Improving the campus experience at the University of Toronto through student-led design
How can we make Convocation more accessible? What makes a classroom great? What support do student parents need? How can staff and students work together to create effective programs?
These are some of the questions driving this summer’s Innovation Hub team. We’ll answer them by listening to the stories of students and staff, shining a searchlight on how they interact with the university—in lecture, at Convocation, at work—and how the university can reach out in response.
Written by Charis Lam – Design Research Events Lead
In search of factors driving student engagement, First Nations House partnered with the Innovation Hub in summer 2018 to ask: what causes students and staff to engage and connect with First Nations House? Among the factors identified—including assistance with scholarships and housing, personal relationships to staff members. and access to the resource centre—cultural and social programming emerged as a need strongly felt by students. Thus, First Nations House and the Innovation Hub renewed their partnership to investigate what sorts of social and cultural programming students want.
By Kaitlyn Corlett, Project Assistant and Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Projects Officer
Now that the winter term is coming to a close, it’s time to consider some exciting opportunities at the Innovation Hub for the summer 2019 term. The Innovation Hub offering a wide range of work-study positions open to all students who meet the eligibility requirements. These positions offer opportunities to work with various areas at the University of Toronto in team-oriented environments that are supported by innovative, design-thinking practices.
Written by Rachel Davis: Design Research Team Lead for the Trademark Licensing Team
University of Toronto’s Trademark Licensing Department began their partnership with the Innovation Hub in the Summer of 2018 to better understand the ways in which a sense of school pride can be fostered in the lives of students. During this previous partnership, themes such as “survival” and “fragmentation” emerged from the research to describe students’ perception of the university experience. The Innovation Hub continued this partnership during the 2018-2019 academic year to expand on these themes and to better understand student pride at U of T.
By The New College Dining Hall Team
These past few months, our team has been investigating student and staff perspectives on how the New College Dining Hall might be redesigned to offer an innovative, multi-use community eating space. When this process drew to a close, we then presented our data and analysis to the University of Toronto’s Food Services stakeholders. We brought forth three themes that emerged throughout our research: comfort, community and communication.
By Charis Lam, Design Research Events Lead
As students, we often think of staff as curating the university experience for us—laying out the processes and procedures between us and our degrees. Yet, staff are not just responsible for providing the university experience; they also share it, albeit from a different perspective. Through the Future of SLP (Student Life Professionals) project, my team had the chance to take a peek into this perspective.
By The New College Dining Hall Team
This academic year, our team has been trying to answer this question: how might the New College Dining Hall be redesigned to offer an innovative and multi-use community eating and social space for students and staff? We conducted long-form ethnographic interviews with staff and students, as well as with New College Dining Hall users and students who eat primarily at other dining halls.
By Margaryta Ignatenko, Innovation Hub Training Team
As a third-year undergraduate student at UTSC I think at the core to a fulfilling undergraduate experience is connecting to a community on campus, applying my disciplinary knowledge to work that is rewarding, and discovering my untapped passions and interests. But what surrounds this core looks different for each of us and evolves as we do throughout our time in university; we need to be able to carve out unique experiences to meet our diverse needs in a flexible environment that adapts and changes with its students.
What does the future undergraduate experience look like? Will UofT be a place that fosters distinct and fulfilling experiences for each student, while creating a deep sense of unity?
By: Charis Lam, Design Research Events Lead
At the Innovation Hub, we believe in designing for student success by listening to their voices. Yet, student success is not a pillar, standing alone. Students move through the university together with, and supported by, staff and faculty. Thus, helping student-facing staff succeed in their roles and feel fulfilled by their careers is important to both staff and students.
By Rachel Davis, Design Research Team Lead (Trademark Licensing)
Do UofT students feel a sense of pride, and if so, how do they express it? That is the focus of investigation for the 2018-2019 Trademark Licensing project team. UofT’s Trademark Licensing office is partnering with the Innovation Hub to explore how student narratives regarding institutional pride can lead to positive engagement with University of Toronto brands.
Before we began collecting data, we did some exercises to get our initial thoughts about the problem and solution on paper. Making our assumptions explicit was a crucial step for us, since we fall into the same demographics as the students we planned to research. We wanted to ensure we to mitigate the risk of subconsciously relying on our own experiences to answer this question.