Integrating Student Voices

Foundation for California Community Colleges

Uncovering the most critical gaps and needs of students on their journeys through college to employment to inform priorities and in the design and delivery of more impactful student programs and initiatives.

Problem Statement

Student voices are not incorporated into the planning of key student programs and services.

How might we better understand and share student experiences (now and ongoing) to inform and enable community colleges, workforce development boards, and employers to incorporate student voices, needs and perspectives, into programs that support students' success, and especially for those facing high barriers.

Approach

The discovery research was designed to get a high-level view of students’ community college journeys, in goal setting and navigation through to employment, from a diverse and representative set of students.

Research Design

Setting the project up for success with intentional and focused research, including an opportunity framing workshop, design brief, survey design and participants recruitment plans.

Discovery

Research to learn about current experiences through a survey and student interviews.

Synthesis and Visualizations

Understanding, assessing and visualizing the research data through affinity mapping, personas, development and student journey maps.

Ideation

Identify and envision service improvement opportunities with stakeholders through interviews and ideation workshops.

“Realization of how much the student perspective/journey had relevance to the work we do, I do. That was the biggest revelation.” - Lori Sanchez, Manager of Future of Work and Learning Initiatives

“I honestly think it [report] looks awesome! I really like the content and the mix of the personas and the maps.” - Rene Velazquez Jr., Specialist, Future of Work and Learning Initiative

Outcomes

Equipped with research insights about student’s experiences synthesized as narrative, personas and journey maps, Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC):

• Elevated the voices of students by incorporating student findings into employer engagement research reports sponsored by the James Irvine and Lumina Foundations.

• Shared student research findings with the Chancellor’s office of the California Community College System, to colleges and various agencies to create a shared understanding of the diverse needs and pain points of students, preventing them from connecting successfully with many support services and career goals

• Co-developed with Power of Design a plenary workshop for California Community College Association of Occupational Education’s (CCCAOE) annual conference that used personas and journey maps to prompt college professionals to consider service improvements that could be made to address students’ needs.

• Gained a set of findings and recommendations for strategic planning and direction-setting for the Future of Work and Learning Initiative team and beyond.

Critical Success Factors

Power of Design is credited with:

• Holistically capturing student voices with an outside-in approach to research supported by stakeholder views and needs

• Collaborating with FCCC to define a clear and impactful research focus through an opportunity framing workshop series

• Developing a research plan to reach a diverse set of perspectives broadly across the California Community College System within a reasonable scope

• Creating a Findings and Recommendations document that has inspired partners in the California Community College ecosystem to utilize what was learned in their programs

• Empowering the FCCC team with greater knowledge and comfort with engaging in Human-Centered Design (HCD) practices and how to incorporate this approach in future work activities

Deliverables

• Personas

• Journey Maps

• Design Principles

• Student Findings and Recommendations Report

• Stakeholder Engagement addendum report

Viewable at: FCCC Research for Public Release Folder

Services:

• Opportunity Framing Workshop

• Discovery

• Services Strategy

• Design Thinking Workshops