Students FIRST video – Service design

I do have to admit that Raegan’s comments in the last blog are mostly true – she did indeed deliver to camera, all in one take – but it was less of a “rattle” and more of a super smooth, polished delivery!

So, with our minds on all things video, I am happy to announce the premiere of the hottest ticket since the Avengers – our Students FIRST service design video.

To watch the video, please click here. 

Finance bursaries – a matter of 1,2,3

Not so long ago, the research team for Students FIRST filmed my views about AMOSSHE’s involvement  for one of the project’s video outputs. Having scared everyone (and myself) by rattling through everything in one take, I thought I’d share with you some of the outlines we talked through.

I realised that I can capture the headlines in a set of 1,2,3s – neat given that the products we are looking at, and the impact on retention and transition, stems from numbers in student finance, financial capability and literacy.

The project set up/collaboration: 1 sector body, 2 universities, 3 technology providers

The project overview: 1 mission, 2 strands, 3 benefits

My experience from the national sector body perspective: 1 reflection, 2 challenges, 3 benefits

Intrigued? Well, if you want to know what any of those numbers represent in more detail, you’ll just have to wait for the video

SETL News 10 – the post about ‘abstraction’

Oh no, not Jean going on about service design again….well sorry but yes. The more I get into this stuff, the more I am convinced that in order to get to where you should be, you need to take a different journey (abstraction) than one that goes directly from A to B; and not just look to make ‘the wrong thing righter’ as John Seddon would say, but watch, listen and look at what really matters to your end-user, customer, client or what you will.  The benefits of abstraction are more clearly illustrated than I can explain in this short video http://bit.ly/IvvSlf This is a story from the world of commerce, but the theory outlined here can be applied just as well into an HE setting.  It is not always a comfortable journey, and you may not end up where you thought you would be, but perhaps it is where you need to be.

Jumping off my metaphysical horse and down to some more practical info – Jake and I have spent two hours this morning starting to draft out the final report for JISC.  It was fascinating to see just how far we have come from the start of the project and how our understanding around a range of issues to do with student progression and achievement has shifted in the last 15 months.  The staff-facing dashboard is beginning to take shape and we have identifed the need for a student-facing product, which would look quite different.  The next steps for us are more one-to-ones with students; on the road for staff focus groups; proto-typing and testing the products with the end-users, and further work on our service blueprint, mapping the student experience of going through the withdrawal process at Derby.

Looking forward to catching up with The Gang at our next Cluster Group in early June.  Setting the Sat Nav for Roehampton!

University streaker blames it all on Project fulCRM

Hi – got your attention now haven’t I – and scored the maximum number of enquiry hits all in one simple tactic.  It wasnt too cold but I did wear shoes!!

Project fulCRM moves into its final phase.  We have what is effectively a final version of the software for both mitigating circumstance processing and flexible indicator creation and maintenance and are heading into thinking about how we will now implement this for real, with a go live intention of the new academic year 2012/13. 

On a technical level we are now testing the implementation and support of the system in a formal testing environment, backups, security, operating system versions, all that sort of stuff. Once the technical people feel confident they can support it then we can move the whole thing to live.

Our Researcher, Brett, whom some of you will have met, has done a great job with the Focus Groups.  I will in no way steal his thunder as I am putting his report with his permission onto the www.roehampton.ac.uk/fulcrm website.  It may be a day or 2 before you can see it there.

We are organising our last Cluster Group meeting for 6 June at Roehampton.  If you want to come along and are not in communication with me about this already then do get in touch – j.king@roehampton.ac.uk

The primary objective of this meeting is to co-ordinate the presentations at the final RM programme meeting.

All the best

John

 

More than realising benefits part 2

Those of you following the #stu_1^st blogging closely or our Twitter account will have seen that last week was Project Board time.  We were delighted to welcome Professor Sir Deian Hopkin as an independent chair for the group, reminding us of the truly wide interest in delivering bursaries in the most efficient way possible to support the student experience.

My love of post it notes became apparent as once again we took the journey through benefits realisation.  The list of benefits already achieved and to be achieved were startlingly similar to those we blogged about back in December – but the vehemence and strength of feeling about their importance was much greater.  For today’s blog, I revisit the benefits discussed in December and update on them.

The board in particular noted the unique blend of commercial, HEI and national working embodied in this project.  Whilst that brings with it coordination challenges and some lengthy negotiations, it is also a very significant departure in project approaches that all in the room felt to be a significant departure that will really benefit the sector in its widest sense.

So, what did we say before, and what did we say this time?

 

• Linking to national priorities including the efficiency agenda and AMOSSHE’s Value and Impact work

Discussed and recognised again; also the unintended consequences of the work in its timeliness and feeding into national policy discussions around student support

• Contributing to an evidence base to inform HE policy

Discussed and recognised again – in addition, working across groups with a national body coordinating provides scrutiny to the emergent findings at a sector wide level

• Informing strategic thinking at partner organisations

Discussed and recognised again – alongside the credibility that this project gives that strategic thinking, and the improved links between groups.  Knowing who to speak to and when has become much easier.

• Opportunities for related research

Lots of ideas about how this work might carry on – both around widening participation, financial information, and technology blending.  One very specific idea for the potential to benchmark similar research in future across like institutions

• Being able to demonstrate the impact of a research project very quickly

Discussed and recognised again – that similar to the first benefit of linking to national priorities, this work was timely and its findings could be very quickly used.  Not only that, the service design mapping process has already led to institutions addressing fail points in their bursary systems

• Verification and refinement of providers’ perception of market need

Discussed and recognised again – with recognition that this experience will be invaluable in developing future projects and working with other HE partners

• Identifying and making available new possibilities for inclusive models of interaction between private providers and HEIs, and data collection

Discussed and recognised again – with one partner recommending that this model of interaction makes the project truly beneficial, and should be considered for future working

• Adding levels of understanding to commercial data

Discussed and recognised again – with some detailed discussion around data protection implications

• Adding numerical understanding to HE assumptions

Discussed and recognised again – in addition there is increased understanding of the bursary offer across the departments, and that the drilling down of data into actual expenditure can help think about improving future provision

• Moving away from silo working in both commercial and HE environments

Discussed and recognised again – genuine partnerships have emerged, with a greater understanding of the student experience and commercial needs.  This understanding will be further enhanced after a technology and AMOSSHE meeting to develop templates and top tips for HEIs and technology providers to work together

• Making communications to students more transparent

Discussed and recognised again – addressing the service design maps has enabled clearer articulation of the service amongst staff and therefore to students

 

We will include the benefits realisation exercise in the final project board meeting in July.  I encourage everyone to try this at the next group working meeting they have – be it for an #rminhe meeting or something else – it’s a really illuminating exercise that makes participants genuinely reflect on the ‘wifm’ factor – and in our case has been very positive.