Next-Generation Support for Community-College Students
C A S E S T U D Y
A collaboration with One Million Degrees and City Colleges of Chicago to understand and identify the barriers for traditional and non-traditional students and staff to streamline processes and amplify community college as a top option for high school graduates.
S E E K I N G
D E E P E R U N D E R S T A N D I N G
O F T H E N E E D
Research Question
What are the strengths and challenges of One Million Degrees (OMD) and City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) that play a role in providing a quality student experience?
“We’re probably losing out on a lot of students right now because the [registration] process is so cumbersome.”
— District Director of Continuing Education has been working for two years to change the online continuing ed registration process.
Service Blueprint
W H A T W E C R E A T E D
This service blueprint chronicles the journey of a student pursuing their studies at City Colleges
from application to graduation. The blueprint focuses on the activities, system actors, and challenges students encounter in their journey and lists recommendations to reimagine and improve their experience.
We co-created these service blueprints with current OMD scholars (City College students who receive support from One Million Degrees) and City College students (students with no relation to OMD) to holistically capture the delivery of services through these student experiences. These blueprints bring into focus the system actors, the activities, and the challenges scholars and students encounter in their collegiate journey. With these blueprints, we see interconnections of the OMD and CCC experiences, which led to identifying recommendations for both organizations individually and collectively to improve the student experience, for they play a crucial part in supporting each other, providing leadership and expertise to help address the identified challenges.
Recommendations Cross Impacts
and Influences
W H A T W E C O - C R E A T E D
This diagram visualizes the 18 recommendations co-created with our student co-designers based on what we learned in our 1:1 conversations with students, professors, direct-service staff members, operational and managerial staff, and executive leadership. Showing the interconnectivity of the recommendations and the timeframe to implement, we emphasize the importance of prototyping and implementing them all, not one in particular, for collectively, they provide a holistic and impactful experience for all students and staff.
Based on the challenges and barriers identified, we equip One Million Degrees and City Colleges of Chicago with 18 recommendations to improve the experiences of managers, on-the-ground staff, and students. The diagram above captures the interconnectivity of the recommendations and identifies where those with the most impact/influence sit in the system to inform applicability better.
Trauma-Informed Learning Experience
O V E R E X T E N D E D R O L E S C O N C E P T
The stated role of OMD Coordinators and CCC Advisors is to provide focused academic support for OMD Scholars and CCC students. More than 68% of children and adolescents experience a potentially traumatic event by age 16. Nearly 50% of young people who have experienced more than one traumatic event also have problems in school, emotional difficulties, and physical problems. Due to increased exposure to traumatic events, students rely on these roles for social and emotional support and academic guidance. This increased need from students puts a strain on the capacity of the Coordinator and the Advisor to fulfill their responsibilities.
C O N C E P T C O N T E X T
C O N C E P T D E S C R I P T I O N
Provide trauma-informed training to faculty, advisors, coaches, and others who contribute to the student experience.
Perform a recurring assessment of the organization’s alignment to generally accepted trauma-informed principles, including feedback from students and staff.
Safety (Physical & Emotional)
Trustworthiness
Choice and control
Collaboration
Empowerment
S E E K I N G
D E E P E R U N D E R S T A N D I N G
O F T H E N E E D
The Process
For far too long, we have approached challenges with analytical tools combined with the mindset of “that’s just how it’s done.” This project deviated from that path. ChiByDesign embraced a co-design approach that placed students’ needs at the center to understand better the unique experiences and needs of OMD scholars and the innovative ways in which OMD addresses those needs.
We also set out to understand the unique experiences a’ unique experiences and needs, particularly at Olive-Harvey, Kennedy- King, and Daley College on Chicago's South and Southwest sides. The integrity of the design process was exponentially increased by adding current OMD scholars and CCC students to the design team.
After 50 interviews with various stakeholders, the team provided recommendations at multiple levels within the systems (Organizational, Operational, and Experiential). To deliver the best recommendations, current city college students guided, corrected, and led the work throughout the project and were integral in co-creating new recommendations for scaling next-generation supports for community college students.
P R O J E C T
D E T A I L S
One Million Degrees
City Colleges of Chicago
PARTNER
Systems Transformation
PROJECT/SERVICE TYPE
14 months
PROJECT TIMELINE
OUR PROCESS
50 interviews
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D
N E X T S T E P S
This report identifies ways to capture and make sense of new data points to make decisions based on this new understanding of the student and operational experience. This new knowledge will empower stakeholders in the ecosystem to consider alternative paths to achieve their goals instead of the singular approach outlined for students today.
The recommendations encourage pushing boundaries to meet the needs of community college students holistically, but they need to be tested. We encourage prototyping these recommendations with students, faculty, and staff to iterate and advance the concepts.
To learn more about this project,
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