How Online Education is the Key to Student Engagement!

Prioritising Student Engagement in a Growing Landscape 

As student populations at universities continue to expand, there’s a heightened emphasis on engagement to grasp students’ needs. This necessitates closer scrutiny of student engagement levels by institutions.

With the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reporting a significant increase of over 100,000 students from 2020/2021 to 2021/2022, staff face mounting pressure to cater to larger cohorts.

Consequently, institutions must adopt strategies to monitor and manage engagement levels effectively, ensuring a smooth transition for the growing number of students.

Online Learning

Implementing online learning reduces costs for universities, accommodating the increasing cost of living for students. Many students have resorted to taking on additional part-time work to address financial challenges.

Consequently, on-campus attendance is not feasible for all students, necessitating the introduction of online education. To mitigate rising student attrition rates, universities are transitioning to a hybrid learning approach. This adaptation allows students to learn in their preferred manner, balancing online and on-campus instruction to accommodate diverse needs and schedules.

How is it Helping?

SEAtS are providing solutions for student attendance management. One of our customers who are implementing our strategy of using online learning channels to improve engagement is Kingston University London (KUL).

In 2017, KUL looked to track student engagement online which proved to be a very useful tool. Using online learning institutions are developing students at a more successful rate. There is an opportunity for institutions to use SEAtS to introduce online education in a more accessible way. Following KUL onboarding of platform they have improved to being able to provide more proactive support for all their students.

Key Points on Online Education

• eLearning has a massive growth of more than 900% since 2000
• Online Education takes 40-60% less time than traditional education
• The completion rate for online courses is 72%
• Online Learning can increase student retention rates by 25-60%
• Online education produces 85% less Co2 emissions and consumes 90% less energy overall
• 70% of students say online learning is better than traditional classroom learning
• The number of online learning users is expected to grow to 57 million users by 2027

These are useful insights for universities to increase student retention and provide campus sustainability. The education sector is changing and we all must be ready to adapt to the digital shift in education.

Interested in learning more about how SEAtS can help you implement more effective student interventions? Contact Us Today!