Central Queensland University work placement: Journey maps and user requirements
The brief
Central Queensland University (CQU) wanted some research done into how they could improve their students’ work placement experience. They’d had some complaints that the placement experience was flawed and that students were disappointed.
What we did
We surveyed 833 students about their placement experience through CQU using Surveymonkey. The survey was designed to investigate what aspects of the students’ placement was disappointing and how CQU could have better managed their experience.
Taking the themes that we found from the survey data, I designed an interview guide that we used to gather information from 20 students. This was done to get a more in-depth look into the problems that students faced and to capture their suggestions for how CQU could address them.
The outcomes from the survey
The survey found that most students were fairly happy with their placement experience. However, some students did have specific issues, which included (but were not limited to):
Financial difficulty: Placements came with a lot of financial stress for students as they were expected to juggle work commitments for the duration of placement, and were expected to pay for travel to and from placement as well as accommodation costs if their placement was in another city.
There was no preference system for students with special needs/disabilities: This placed enormous stress on single parents and disabled students.
Inadequate notice about when and where placement would be: This was especially true for Nursing and Health students, and Teaching students. Some students didn’t know where their placement would be until a day or two before placement was to commence. This made it especially stressful for those who might have placement in another city.
To showcase what areas of a student’s life was disrupted/difficult due to work placement, I made a chart outlining the major problems faced by them:
Journey maps
To showcase the work placement journeys that different student cohorts went through, we designed 3 journey maps for Nursing and health students, Engineering students and Teaching students. The journey map below shows the journey for the Teaching students:
I also wrote up some user requirements to address the issues and concerns faced by the students.
Conclusion
The work outlined above shows a clear process that can be undertaken to realign the placement process with the needs of the students at CQU at its forefront. By making these changes, the process of organising placement becomes less stressful and more student-centred. Currently, CQU have taken on board the results from the research and are in the process of reviewing their placement experience for students.
