indeed of learning. Service Design aims to provide customer focused highly desirable services. On the other hand, data mining aims to identify signals that determine those at risk of not completing courses. Service Design has emerged from the commercial sector and entered Higher Education. It allows designers to model and improve complex interactions and address multiple, often intangible variables, contributing to the success of interactions. Within the urban design context these techniques are even being adopted to work with the multiple complex interactions necessary to build sustainable cities. Critics have suggested that used within the educational sector it presents a model of students-as-customers, which has connotations of entitlement to satisfaction. Service Design, however, is very different to other marketing tools and implies collaboration and co-design where students may also be thought of as agents for change. The potential benefits of designing better interactions are significant for students and for the University sector.