The Knowing Your Students (KYS) and Knowing Your Unit (KYU) reports, accessed through Power BI,  provide a detailed description of the cohort in each unit of study. It updates each night to reflect any changes in enrolments.

Features

• View student statistics for the University, your faculty, school or units of study
• Shows a range of demographic information (eg, which countries students are from, what languages are spoken at home)
• Information about your students' entry pathway, degree progression, attendance mode, study load
• See students who may need additional support (eg, they are on the progression register or have failed this unit of study previously)
• See common degrees and other units of study students are enrolled in (for larger units of study only)

Access

• Log in to Power BI using your unikey. Your level of access depends on your teaching leadership role. A VPN is required when accessing off-campus. Log in to Power BI using your unikey.

• In the left menu, click ‘Apps’. Then, click the ‘Get apps’ button.

• Look for the ‘Knowing your students’ tile, and click ‘Get it now’. Wait for it to load.

• Click into the app. To make it appear on your Power BI homepage, click the star icon to make it a favourite.

• A detailed Knowing Your Student user guide (pdf) has also been created that provides specific information on each of the charts used in the report and How to use Power BI videos are also available.

The SRES is a web-based program that allows teachers to quickly and efficiently collect and analyse data about their students. User workshops are held regularly.

Features

• Collect attendance, marks, and other data mobile devices
• Import grades, attendance and other data into SRES from Canvas and other sources
• Use customisable filters to personalise your feedback to students and engage with them through email and SMS
• Send students feedback, reminders and updates

Access

• Please email the Educational Innovation helpdesk on [email protected] for all SRES queries.

Track and Connect is an early intervention program working to actively support and retain first-year undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students across the University.

Features

• Tailored advice and support is provided to students identified as at risk of failure or discontinuation from participating units based on engagement and assessment data.
• Senior student peers contact first-year students by phone to provide information, encouragement and referrals to University support services. Calls are made at three key time points in semester; prior to the census date, prior to the Discontinue not count as failure (DC) date and prior to final exams. Unit co-ordinators are required to provide lists of students identified for call in advance of each call period.
• De-identified student feedback is provided to unit co-ordinators following each call period.

Access

• Academic staff coordinating a first-year unit of study (undergraduate or postgraduate) can find out more by contacting the Student Retention Coordinator at [email protected].

The University regularly surveys our students and graduates about their study experience at the University, as well as their employment and further studies following graduation.

Access

• Reports on these surveys are available on the Survey Reports page. Teaching or leadership staff can access more fine-grained results via the Student Survey System.

Customised student data analysis can be undertaken on request. Typically, these reports are requested to support the academic leadership team in strategic decision making, or when teaching staff want deeper insights into student performance. The insights in these reports may often be deeper than in the standard reports .

Recent examples of customised reports are:

Statistical Analysis of English Language Pathways

Access

To request customised student data analysis, please submit a request to the AAP team via the AAP Request Form.

Learning analytics is the analysis and use of University-held student information to improve students’ learning experience and outcomes. Access to student data for analytics purposes requires the approval of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students).  (See Section 13.11 University of Sydney (Delegations of Authority – Administrative Functions) Rule 2016.)

Processes for accessing student data

Researchers may apply to access student data for research or non-research purposes as follows:

How to apply to access student data for research purposes

1. Submit your Human Ethics Application
2. When your ethics application indicates you will use University-held student data for research this will be automatically forwarded to DVC (Education and Students) delegates to make a decision regarding access to the data. This decision may be full access, partial access, or rejection.  Data Access and provision will be conditional on the overall project approval from the Human Ethics Research Committee. 
3. The decision regarding access to the student data will be emailed directly to the applicants. The Ethics Office will advise the researchers of the outcome of their ethics application via their usual processes.

How to apply to access student data for non-research purposes

Non-research purposes include internal University of Sydney analysis and visualisation of student information where the results are not intended to be published or presented externally.

If you are seeking data for internal statistical analysis or data visualisation:

1. Submit an analytics online application form to Advanced Analytics & Planning (AAP).
2. AAP will register the application and refer it to the DVC (Education and Students) for approval.
3. The DVC (Education and Students) will make a decision about the data access application, and advise AAP in writing.  This decision may grant the applicant full access, partial access, or rejection.
4. AAP will advise the applicant of the outcome of their application, and record the decision.