What are we really measuring when we measure student engagement?
What we heard at RAISE 2026 was clear: meaningful engagement is about understanding students, not simply measuring activity.
Author
James Hodgkin
Head of analytics, Jisc
At RAISE 2026, we asked the sector what it would change about student the measurement of student engagement. The answers highlighted the importance of context, connection and conversation.
What does meaningful student engagement look like? That question came up repeatedly when our learning analytics team attended the RAISE conference at Northumbria University on 9 and 10 September.
As conference sponsors, we were there to share our work with universities using learning analytics. More importantly, it was an opportunity to listen.
We asked delegates: If you could change one thing about how your institution understands or supports student engagement, what would it be? The answers varied, but some clear themes emerged. People talked about authentic engagement, changing student behaviours, fragmented data and the pressures on staff trying to support students.
Underpinning many of those conversations was a desire to understand students better, rather than simply measure their activity.
Looking beyond the numbers
Authenticity was a recurring theme at RAISE. It was at the heart of Dr Alicja Syska’s opening keynote, 'Student Engagement in Higher Education: Authentic, Actually', and came through strongly in our conversations with delegates.
One person told us what they wanted was:
“Authentic engagement. Allow students time in a classroom setting.”
It is an important reminder that engagement is much broader than attendance.
Whether a student turns up to a teaching session can be useful information, but it cannot tell us everything about their experience. Their activity in a virtual learning environment, assessment and academic progress might add to that picture. So might circumstances that are much harder to capture in data, including employment, financial pressures, caring responsibilities or wellbeing. Understanding engagement means understanding that context.
One delegate told us they would like to:
“Meet with every student to ensure they have the appropriate support to succeed and do even better rather than focusing solely on students who need support.”
That moves the conversation beyond identifying students once something has gone wrong. Better insight can create opportunities for earlier conversations and help institutions understand how they can support the success of all their students.
Better insight can create opportunities for earlier conversations and help institutions understand how they can support the success of all their students.
Understanding changing patterns of attendance
Attendance inevitably featured in conversations at RAISE, but delegates were interested in what sits behind the figures too.
One student delegate reflected on how behaviours established during the pandemic continue to influence expectations:
“Students are still impacted by Covid. We were told not to go out and [that we] didn’t have to attend school in person. That behaviour has come with us to university.”
For institutions, that creates an important distinction between recording attendance and understanding it.
One missed session might tell you very little. A changing pattern of attendance alongside other changes in engagement might tell you much more. But even then, data should be the start of a conversation, not its conclusion.
Learning analytics can help staff recognise changing patterns and decide when a student might benefit from additional contact or support. It should complement professional judgement and human relationships, not replace them.
Learning analytics can help staff recognise changing patterns and decide when a student might benefit from additional contact or support.
Bringing the pieces together
Delegates also told us about a more practical problem: the information they need can be difficult to find and use. As one put it:
“Data is in too many systems and I don’t have access to the data I need.”
That fragmentation matters. Universities already collect significant amounts of information that can contribute to their understanding of engagement. If staff have to search several systems to piece together that picture, valuable time can be lost.
Bringing relevant information together can make it easier to recognise changes and understand them in context. There is an institutional benefit too. Looking at engagement across modules, courses and cohorts can help universities understand broader patterns, assess the impact of interventions and make informed decisions about where resources and support are needed.
The goal is not more data. It is making the information institutions already have more useful. Data is only useful if we listen.
One comment left with us at RAISE captured that particularly neatly:
“Data is only powerful if people will listen.”
We think that applies to us too. Our learning analytics and attendance monitoring services help institutions bring different sources of information together, understand patterns of engagement and support timely conversations with students. But we do not want to assume that technology alone has the answers.
Listening to colleagues and students across higher education helps us understand what institutions are trying to achieve, where the barriers are and how our services need to evolve.
RAISE gave us another valuable opportunity to do that. And we would like to keep the conversation going.
If you could change one thing about how your institution understands or supports student engagement, what would it be?
Tell us what you’re seeing at your institution. Speak to your relationship manager to continue the conversation with our learning analytics team.
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