Driving Progress with CENTURY at Middlesbrough College

“This is a massive improvement for an FE college in the northeast. This data is a clear indicator that if you’re using the platform, you’re making progress.”

Middlesbrough College is in its third year of using the CENTURY platform. They provided their GCSE results for the 2023-24 academic year to CENTURY’s Data team, who compared student outcomes and usage of the platform.

CENTURY sat down with Rich Walsh, English and Maths Innovation Manager at the college, to understand how the college has implemented the platform and shared the results of the analysis. Read on to learn about CENTURY’s impact.

How do you use CENTURY?

We ask students to complete three nuggets a week. These could be assigned by lecturers as a recall activity or can also be used as a flipped learning tool. Alternatively, the platform can be used for homework to address areas of weakness. We track engagement, considering a student ‘engaged’ if they complete their three assigned nuggets per week. This strategic approach has led to a massive increase in usage compared to previous years, in 2023-24, students completed over 60,000 nuggets, and per student, the engagement has really improved.

Has CENTURY reduced tutor workload or saved time?

It absolutely saves time. Previously, staff would have handed out worksheets that would all need marking and feedback. For a typical lecturer that’s 90 to 100 worksheets every week. With CENTURY, everything is effectively done for us. It’s a small initial time investment to set up a week’s worth of work so it’s a no-brainer for us.

Do you have a student success story?

The one that really stands out is a student who came to us with no grade whatsoever. She completed hundreds of nuggets for both English and maths and achieved two Grade 5s in the November resit. She wanted to continue and by the end of the year she left with a Grade 9 in maths and a Grade 7 in English. 

How do you motivate students to study on CENTURY?

We run internal competitions and display the top three departments by usage on plasma screens throughout the college. We base the competition on the percentage of students completing the assigned three nuggets per week. There’s a healthy rivalry among curriculum team leaders to win these. 

What do lecturers and students like most about the platform?

Students really like the easy-to-use user interface. They find it straightforward and know where to find assigned work. We always discuss the learning path and how it’s generated, encouraging them to go above and beyond.  From the staff’s perspective, the ability to see class-wide results at a glance is incredibly helpful. It helps staff provide concrete feedback, saving significant marking time.

Our internal pupil voice surveys show that 97% of students view CENTURY as a very positive tool, and staff feedback is overwhelmingly positive too.

What is your reaction to the exam data analysis?

I’ve never had such an in-depth analysis of CENTURY Tech usage versus our student progress, so it’s really helpful. It’s brilliant to see the impact it has made.

Looking at our historical progress, in 2022-23, English progress was 0.23 and maths was 0.09. In the last academic year, where we actively drove CENTURY’s use, English jumped to 0.38 and maths to 0.27. This is a massive improvement for an FE college in the northeast. This data is a clear indicator that if you’re using the platform, you’re making progress.

GCSE Exam Data Analysis 

An in-depth analysis of CENTURY usage compared to English and maths outcomes at Middlesbrough College revealed significant positive correlations. 

For maths, students who completed at least 50 unique nuggets achieved a pass rate nearly 10% above the 2023-24 national average.

Furthermore, for maths, completing just 25 unique nuggets resulted in over one in three students making at least one grade’s progress.

In English, the trend was similar. The cohort completing at least 50 unique nuggets exceeded the national average pass rate. 

Similar to maths, 25 unique nuggets in English correlated with one in three users making at least one grade’s progress compared to their incoming grade.

What are your plans for going forward with CENTURY?

From my perspective, the strategy will remain the same: an expectation for students to complete three nuggets per week, assigned by tutors. 

I am optimistic for next year, especially with this evidence and data. If we can continue to present this positively to students – “You do this and you will achieve better outcomes,” – I hope we will maintain good engagement and buy-in.

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