In autumn 2021 we implemented the Student Engagement Dashboard across the institution. The next phase of that implementation will see the use of QR codes in teaching rooms to capture student attendance at classes as part of their overall engagement with their course.

The Student Engagement Dashboard has been introduced to enable colleagues to identify students who may require additional welfare or academic support. The dashboard compiles data from Microsoft Teams, Moodle and Echo 360 to provide an overview of a student’s engagement. Attendance data for in-person teaching sessions will enable us to build a more comprehensive picture of that engagement, and data from QR codes is now included in the Student Engagement Dashboard.

Attendance data will also help us to fulfil Visas and Immigration statutory monitoring requirements, as well as to maintain accurate records of active students in case an assumed attendance withdrawal process is required. The data will be reviewed once a term for this purpose.

From Monday 31 January 2022 teaching colleagues across the university will be required to display QR codes for undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to scan during teaching sessions. Schools and departments will specify the types of sessions for which QR codes should be used.

There will be a unique QR code for every teaching session and it will be the responsibility of the member of staff running that session to make the code available to all students in attendance. The code will be operational for a set period of time to prevent retrospective use. Schools and departments will offer guidance around generating and displaying QR codes and will be able to support with the process. These codes can be generated prior to the session and embedded within slides, or during the session itself and displayed on the screen – a link to the QR code generator has been made available in every lecture theatre. Guidance and support for using QR codes can be found at the link above.

If students have trouble scanning the codes – or do not have a device with a QR scanner – their attendance can be manually registered.

QR codes will not be required for online teaching sessions as digital attendance data is automatically captured and stored through Microsoft Team, Moodle and Echo360.

We will be communicating this change to all students from Thursday 27 January. This article will be updated at that point to include the student comms should colleagues wish to share these with students. In the meantime, information for students about the Student Engagement Dashboard can be found on the Current Students webpages.