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How co-design is transforming the learning experience - LX at UTS

Our collaborative culture is what differentiates UTS from other Universities. The UTS2027 Strategy builds on this, with the design of the strategy being designed collaboratively to look at increased opportunities to bring all corners of the university together to find new ways of working and support our thriving environment. So, it only makes sense that we bring our people together to co-design the initiatives that support the strategy.

The LX Transformation

The LX Transformation (LXT) is an initiative supporting Digital Partners in Learning. As one of our biggest learning and teaching programs to enhance the student experience, it’s a great example of how co-design is working to help us deliver on our goals.

From the onset, LXT has been committed to working alongside staff and students to design a teaching and learning experience tailored to their needs.

Switching to the Canvas learning management system is not only an opportunity to hit the reset button on the digital experience, but also an opportunity to truly understand the needs and motivations of the people that are part of the change and collectively design the experience.

Experience & Human Centred design

LXT has taken co-design one step further, and introduced an Experience & Human-Centred Design (HCD) stream to ensure the Canvas learning management experience will meet the needs of our staff and students.

At its simplest, HCD is about designing solutions to cater to the people impacted. It helps to generate new opportunities and outcomes, and notably improved success by engineering early.

Maryanne Dever, Executive Director of the LXT program says “Good solutions focus on the community who are your end-users. At its most effective, the very people who experience the solution should be part of the design process and become part of the design team itself. Co-design has allowed us to listen and to bring in new ideas and different perspectives, taking full advantage of the expertise from across the university”.

To gain insights from a wide group of stakeholders, research was conducted over many months of consultation, resulting in an unparalleled emphasis on tailoring a program shaped to the needs of our staff and students:

  • We have held over 50 workshops to spark discussions
  • Conducted 130 one-on-one interviews
  • Over 600 stakeholders were engaged for direct feedback
  • Over 50 targeted faculty meetings were held
  • Over 30 educational briefing sessions were organised

A space for generating new ideas

Jeannette Durick, Manager, Human-Centred Design & UX says, “HCD starts with the people you are designing for and ends with new solutions that balance human needs with business and technical considerations. The real value of what we do is to help turn qualitative data into deep insights about target audiences, which are then used to design solutions. It allows us to meet users’ actual needs rather than what we assume they need. By treating people as an extension of the team, we can build a collective view of their activities, priorities, motivations and frustrations, as well as new ways of framing and solving problems”.

Student Journey Map

One of the outputs from the HCD stream is a powerful visualization of our student experience – the Student Journey Map, which focuses on current student experiences directly before, during, and immediately after a session of study at UTS.

Its purpose is to better understand the requirements and opportunities for what students are likely to experience during the LX Transformation process. You can see detailed research findings from the student semester journey map in the Student Reference Book.

For more information about Experience & Human-Centred Design or to talk to someone about opportunities to be involved, you can contact Jeannette Durick, Manager, Human-Centred Design & UX.

Get involved

LXT is a three year program with a five year horizon, offering multiple opportunities to participate in co-design and multiple ways to enhance the staff and student experience. If you would like to be involved in future workshops or interviews, email lx.transformation@uts.edu.au.

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