Scaling up use of SRES in semester 2, 2020

The ‘Student Relationship and Engagement System’ (SRES) was developed by teachers at Sydney to help other teachers personalise engagement with large student cohorts. By providing easy ways to personalise feedback and learning support at scale to students via emails and web portals, SRES gives teachers access to data that are meaningful in their contexts to target feedback and support. In 2019, SRES was used in over 550 units, covering over 60,000 unique students. Such is its power, popularity and applicability across all disciplines and faculties, its increased use was highlighted as key in the Student Experience Strategy. It was built by teachers from the University and continues to expand its capabilities through input from coordinators.

The table below shows the 10 most active units in semester 2, 2019.

The experience of staff and students during the COVID crisis in semester 1 has highlighted the need for regular, effective and personalised support for students. Semester 2 will present similar challenges. SRES is ideally suited to providing personalised support to all learners, as it empowers teachers to collect, analyse, and act on data to better engage students at scale wherever they are located.

With the endorsement of the Associate Deans (Education), relevant unit coordinators will be invited to submit an expression of interest (EOI) for the supported development and integration of SRES in their units of study. Depending on uptake during this first EOI round, a second round will be extended to other 1000- and 5000-level unit coordinators, including those who have already adopted SRES on a more limited basis.

After units are identified and coordinators have agreed to participate, consultations with each will be arranged so that training, support and SRES sites can be arranged. This approach will ensure that use of SRES is tailored to the needs of each unit and coordinator, and will be focused on providing students with personalised support and feedback. Active support will include an educational designer assisting you in setting up SRES for your unit and working with you to design a personalised student support and engagement strategy that suits your individual teaching context. They will then liaise with you throughout the semester to ensure that everything is running smoothly and assist you in evaluating and adapting your approach if needed.

To take advantage of this, please email [email protected] with the following information:

1. Unit code
2. Unit enrolment, or predicted numbers
3. A short paragraph explaining the context of your cohort and how you’d like to support your students.

Don’t forget that SRES is available for all coordinators. If you would like to find out more and see how it will work in your unit, contact us: [email protected].