This past year, an Innovation Hub Design Research team worked on a project focused on the experiences of students who are also parents. In this blog, team members reflect on the importance of empathy in listening deeply to student parent stories and understanding their needs. The team shares some of their reflections from the work, what they learned, and their hopes for how the university can continue to become family friendly.  

Written by the Innovation Hub’s Experiences of Students Who Are Also Parents Design Research Team

Over the past year, the Innovation Hub worked in partnership with Spaces & Experiences to understand the needs of commuter students to support the design of future spaces intended to support them. In this blog, the Innovation Hub’s design research team reflects upon learnings from working on the year-long commuter spaces project, emphasizing that many students’ needs can be met in relatively simple ways.   

Written by the Commuter Student Spaces team

The Qualitative Data Archivist Team supports Innovation Hub projects using qualitative research skills, with each team member taking away something different from their experience. The 2023-2024 team reflects on how their dynamic workload fosters collaboration and how this can also lead to personal growth. 

Written by the Innovation Hub Qualitative Data Archivist Team

Our Design Research Team for the International Students: First 48 Hours in Canada project reflect on their experience working with eight international students as they travel to Canada to study at U of T to create an impactful documentary and report of findings. The team shares how much empathy they felt for the students hearing their stories throughout the process, and expresses appreciation for Cal Campos, an incredible filmmaker who worked with us over the last year to produce the documentary.   

Written by the Innovation Hub International Students First 48 Hours in Canada Design Research Team

Through co-creation sessions, interviews, and a journal activity, the Innovation Hub team working with Sport & Rec strived to understand what makes or breaks a student’s experience when they engage in movement. The Design Research team reflects on valuable lessons they learned and how they honed their ability to collaborate as a team.  

Written by the Innovation Hub Sport & Rec Team

The Community Animation Design Researcher team reflects on their year designing social programming, professional skill-building events, and student feedback sessions together. 

Written by Cheryl Nong, Research Coordinator, Honours Bachelor of Science, Psychology and Neuroscience Double Major 

The Innovation Hub continued its partnership with the Arts & Science University of Toronto Quality Assurance Process (UTQAP) this year by conducting design research-based student consultations for academic programs. The Arts & Science UTQAP Design Research Team reflects on the research journey recognizing the importance of finding meaning and achieving personal growth, through understanding student academic community and stories.

Written by the Innovation Hub A&S University of Toronto Quality Assurance Process Design Research Team

In the What Matters to U of T Students? report, the Innovation Hub compiled student stories, highlighting the important connection between identity exploration and the university community. Ava shares her personal testimony highlighting her journeys in self-discovery at U of T.  

Ava Hawkins, Blog Editor & Digital Content Writer, Honours Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science & Psychology 

Check out the Innovation Hub Annual Report 2022-23. Learn about what we have been up to and discover how to get involved in the work. 

Written by Julia Allworth, Manager, Innovation Projects

The UTQAP Design Research Teams reflect on their journey through these projects and the importance of collaboration and empathy in the design research process uncovering the value of human connection in both data collection and data analysis. 

The Innovation Hub recently concluded its Expanding Access: Sport & Rec project. Francesca, Design Research Team Lead, reflects on how stories can build empathy in understanding others throughout the research process.  

Written by Francesca Pabale, Design Research Team Lead, Master of Education, Higher Education 

One Innovation Hub team shares their experience working with Tech2U, a program that provides direct technical support to instructors in their classroom. The team reflects on how they feel Tech2U is a program that supports both students and instructors and enhances the learning experience at the University of Toronto.  

Written by Tiffany Tan, Chenyu Huang, Cindy Ly, Jackie Betel (Design Researcher); Anchana Kuganesan, Design Research Team Lead

The “It’s Okay to Ask for Help” Video builds upon the Learning with Integrity Campaign and educate students on topics of academic integrity. The Academic Integrity team reflects on what they learned from the project and hopes to inspire others to reach out and ask for help. 

Early plans are underway to redevelop Sidney Smith Hall as an iconic building at the University of Toronto. The Design Research Team reflects on the design thinking process, highlighting the importance of collaborative approaches to understanding the core needs of U of T community members.

Emily Ha-Tchong, Martha Khoshabeh, Aleksandra Adach, and Gauri Sachin Patki, Design Researchers, and Yunlong (Justin) Feng, Design Research Team Lead

The Innovation Hub recently concluded its project, Co-Creating Identity at University College, a partnership with University College. The Design Researcher Team reflects on the value of building an evolving identity co-created by its community.

