Designing Automated Interventions/ Communications

Institutions that are underway with analytics-driven interventions often report that they see a change in many students’ academic behaviours just through the dissemination of automated interventions (eg emails or alerts in the VLE). This can be a very efficient means of communicating with students as it is possible to reach many at the same time without requiring considerable man-hours. This leaves more time that can be dedicated to assisting students in need of more in-depth support. However, while they can be effective as an initial point of contact, automated communications are not a substitute for person-to-person contact.