Professional services staff in universities are increasingly using the service design approach to improve the student experience. You too can learn the basics of service design in this online, self-paced course, which takes around 30 hours to complete.
Most universities say they are student centred, but in our experience, few actually are. That’s because delivering a great student experience requires a wide range of services to be purposefully designed with students in mind – and that takes time and a lot of people with skills in service design!
You can’t just send one person on a course and then expect them to lead and guide everyone else. That leaves them feeling overwhelmed. So we’ve created this affordable online course in service design specifically for higher education, to give more people the opportunity to learn these skills and work together to create valuable and sustainable change in their universities.
With institutions being increasingly judged on a range of metrics, including student attainment, retention, and student satisfaction, you need to make sure that your students are getting the best experience possible, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Student voice is also central to the new strategy from JISC – the UK’s digital, data, and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research, and innovation – which states: ‘the success of new approaches depends on staff and students as co-designers of learning, co-creators of the curriculum and co-assessors of student development.’
However, the student experience is shaped by a complex set of services involving a diverse group of departments, actions, and processes. When these don’t align, the student experience suffers. For example, poor web navigation or unclear instructions can lead to fewer applications or incomplete applications, and complicated systems can ultimately mean students take longer to graduate.
You may not feel the effects of a poor student experience right away, but over the years it will cost you students and harm your reputation. Each year, fewer students will choose your university. Retention will become more difficult and year after year, fewer students will return. In the 21st century, word quickly gets around that the student experience is poor.
The student experience is a complex set of services that include a diverse group of departments, actions, and processes and changes don’t happen overnight. When these don’t align they can cost you good students and points in rankings. They also cost students’ time resulting in them taking longer to graduate while they try to figure out how an unclear process or system works. Poor web navigation or unclear instructions can lead to fewer applications or incomplete applications. It can also lead to a general expectation that other services will be as poorly designed or developed.
You may not feel the effects of a poor student experience right away but over the years it will cost you students and reputation. Each year fewer students will choose you as their first choice (or any choice at all). Retention will become more difficult and year after year fewer students will return. Word gets around that the student experience is not good very easily in the 21st century.
In this course, you will learn a proven service design methodology for improving the student experience, through instructional videos, a workbook, expert interviews with leading practitioners, and exercises that help you practise. We’ll teach you everything you need to get started with service design, including:
step-by-step guidance through the design process
a proven strategy for conducting research
tools for discovering gaps in the student experience
how to conduct effective ideation sessions
how to employ different service prototyping styles.
There are six modules, which you can work through at your own pace, and the whole course should take around 30 hours to complete. However, this really depends on your experience, how long you spend on exercises, and whether you replay some videos.
understand how to create real value and change in your student services
be able to work with your team and others to achieve greater student satisfaction, which in turn can:
improve student retention
enhance your organisation’s reputation
help you attract talented students
improve staff satisfaction too
become a change ambassador at your university
do work that’s more impactful and therefore more rewarding.
Check out some of the multi-licenses we offer ->
This course has been developed by Pamela Spokes and Jean Mutton, two experienced service designers and higher education professionals, who are on a mission to help universities design better services for students.
Pamela works as a Service Designer for Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Finland and has her own service design consultancy, Discover, Design, Do. She has worked with a range of university departments, from admissions through to alumni, as well as external stakeholders, to create services and processes that are delivered smoothly and valued by students. Pamela has an MBA in Service Innovation and Design.
Jean has worked in universities for over 30 years, initially managing a variety of administration teams, and later focusing on the student experience. She was an early adopter of service design, using its approach to improve enrolment and transition and to address disparities in student outcomes. Since 2015, she’s worked as a freelance service designer for HE, taking on projects for JISC, Manchester Metropolitan University, Arden University, and many other institutions.
We struggled for years to figure out a way to develop improvements to the student experience on a cross-departmental level. Approaching different units within the university to re-evaluate their processes through the student experience was difficult as we didn’t have much to offer them except the knowledge that the current processes didn’t work very well. This made having some delicate conversations more difficult. Without a coherent structure to rely on, it was difficult to lead the discussion.
Then we discovered service design.
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We recognise that change can be hard and this is why we called this course CHANGE HEROs...standing for Higher Education Reorganisation for Students and Staff (HEROs)
You know that improving the student experience is important but maybe you just don’t know where to start. The importance of the student experience is increasing all over the world. Your institution’s reputation determines the quality of students who apply and arrive on campus. Making sure that the processes and services they deal with are the best they can be is your job. So, where do you even begin to improve the vast student experience?
"The whole concept of service design was not one I had remotely considered before doing the course. It was really useful to go through this all and break it down."..
"This course has given me very practical and solid steps on how to approach it [service design]."
"It’s such an enlightening process when you break down the complex web we often weave ourselves in HE to what a student actually sees, experiences, and has to negotiate their way through."
How do I help to create an experience that is truly student-centred?
What will these issues look like if no changes are made in the next year...or the next couple of years?
How will I feel about my work if I am not involved in making positive, informed, and necessary changes?
Be a part of real, impactful change at your institution.
We can't promise it will be easy, but we can promise it will be rewarding.
Join this course as an individual here.
Check out some of the multi-licenses we offer ->
If you’re not yet ready to register for the course, sign up to get free guides and resources about different service design topics – including how to conduct user interviews, and how to create student journey maps. We’ll send one email each month. Don't forget to confirm your email address!
If you have any questions about this course or service design for higher education, contact pamela (@) discoverdesigndo.com.