What are Exemptions in StREAM@Leeds? - SES Guide
Exemptions are used to prevent select students from triggering Notifications during a specified period of time, despite them not meeting the defined thresholds of engagement. For example, if a student is expected to have zero interaction with digital education systems due to an authorised absence, an Exemption applied across these dates would prevent the student from triggering a No Digital Engagement Notification.
Exemption types
The reasons for a student to have an Exemption applied are limited to the following options:
- Authorised Absence - The student has been granted an authorised absence from their faculty/school/institute via the Minerva Absence self-certification process or via the mitigating circumstances process. This can also apply to programme specific off-site fieldwork/field trips.
- Break in Learning (DA) - The student is currently on an approved break in learning for their degree apprenticeship.
- Dissertation Period – The student is currently completing the dissertation period of their degree, so is not expected to engage significantly with digital education systems.
- Practice Placement Block – Student currently on a practice placement or is off-site as part of their learning.
- Withdrawn – This can be used as a temporary Exemption on a student record. Staff should be aware that student registration status changes in Banner can take a minimum of a week to reflect in StREAM@Leeds. This Exemption is to be used for students who are awaiting their Banner registration to reflect temporary or permanent leave, or to stop notifications for deceased students pulling into Engagement reports.
Once an Exemption has been applied, it will prevent Notifications from triggering for the student during the selected date range. A small number of schools have opted for to be notified by email of Notifications. Exemptions will also prevent these from being generated for the defined date range.
Limitations
- Exemptions can take 48 hours to take effect so it is better to plan ahead. For example, if an Exemption is applied on Monday, Notifications may still trigger until Wednesday.
- Exemptions can only be created to cover dates in the future. Previously created Exemptions can be extended, moved or deleted, as long as the end date is in the future.
- It is not possible to apply an Exemption retrospectively to cancel out Notifications that have already been triggered.
Who can apply Exemptions?
SES staff who support digital engagement monitoring and have access to StREAM@Leeds can create Exemptions. We do not recommend SES staff use Exemptions with regular Minerva approved absence requests due to workload, but you may want to use for groups of students where you are aware they will not be engaging for a selected period of time.
Academic Personal Tutors are advised that they can request Exemptions in exceptional circumstances and should contact their student support office for more information.
Is it possible to apply Exemptions to a group of students?
Yes, an Exemption can either be applied to an individual student record or to a group of students all at once, known as Bulk Exemptions.
Applying a Bulk Exemption is particularly useful should you have a cohort of students who require a period of exemption over the same time period and for the same reason, such as a Practice Placement.