This year, the Innovation Hub partnered with Health & Wellness to focus on how students take care of their mental health. The Design Research Team discovered the importance of working together to conduct inspiring work that was grounded in the experiences that students shared.

The Innovation Hub recently concluded its project, Cultivating Reciprocity at Chestnut Dining Hall, a partnership with Food Services. The Design Researcher Team reflects on the value of co-creation in designing the future of dining at Chestnut.

Written by Spencer Ki, Design Research Team Lead, Honours Bachelor of Science, Physics and Statistical Sciences 

The Innovation Hub recently concluded its Innovation in Digital Scholarship on the Robarts Library Fifth Floor project. Spencer Ki, Design Research Team Lead, reflects on the power different perspectives can have when untangling a wicked problem. 

Written by Eli Rose, (Design Research Team Lead), Bo Phi, Kimberly Mak, Yin Chen Wan (Design Researchers) 

In this project, we partnered with Chestnut Residence to gain a deeper understanding of the student experience at the dining hall and help Food Services build a positive and collaborative relationship with students and staff. In this work, the Food Services Design Research Team reflects on their experiences. 

Written by Katherine Zheng – Digital Content Writer, Emily Ling – Manager, Capital Projects & Planning, UTL & Glen Morales – Chief Administrative Officer, UTL

Written by: Sabrina Wu, Senior Research Assistant

There are many student groups and communities – each contributing to the University in various ways. In partnership with the Sexual and Gender Diversity Office (SGDO), the Trans and Nonbinary (TNB) Student Experiences Project set out to seek a deeper understanding of TNB student experiences in two phases.

Written by: Sabrina Wu, Senior Research Assistant

In the Faculty of Dentistry Student Experience project, we partnered with the Faculty of Dentistry to gain a deeper and nuanced understanding of the current Dentistry student experience and how it can be strengthened. While this project was specific to the Dentistry student experience, I found that the student needs around learning resonated with our team as well in our own learning experience. I have learned a lot through this project about the courage it takes to continue down the path of learning, as well as how to communicate what I have learned.  

Written by Sanskriti Maheshwari, Senior Research Assistant, Transforming the Instructional Landscape 

The Tech2U program launched in the fall of 2021 with the goal of humanizing classroom technical support to foster innovative teaching and learning in an increasingly technological classroom landscape. The initiative was launched as part of Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL). Tech2U is a partnership between Learning Space Management and the Innovation Hub. 

Written by Marcus Lomboy (Senior Research Assistant), Tiffany Lee , Christopher Simpson, Isabel Bowman & Maliha Sarwar (Design Research Assistant)

Mental health is a complex issue. And designing a service that effectively meets the needs of a diverse student body is an equally wicked problem. In an effort to better understand the experiences of students accessing campus mental health supports, the Innovation Hub partnered with Health & Wellness (H&W) at the University of Toronto (U of T). The partnership began over the summer of 2021 over a series of group co-creation sessions. Continuing into the 2021-2022 fall and winter terms, we continued the co-design process by reaching out to students who accessed same-day appointments. 

By Yusur Al-Salman, Redefining Traditional Project Lead

Between the rising costs of childcare and the COVID-19 pandemic, entering parenthood as students seems more challenging than ever. And yet, there is growing effort to accommodate the practical needs of student-parents and to address them meaningfully, and one example is in making university libraries family-friendly. 

Written by Robin Martin, Serena Tran & Yuwei Jiang, Design Research Assistants for the Celebrating International Students Project

Illustrations by Nikhil Pawar & Marielle Dilla – Digital Storytellers

The international student experience at the University of Toronto (U of T) is anything but homogenous. The Celebrating International Students project began during the  2019-2020 Design Thinking Experience Program (DTEP), and quickly took off after recognizing just how complex, and at times similar, the challenges of being an international student truly is. Over the last year and a half our research teams have delved into our archive of more than 600 interviews to get a broadened sense of the international student experience from before and during pandemic. We were also grateful to have interviewed several U of T staff in October to round out the data even further. 

In this blog post, we will be sharing the main insights we have uncovered after interviewing and carefully analyzing our existing data, as well as our team members’ personal reflections from this project. We also share Building Bravery Design Principles to empower one another in celebrating international students at U of T, and a link to our report.

