Buff Portal Student Involvement -听Student Affairs Spring 2019 Pilot Summary
The Unified Student Experience (USE) project continues to work with CU Boulder students to design and build Buff Portal, our campus鈥� new portal for students. The portal will replace the Student and New Student Welcome tabs in MyCUInfo. To ensure that Buff Portal will meet the needs of our entire student population, we include students in every step of our design process. This student-centered process necessitates frequent access to an extensive and diverse pool of students to participate in portal brainstorms, focus groups, and design reviews.
In Spring 2019, the USE project鈥檚 User Experience (UX) Research team partnered with the Division of Student Affairs on a pilot to involve student employees in a few Buff Portal feedback sessions as a part of their work time.
The USE UX Research team worked with the managers of Student Affairs student employees to schedule each student using an open and accessible spreadsheet. The USE UXR team sent email reminders about scheduled sessions and then confirmations once students completed the session. Student employee attendance was tracked in the spreadsheet so managers could easily see who was participating.
Successes
Throughout the Spring 2019 pilot, 32 student employees from Student Affairs participated in 56 one-on-one sessions providing formative feedback on Buff Portal. Specifically, these student employees reviewed portal designs and shared insights on their experiences with financial aid, work-study, scholarships, tuition & fees, New Student Welcome, and advising. The 32 students came from 9 Student Affairs offices, with the Health Promotions office participating the most by providing 15 student employees who attended 37 sessions. As a thank you for their high participation, Buff Portal sponsored a pizza party at the end of the semester for the Health Promotion student employees.
Additional offices who participated in the pilot include Campus Dining Services, Career Services, the Center for Student Involvement (DSCC, FSL, PC), the Rec Intramural Sports, Student Conduct, the UMC, UMC Alferd Packer Grill, and Williams Village.
After the student employees participated in two Buff Portal feedback sessions, they were sent a brief survey about their experience. 7/7 students reported that based on their experience providing feedback on Buff Portal:
- CU Boulder values their opinion
- They felt more connected to the university
- They felt empowered to help CU improve the student experience听
When asked how they would describe their impact on the development of Buff Portal, the student employees stated:
- I have given some constructive criticism which I have seen implemented and I love it!
- I feel like I was able to contribute greatly to the design as some of my ideas were implemented in the design.
- I think I have given useful ideas that will positively impact students.听
- It's nice to be able to participate in the development of something that will impact students so directly!
- I think I had a significant impact and think my opinion is being valued along with other students as well.
Proposed Continuation
Based on the success of the Spring 2019 pilot, Buff Portal鈥檚 UX Research team would like to continue working with student employees from Student Affairs as we continue to build Buff Portal and improve other processes related to the student experience at CU Boulder.
The Buff Portal team is also happy to offer custom training or Q&A sessions for Student Affairs student employees who would like to be ambassadors for CU鈥檚 new student portal.