ABSTRACT
As with many educational phenomena, there may often be a desire to interpret student engagement at different levels of analysis. In many instances, interest centres on assessing the engagement of individual students. This might play a role in small group teaching, academic or careers advising, or student recruitment or placement activities. Often in large organisational settings, however, there is a need to evaluate practices and activities at the group level. Faculty often reflect on the characteristics of the student cohorts they are teaching. Institutional researchers produce reports showing breakdowns for targeted demographic and contextual groups. People involved in higher education often have an even more diffuse interest in discussing aspects of universities in general. The focus of such analysis moves beyond individuals and groups, and rests on the general insights and trends which constitute the substance and activity in university life. As well as being of interest in themselves, such broad pictures of engagement often form the culmination of more specific evaluations.
