LEAP (Learner Engagement Activity Portal)
LEAP is our student-centred personalised engagement tool, that displays student engagement with Moodle, FASER, Listen Again, the Library, University computers and attendance.
LEAP displays a holistic view of your students’ studying experience, to help you identify and support them more effectively. LEAP also provides students with the opportunity to take control of their own learning and make more informed choices about their studies.
Student engagement
The student engagement webpages provide the following information that you may find useful.
Engagement and progress
- Viewing engagement and attendance on LEAP
- How and why we monitor engagement, including the Student Engagement Policy (.pdf)
- How we can support engagement
Recording attendance
- Recording online attendance
- Recording face-to-face attendance
- Using cards to record face-to-face attendance
- Forgotten or lost cards
- Faulty cards or card readers
Reporting absences
- How to report an absence
- Periods of extended absence
- Jury service
Enter your usual Essex login (without @essex.ac.uk) and password.
Please note that LEAP is not supported by Internet Explorer. Please open in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
Why use LEAP
Studies show that the more engaged a student is with their studies the more likely they are to achieve their academic goals1. Research suggests that showing student their own data, as LEAP does, can provide them with the opportunity to take control of their learning, give them a better idea of their current engagement in real-time and help them make informed choices about their studies2.
Our hope is that LEAP will empower students to become a more effective independent learner. Whilst providing you with clearer information to help you gauge and support engagement and academic progress of students.
1 Whitmer, Case Study D: Fine-grained analysis of student data at California State University, (accessed 11 September 2017)
2 Sclater, Peasgood and Mullan, 2016, A review of UK and international practice - Full report, (Accessed 25 June 2018)
Access to LEAP
If your role requires you to have LEAP access please email, or access needs to be amended due to a role change, the line manager of the individual/s will need to complete this online form on the individual/s behalf.
Training and User Guides
Training and guidance is available online via the Student Engagement and LEAP Moodle page and includes the following information:
- Student Engagement Policy which outlines the responsibilities of Departments, the framework of our approach to monitoring student engagement, and the process for referring to the Student Progress team.
- Ethical use of Data Principles.
- Explanation of the engagement indicators and the activities that contribute towards engagement.
- Using LEAP to support student engagement 2022-23 providing guidance on the minimum recommended departmental use of LEAP, how to use LEAP to identify students in need of support, and examples of communicating with students about engagement.
- LEAP User Guide for Staff providing practical guidance on how to navigate through LEAP.
- LEAP Guidance for Personal Tutors provides guidance in using LEAP for personal tutor meetings with students.
- Guidance for Department staff on how to release coursework marks to display in LEAP.
- LEAP resources for you to use in your communications to students.
- An archive of news and updates around student engagement and LEAP.
