A student engagement platform collects comprehensive data about individuals’ progress across their education journey. Which means it benefits many more people than just the students. From progress to performance, attendance and more, data gathered by this essential tool helps put education management into the hands of staff, senior leaders and students. The results are better communications, better decisions and better outcomes for everyone involved.
CEDAR: designed for further education
CEDAR from UNIT-e is a prime example of an engagement tool specifically for students and the wider Further Education community, and one that works in three different ways:
- It brings together essential information in one easily accessible location
- It opens up more effective channels of communication between all parties involved
- It provides the data and technology framework that keeps students on track for success in their studies
So, a student engagement tool like CEDAR does more than you might expect, for a much wider group of people than you may have thought.
How can technology be used to engage and motivate students?
The debate about technology use in education and educational establishments is over. Now the focus is on how to choose the most appropriate technology and how to use it in the most effective way, to achieve the best results.
The more closely these questions are examined, the more evident it becomes that the right answers reach outside the physical educational environment. With powerful student management and engagement platforms, technology can now extend communication beyond these boundaries – providing important advantages for student motivation and student engagement in Further Education.
The benefits of a student engagement platform
Time pressures. Workloads. The difficulties of scheduling physical meetings. The realities of the average day in any Further or Higher Education establishment mean face-to-face engagements make up only a tiny fraction of most students’ days.
But the number of interactions they need – for advice, support, or basic administrative requirements – makes an effective engagement platform an essential tool. One that can facilitate easier, more effective, and more frequent interactions not only for students, but also for the teaching staff who work with them, and even for the students’ parents.
By collecting a wide range of data related to each student – including:
- Punctuality
- Attendance
- Attainment
- Pastoral care
- Other indicators
…it begins to paint a picture of the individual and their progress through the education experience.
Keeping the student at the centre
Bringing technology into student engagement does not mean that education becomes all about the data rather than the student. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Because this kind of engagement tool:
- Delivers comprehensive data
- Serves it up all in one place
- Makes it accessible by all stakeholders on any device
…the data is explicitly connected to the student, and the student always remains the focus.
The data helps teaching staff to better understand the student. It can help the student to better understand their own situation. And it informs more effective conversations between all parties involved.
With progress, achievements and challenges all clearly visible, it becomes far easier to:
- Identify areas of concern
- Take action to keep the student on track
- Help the student achieve their true potential
Supporting teaching staff
A further advantage of a further education and sixth form student engagement platform such as CEDAR is in making it easier for teaching staff to be more effective. The platform increases the amount of data available and makes it all more readily accessible. It facilitates a greater number of interactions, and co-ordinates and streamlines the workflow to make them easier to manage and more productive. And it provides automated alerts and recorded updates to ensure schedules are maintained and deadlines met.
Together, the information and tools provided give teaching staff just what they need to help students experience a more personalised, more productive and more successful.
More than just a platform
For a tool which can do so much – not only for students but also for teaching staff, senior leaders and even parents – perhaps ‘student engagement platform’ is too limiting a term. Maybe ‘CEDAR’ is a good alternative name. Find out why.
