Reflection – Visualization

Challenge

I work in the postgraduate department of a public university. As general  coordinator I seek to improve the administrative and academic processes of the  area. One of the biggest challenges outlined by the area was to find the reasons  why students were late or missed their master's classes, generating discomfort for  the teacher who in some cases had to repeat the content of the class. Likewise, at  the end of the module they obtained low grades and punished with a low grade in  the heterogeneous evaluation of the teacher. All this generated an uncomfortable  situation for both the management of classes and administrative attention.

Selection

The first tool used was Journey Mapping, which shows the steps that students  follow during their experience and relationship with the university. It allows to  visualize through a diagram each one of the phases of the student and their  interaction with the service they receive.

The second tool that was proposed to work was Workshop, which allows students  to directly interact with the process, give information based on experience and  help find causes and improvements in the workshop.

Obtaining the best from the Workshop, it was proposed to land what was found  and propose a solution in Co-Creation, in order for students to feel part of the  solution to the challenge posed.

Finally, the Visualization tool was used, which allowed giving a final presentation  interactively to all students, teachers and administrators, so that everyone  understands the importance of change and impact on the final result.

Application

All the previously mentioned tools were applied in work sessions with the  students (clients). We recognized that the most important thing for the solution to  be successful was to listen to the voice of the students and through their  experience to find a solution to the problem. The sessions were held on Saturdays,  so that they did not interfere with their working hours or night studies during the  week. It was kept with the students about the idea of starting this project  together, giving them the freedom to participate in the discussion of ideas, search  for root causes and analysis of possible solutions. The purpose of each workshop  was to get to know more about the student's way of life outside the classroom,  how their work and family load was distributed, not just the academic one.

Insight

Developing visual tools in the workshops allowed us to observe the long journeys  that students had to make to get to university. One of the realities found was to  realize that the students found it difficult to get to the university campus due to  their location, the schedule for teaching classes and the restrictions they had on  their own work. When mapping the routes, identifying the areas with the greatest  influx and displacement, it was observed that just at the time set for the start of  classes, it was related to the peak hours of traffic in the city and caused students  to arrive late to their lessons. Similarly, it was observed that there were alternate  routes that were very little used by the students, which could serve for a faster  arrival.

Approach

For next internship I would like to invite the managers and owners of the  companies where our students work, since they indirectly have a relationship with  the master's students. I think that if they realized the effort and dedication that  was put into the project, they could give more flexibility in their work and see the  investment that there is to learn in the academic field, which would allow them to  see the positive results applied in their own organizations.