This blog post is part of Researchers Reflect, a new series where we embark on the journey of a design researcher at the Innovation Hub. Each post will spotlight a different design researcher’s experience, stories, and learning moments throughout the course of their research.

Written by Sanskriti Maheshwari, Senior Research Assistant for Transforming the Instructional Landscape

When the University moved its operations online during Summer 2020, I took a chance and applied for a work-study position with the Innovation Hub. When my application was accepted, I was extremely excited. Like many students, I was trying to stay connected to life at the university, and my position with the Stories from a Distance Team gave me just that opportunity.

Written By Sofia Callaghan, Izzy Friesen, Serena Singh – Design Research Assistants for the Trans and Nonbinary Student Experiences Project 

Trans Awareness Week (November 13th-19th), and Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th) is approaching, and so we’d like to share some research that the Innovation Hub is working on with the Sexual and Gender Diversity Office (SGDO).  

Students are often queried by the University for their name and gender, which they can change using the change of name and gender request form; we wanted to learn more about the experiences of trans, nonbinary and/or otherwise gender nonconforming students navigating this form and other gender queries made by the University.  

Written by Georgia Maxwell & Marcus Lomboy (Senior Research Assistants), Sanskriti Maheshwari (Design Research Assistant), Amal Yusuf (Design Research Assistant), and Carla Montgomery-Alexander (Content Writer)

In Summer 2021, The Innovation Hub was approached by Health and Wellness to help with their services redesign project, an initiative seeking to improve the delivery of mental health services on campus. Central to this service improvement work was having students directly contribute to the design of mental health service delivery, for Health and Wellness wanted to implement a model that ensures the best experience possible for any student who needs it. 

This blog post is the first of Researchers Reflect, a new series where we embark on the journey of a design researcher at the Innovation Hub. Each post will spotlight a different design researcher sharing their stories, experience and learning moments throughout the course of their research.

Written by Amal Yusuf, UTQAP Research Coordinator  

Since 2019, I was given the privilege and trust to listen to students’ stories and experiences throughout a variety of projects, such as the Presidential and Provostial Task Force for Student Mental Health, Food Insecurity on Campus, Let’s Talk About Failure Project, Student Experiences at Rotman Commerce, and much more! Being a part of this work has been a real growing experience for me. Today, I will be sharing a bit about this journey and how it has made an impact in my area of work and studies.  

This week’s post is a community repost from our Redefining Traditional Team! If you are a student parent or are a student parent supporter we invite you to take a look at many other fantastic works we post on the Redefining Traditional Website, and join our Facebook Group to support and learn from one another!

By J. Sparks – Redefining Traditional Project Team Member

As the start of another academic year approaches, tuition, books and material fees begin to mount and money management becomes top of mind for many postsecondary students, especially for those with family responsibilities.  When I enrolled in graduate school as parent, not only did becoming a student effect our household schedule and routines, it also impacted our family budget.  If you are presently facing the task of doing it all and paying for it all too, below are a few financial tricks and tips that I have found helpful during my postsecondary journey with kids.   

Written by Georgia Maxwell – Senior Research Assistant for Transforming the Instructional Landscape

Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) is an ongoing project at the University of Toronto that examines how learning environments can be improved for both instructors and students. TIL employs design thinking to help build better learning environments with students rather than for students. A wide range of professionals from across UofT are also involved in the project’s exciting and innovative work. 

Written by Sanskriti Maheshwari, Rosemarie Shephard, and Amal Yusuf, Data Analysis Researchers for the Let’s Talk About Failure project

The Innovation Hub partnered with the Division of Student Life Academic Resilience Initiative to learn about UofT students’ experiences with failure: how they define failure, how they endure it, and the impact it has on their lives. We explored existing data on the topic in our archive of over 600 interviews and reached out to students at UofT to take part in our dialogue-based feedback sessions. We approached this project with the intention of hearing from and listening to students’ stories surrounding failure in their own words and on their own terms.  

By Kethmi Egodage, Design Researcher  

This blog post is the final post in the Delving into the Digital Campus series in collaboration with the Digital Community & Connectedness Project. It’s aimed at understanding how students find and make connections in digital spaces. Each post is a written reflection from our Design Researchers, sharing how the insights from their project has resonated with them in their own lived experiences. This post will discuss how the shift to online learning has impacted students, instructors, staff, and our design researcher’s own experiences at UofT.  

