Email notifications and other “nudges” targeting at-risk students have little impact on their well-being or academic engagement, according to the results of a trial held at three UK universities.

Learning analytics data, such as class attendance or use of virtual learning systems, was used to identify students who appeared to have been struggling and they then received automatic email and app notifications prompting them to seek help. 

But researchers at The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (Taso), found the students did not engage with the messages and there was no increased use of well-being services.

“The use of learning analytics systems to proactively identify students with poor attendance and direct them to wellbeing support services via nudge interventions had no measurable impact on students’ subsequent academic engagement across any of the trials,” a report says.

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“There was also no evidence of a causal link between these nudges and other outcomes relating to uptake of wellbeing support services.”

The trial at Northumbria University, one of the institutions involved, saw students receive emails signposting them to guided online self-help services or to one-to-one support.

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It found little overlap between the students identified as having low well-being by the analytics system, and those who previously reported having poor well-being to a survey that was conducted when they enrolled. 

Consequently, “the assumed link between light-touch communication based on analytics data, wellbeing and academic engagement is not supported by the evidence from these trials”. 

Another trial at the University of Staffordshire, where students in a test group who had an attendance rate below 60 per cent received a notification from their university app signposting them to well-being services and careers support, saw “no significant impact on attendance” from these students compared with a control group who did not receive such notifications. 

There was also no impact on student logins into their VLE systems, and no significant difference between students in the treatment and control groups in the likelihood of students accessing support services.

One student at another trial at the University of East Anglia – where students were sent an email with well-being resources – told the report: “I didn’t click on the link. I was already aware of well-being services because I looked into them last year. I wasn’t in distress, so I didn’t feel the need to explore further.”

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The report says that “it is not clear” that “analytics data can effectively target students who are at risk of poor wellbeing”. 

“We encourage providers to test whether populations of at-risk students identified by their analytics data overlap as expected with groups identified via other means, for example wellbeing surveys.

“If and where this is not the case, providers should think about whether this challenges the assumptions behind the support they currently target at such groups,” it says.

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A separate Taso report – also published on 12 March – showed that building trusted relationships with staff and peers was the key to boosting student confidence, developing supportive networks and engaging more positively with their studies.

Omar Khan, Taso’s chief executive, noted mental health challenges among students are “at an all-time high”. 

“We need better evidence on how to improve student well-being, enabling everyone to thrive at university and beyond. The results from our well-being projects released today show there is no substitute for human connection.

“While learning analytics offer opportunities to reach more students, the data underpinning these systems must be meaningful, monitored, and accompanied by relationship-building activities between staff and the students who need the most help,” he said.

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com