Personalised Emails in First-Year Mathematics: Exploring a Scalable Strategy for Improving Student Experiences and Outcomes

Abstract

Widening participation initiatives in higher education have grown overall student numbers while also increasing the diversity of student cohorts. Consequently, enhancing student experiences and outcomes has become increasingly challenging. This study implemented personalised emails in two first-year mathematics courses as a scalable strategy for supporting students with diverse needs. Impact on student experience and outcomes was assessed through surveying and statistical comparisons to previous cohorts. It was found that students perceived the personalised emails favourably and believed the intervention would contribute to them achieving better grades. This translated to a statistically significant improvement in both student experience and academic performance in one of the courses. The results imply that personalised emails are well-suited to courses taken in students’ first semesters of university study, aiding those transitioning to the higher education environment by fostering feelings of belonging, supporting effective engagement, and easing navigation of university systems and processes.

On-Campus Students Moving Online During COVID-19 University Closures: Barriers and Enablers

“…Lastly, by providing advice and direction via regular (weekly) emails outlining where students should be up to in relation to content, reminding them of upcoming assessment, providing links to academic support and assistance, and generally helping them to keep on track with their learning can help students adjust to the online learning environment and overcome the absence of classroom cues. Similar benefits of this regular course focussed communication have been found by others to foster belonging and engagement and benefit academic performance (Dart & Spratt, 2021;Drok, 2020;Lawrence et al, 2021) To summarise the learning and teaching practices that most effectively enabled these three students to learn during the COVID move to online were:…”

Does Course Specific Nudging Enhance Student Engagement, Experience and Success?: A Data-Driven Longitudinal Tale

“…This term is being assigned to institutional projects and the project team wondered if an alternative term needs to be considered for course-based interventions? For example, Dart and Spratt (2021) in their consideration of personalised emails in two first-year mathematics courses as a scalable strategy for supporting students with diverse needs, used the use the term "personalised emails".…”

Evaluating the Impact of Worked Example Videos for Blended Learning in a Large-Enrolment Business Statistics Course

“…Mathematical skill levels and prior knowledge are one critically important aspect, as students with well-developed learning strategies and prior exposure to statistical concepts are more likely to be academically successful (Ali & Iqbal, 2012;Intepe & Sheaman, 2020;Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003). However, widening participation trends have grown the proportion of students without traditional preparation (such as mature-age learners), meaning there is an increasing cohort who lack a background in statistics (Dart & Spratt, 2021;Nguyen et al, 2016). Moreover, in Australia where the present study was performed, a steady decline in students choosing to study higherlevel mathematics in high school has occurred over the last decade (Barrington & Evans, 2016).…”

“…This combined with Australian universities removing formal prerequisites for admission (Office of the Chief Scientist & Australian Mathematical Institute, 2020) has meant a lack of mathematics preparation at the undergraduate level even for school-leavers (Intepe & Sheaman, 2020;King & Cattlin, 2015). Consequently, there is a growing need to bridge students without an ideal educational background for attempting statistics courses (Dart & Spratt, 2021). Given the flexibility and personal agency associated with video resources, blended designs, which offer video material as a supplement to existing face-toface teaching, pose an attractive option.…”

“…Finally, large-enrolment courses typically encounter high levels of cohort diversity (Mulryan-Kyne, 2010), stemming from introductory subject matter being compulsory for students from a range of majors (Owston et al, 2019). Furthermore, students typically attempt large-enrolment courses early in their degrees, so are still undergoing the transition to higher education (Dart & Spratt, 2021). WEVs are wellsuited to these situations given they can accommodate students with widely varying levels of prior knowledge, interests, and confidence with the subject matter.…”