Zoom School. That’s a buzzword students have been using to describe the transition to online learning. With a mix of synchronous and asynchronous classes and assignments, it’s no surprise that professors and students are overwhelmed and confused. Despite the best efforts made to continue providing a high standard of education, the question still remains: how do students feel about their community in the shift from in-person to online classes?  

Written by Georgia Maxwell (Senior Research Assistant) and Kaitlyn Corlett (Senior Project Assistant)

Since it was established in 2017, the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) project has renovated an impressive 93 classrooms to date. While classroom renovation and technology enhancement continue to be important TIL initiatives, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the integration of digital technology into teaching and pushed us to reimagine what learning spaces can look like.  

By Ayaan Hagar, Design Researcher & Project Team Lead  

This blog post is part of Delving into the Digital Campus, a four-part series in collaboration with the Digital Community & Connectedness Project, aimed at understanding how students find and make connections in digital spaces. Each post is a written reflection from our Design Researchers, sharing how the insights from their project has resonated with them in their own lived experiences. 

What does it mean to connect in an age where we’re constantly connected? 

It’s a question that’s been on my mind since the start of the pandemic; with a parent working on the frontlines, I heard accounts of the virus’ impact that didn’t give me much hope for returning to campus anytime soon. I had always had a bit of hard time finding my place on campus until I switched my program last year and became a part of a tight-knit, cohort of students. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I realized how much of that connection was forged over months of FaceTime, group trips to Kensington Market, shared triumphs and troubles over coffee, and daily lunches in the student lounge. With my younger brother entering university in the fall, I wondered what his experience and so many other new students would look like. 

Written by Georgia Maxwell (Senior Research Assistant) and Marcus Lomboy (Design Research Assistant for Transforming the Instructional Landscape)

For the past four years, the Innovation Hub has teamed up with the Learning Space Management (LSM) Team to examine how learning environments can be improved for both instructors and students.  

By Shankeri Vijayakumar – Data Analysis Researcher and Hai-Dao Le Nguyen – Data Analysis Researcher 

Academic Integrity is essential to learning at the University of Toronto as students learn to engage with knowledge and ideas in a way that is respectful and honourable. This past year, the Innovation Hub partnered with U of T’s Provost’s Office to explore what academic integrity means and how it is experienced by students at the university.  

By Sanskriti Maheshwari, Design Researcher

This blog post is part of Delving into the Digital Campus, a four-part series in collaboration with the Digital Community & Connectedness Project, aimed at understanding how students find and make connections in digital spaces. Each post is a written reflection from our Design Researchers, sharing how the insights from their project has resonated with them in their own lived experiences. 

Ever been told that opposites attract?

Through taking a course on Interpersonal Relationships, I uncovered something quite eye-opening. ‘Opposites attract’ is just a fantastical expression used to keep us invested in the romantic relationships and friendships that play out in front of our TV and movie screens. In reality, I have found that birds of a feather do in fact flock together. For example, in my own life I have observed that most of my closest friends have identical hobbies, personalities, political views, and so on. When meeting new individuals, any differences in interest or personalities can seem more pronounced than they really are. Possibly because a foundation built on a shared purpose hasn’t been established just yet.  This is also something I learnt from my experience conducting the Stories from a Distance Sessions and The Digital Community & Connectedness Project.  

Written by Nicholas Smith – Design Research Assistant for the Transforming the Instructional Landscape

What happens when you support instructors as they experiment with technology? During the Winter semester of 2021, the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) Pilot Project did just that. In the pilot, each member of our instructor cohort was provided with an individualized and adaptable classroom set-up, including high-quality recording equipment, stream decks, and monitor screens, alongside traditional teaching tools such as blackboards and lecterns. Our instructors were also paired with a technical “co-pilot” who ensured that the technology they employed ran smoothly by providing real-time support.  

This is a re-post from Redefining Traditional, a community aiming to equip student parents with the tools to navigate their various roles, build a community of support and belonging, as well as providing a space for productive dialogue amongst policy-makers to help reimagine higher education. If you’re interested in contributing to our online community, we encourage you to share your story as a student parent by filling out this form.

