Qualitative research for an online university

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Executive Summary

  • This case study demonstrates my ability to conduct end-to-end research for a customer journey.

  • I worked with June UX on this 9-month project that wrapped up May 2020. We talked to new students enrolled at an online university to find out what they need to be successful.

  • I led the usability planning and execution, recruited and managed 14 diary study participants, conducted in-depth interviews and collaborated on research analysis.

  • Our team built empathy with stakeholders for students from all backgrounds using a customer journey map and other visualizations. The client is using our research to build an insights repository and prototypes of the new student onboarding process.

 
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The Challenge

The client, an online university, didn't achieve their targeted 2018 student graduation rate and discovered that the dropout rate is highest early in the new student experience.

In order to better comprehend why the online school wasn't reaching their goals, our team needed to connect with students to remove barriers, identify opportunities to improve retention and learn how to best prepare them for the new student experience.

 
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The Methods

We decided to use complementary research methods because we needed to understand and document the new student experience from onboarding through first term. Each of the research methods informed the following phase of the study.

Stakeholder Interviews
We enlisted the help of stakeholders like faculty and admissions to gain context into their area of expertise and to start socializing this project right off the bat. Their insights helped us structure the usability study. 

Usability Study
A key phase of the onboarding process is online orientation. We wanted to identify low-hanging fruit immediately as well as gain early insights into the new student journey. The findings gave us the momentum to inform the structure of the quantitative study and diary study.

Quantitative Study
Our team conducted an online survey to examine a variety of hypotheses about new students. The results of this study helped us understand how pervasive some of the issues were and what topics or questions to emphasize in the diary study.

12-week Diary Study
We determined the best way to understand the nuances of a new student journey is to conduct a study that follows them each week of their first term. Research participants engaged in a variety of activities, including IDIs, weekly diary entries, selfie videos and unique projectives.

 
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The Tools

  • Box for participant short selfie videos

  • Zoom for the usability study

  • Calendly for scheduling participants

  • Google Sheets for project management and analysis

  • Miro for visualizing weekly findings and socializing with stakeholders

 
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The Projectives

Projectives are tools that researchers use to help participants discuss things that they are not aware of but still affect their behaviors.

  • We adapted a trending social media meme to invite participants to display their different social media personalities so we could learn more about them holistically.

  • Participants reflected on their first term by sketching a simplified journey map in the “three act play” projective.

  • Blob Tree and Blob Classroom helped participants identify their specific emotions and describe why they have those feelings.

 
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The Solution

We helped our client understand their new students in order to support them at this pivotal point in their journey to a college degree. We also guided the client to discover and prioritize opportunities and pain points through journey maps, a new student persona and other visualizations. These maps helped the client build content and communication and find ways to incorporate ongoing feedback.

In terms of a broader CX context, customers care the most about getting the job done they set out to do. It was necessary to engage key stakeholders, decision makers and implementers from each department in order to encourage adoption of improved processes across the entire new student journey.

In the end, a student's goal is not sign some documents, create a username for a portal or even successfully submit a paper to their professor. Talking to new students and visualizing their actions and emotions in a journey map creates momentum for all stakeholders to see what they can do personally and as a team to help students get the education they want.