Understanding the ID student advising experience

The Institute of Design (ID) has overhauled its curriculum in the last two years to help students focus on building competencies while maintaining a flexible structure. Administration sees student advising the final piece of the puzzle since in their eyes, Advising is primarily focused on helping students choose their classes.  The goal of the project is to get an understanding of the current experience and students’ expectations for ID advising. 

This is a team project by Audrey Gordon, Xuanyu Chen, and Wanshan Wu. The project is ongoing and is moving to prototyping phase currently.

Research approach

We used interviews and observations to collect our student research data of 13 students across a range of nationalities and progress within the program. All data was kept confidentially and anonymously.

We used interviews to get an understanding of current ID advising and students’ expectations for the future. Each interview took anywhere from 30-45 minutes. We audio recorded the interviews to pull direct quotes for analysis.  

For our observation data, we observed students planning their courses, and we observed one meeting of a student and their advisor. These observations took approx. 30 mins. We used photos, notes, and audio to record the process. 

Analysis + Synthesis

Our team went through a detailed analysis and synthesis process. We first transferred key student quotes to printed cards, and due to the large volume, split them up among the three of us. We individually identified key themes from our subset of data, and then came together to understand any crossover. The largest themes are depicted above. We did a similar sorting for our observation data in images.

We also did rapid fire diagramming to help us better understand what we dealing with. We spent time discussing the right metaphor for choosing class (‘Is it like high stakes gambling? Sailing without a map?’).

Findings + Recommendations

After grappling with the data for weeks, we came together with our findings and recommendations. A key summary I contributed was our documentation of the spectrum of advising the students expect to receive and what they actually receive (see below).

We also codified 4 types of advisor roles that students should be experiencing while at ID: Hand Holder, Navigator, Thinking Partner, and Counselor. Many students feel disoriented when they enter graduate school, many having moving across the world to do so. They need support when they first enter the program, but our team believes this could best be filled by a peer advisor. As they progress through the program, they need guidance on how best to navigate the ID program and how to plan for their desired career outcomes. If they are experiencing a crisis, they need someone to play more of a counselor role.