Our land acknowledgements series highlights important stories and teachings from each of the Redefining Traditional team members – Heather, Shamim and Kaitlyn. Through these posts, we aim for our community to think about how land acknowledgments are immensely important, and to ensure we engage in teachings about specific cultures beyond a day or month of recognition. We also highlight important questions to support our community so that an acknowledgement moves beyond a ‘script’ and towards an ongoing conversation.

Our final post in this series is by Shamim Ahmed! Our previous two posts are from:

• Heather Watts – who speaks to actionable steps and exercises you can do to move towards meaningful land acknowledgments
• Kaitlyn Corlett – who speaks to her locality as a settler, and ongoing journey with land acknowledgements

In the fifth (and final!) instalment of Stories Through Research, we explored ‘Learning Through Experience: Fostering Tenacity Through Experiential Education’ at UofT. By holding space for the complexities, needs, and experiences of students, staff and stakeholders in Experiential Learning (EL) at UofT, we began to explore how could the benefits of EL occur throughout students’ whole time at the university?

In the fourth instalment of Stories Through Research, our team discussed the many elements of meaningful student consultation and this might be realized in areas at UofT. Through interviews with staff and students, we were able to gain a deeper understanding of consultation from a variety of perspectives and experiences to ensure consultation is equitable to all involved. 

In our third session of Stories Through Research, the Digital Community and Connectedness team shared their findings on building digital connection in uncertainty, and what students need in online communities. From our interviews with students during these uncertain times, we were able to uncover important student needs that can support everyone in digital communities – no matter the platform.  

In the second session of Stories Through Research, we explored Universal Design at the University of Toronto and how we can break down barriers at UofT by centering students with disabilities. By understanding accessibility and equity in context at UofT, along with how interconnected this is with Universal Design, all of us can begin exploring how to make a difference in our contexts and reducing barriers in the student experience.  

In our first Stories Through Research session, our team shared some of the many important insights that we learned and explored in ‘Food for Student Self-Fulfillment: Examining the Role of Food Insecurity on Campus’. By deeply understanding how present food insecurity is on campus and in higher education, while also centering student experiences and needs, our communities can understand how we can make steps to ensure that all students can experience food security during their studies.  

By Johanna Pokorny – Senior Research Assistant, Amal Yusuf – Data Analysis Researcher, Rosemarie Shephard – Data Analysis Researcher and Betelehem Gulilat – Lead Editor & Writer

In Canada alone, 2 out of 5 post-secondary students experience some form of food insecurity². Food insecurity is described as inadequate and insecure access to food as a result of financial constraints³. Its prevalence within the student population is overlooked by many considering the significant implications it has on students’ livelihood, learning and overall well-being. It’s complex and interconnected with our core needs and different for each and every individual in our communities.  

By The Robarts Library Team (Philippa Gosine – Senior Research Assistant, Mac Morgan – Design Research Team Lead, Manaal Mirza – Data Analysis Researcher, and Anshika Seth – Data Analysis Researcher) & Betelehem Gulilat – Lead Editor and Writer

As a keeper of knowledge and endless possibility, a library occupies a key place in a student’s campus experience. Robarts Library, the largest of the UofT libraries, brings in thousands of students each day to support the diverse student population at every stage of their academic careers. Since September 2020, the Innovation Hub has worked closely with Robarts Library in seeking to understand what students truly desire from a redesigned library space. We shared a call for participation to the broader UofT community and received an overwhelming amount of interest for our virtual feedback sessions – in which students had an opportunity to share their unique stories with library spaces.  

What is academic integrity? Why is it important to understand? As we continue to learn and adapt to new changes, students are balancing new elements in their academic lives which can be immensely overwhelming. It’s important to think of how we can do this in the best way possible. In our #LearnWithIntegrity Campaign, we explored these themes for students by developing a visual campaign accessible for all, to help students learn and understand the meaning behind academic integrity.

By Ayaan Hagar – Project Team Lead, Kethmi Egodage – Community, Social Connection & Support for Students Team Member, and Betelehem Gulilat – Lead Editor & Writer

Our new reality has accelerated change in all areas of our lives, from work to socializing, we’re staying connected to our communities through the most hyper-connected platform called the internet. What elements of digital connections and communities help students feel like they’re connected with one another? With this question in mind, we’d like to introduce the Digital Community & Connectedness Project. Building on our previous work, this project is exploring how the student experience of finding and engaging in community continues to shift during this time, and what implications this has for those who build and facilitate connections within the online UofT community.