Inclusive Design Research

A research study utilizing our Employee Resource Group (ERG) members that are student facing to understand how we as a university are being equitable and inequitable to our diverse student groups.

Why?

Realized there was a lack of awareness around student inequities, culture, and uniqueness. 

  • Wanted to better represent our students in meetings and in UX team designs.

  • It is a university initiative to increase equitable access and retainment:

    • Students of color enrollment (FY21 27% , FY25 40%)

    • 4 year undergraduate completion for students of color (FY21 36% , FY25 45%)

The Format:

  • Partnered with Stakeholder to co-lead the workshops.

  • Met individually with 4 ERG Groups for 2 hour workshop sessions.

  • Used Miro for majority of workshops- led to some tech discomfort and lack of participation/engagement. This gave us great insight that we need to offer

  • Each group had varied discussions surrounding equity, inequity, systemic barriers, and discussing designs for our new learner platform. *this information has been redacted. If you would like to chat more about this project, please let me know.

Employee Resource Groups (ERG) Inclusive Design Workshop Findings

Findings:

  • Students (and staff/faculty) need moments where they can be celebrated and heard for their unique differences, strengths, and contributions. 

  • Students should be able to decide what information they share with staff/faculty members.

  • Inequity occurs with our students due to a lack of understanding their backgrounds and identities.

  • Many systemic barriers happen before WGU but still impact student’s learning experience and sense of belonging. 

  • We have opportunities to impact change - both large and small to support our students, staff, and faculty.

Feedback:

I put together a survey to understand how participants enjoyed the workshop and what we could do better next time.

survey-what participants enjoyed most.png
survey-what participants thought could improve

Overall, participants were excited to be heard and to be advocates on behalf of their students. Next time we do this type of workshop, I would try to extend it an hour to give participants more time to talk and talk more in the workshop on how we can implement some of the changes.