We are pleased to share the Engaging Minds State of the Art Report, a new output from Work Package 3 (WP3).

Building on the findings from WP2, the report combines insights from the Engaging Minds project with current research and an analysis of existing digital tools for student engagement. It explores the academic, institutional, social, emotional and socio-economic factors that can contribute to student disengagement and early school leaving.

A key focus of the report is the role of technology. The report examines existing digital learning tools and research on learning analytics to explore how technology can help teachers recognise when students may need support and respond in a timely and meaningful way. It highlights an important opportunity: moving beyond simply collecting data about student activity towards helping teachers interpret that information and turn it into pedagogically useful action.

The findings have been translated into a set of design guidelines, with an emphasis on teacher-friendly and low-stress solutions, pedagogically aligned analytics, process-related feedback, affective insights, and ethical and responsible use of student data.

These insights will help guide the next stages of WP3, including the development of the Engaging Minds toolkit – bringing us another step closer to turning our research into practical solutions that can support student engagement and retention.