student journey mapping university

Transforming Our Professional Services

UCL Student Journey Map

In 2020 we worked with external partners to develop the UCL Student Journey map in order to better understand students' journeys on UCL undergraduate and master’s programmes. 

We invited students to take part in a series of interactive 'Student Journey Mapping' workshop to exploring what they felt worked well, and where we might improve the UCL student experience, covering everything from induction right through to examinations. 

The UCL Student Journey map highlights the key steps in a student’s journey through UCL. We used this to identify the critical touchpoints and activities to which students attach the most value and expect the highest possible standards of service from UCL, and to inform the five key challenges the Student Experience Transformer aims to address.

• View UCL Student Journey Map as a PDF 

Laying the groundwork

During this stage students connect with their cohort and fellow students ahead of classes

Steps in the journey

• I accept my offer and start to plan
• International students – I arrange my visa

Getting sorted

Students receive clear and consistent messaging from all parts of the University

• On campus students – I prepare to travel to London
• I complete essential admin
• On campus students – I plan my life in London
• I set up UCL systems and apps
• I prepare for my commencement at UCL

Ready to start

Students are communicated with regularly and encounter minimal last minute changes to modules, programmes or timetables

• I set up my new student life
• I prepare for my course
• I get a sense of student life
• I complete role admin

Getting involved

• On campus students – I set up my accommodation
• I get to know UCL
• On campus students – I attend a UCL campus tour and online welcome events
• Remote students – I attend online welcome events, including virtual site visits

Commencement 

Students feel part of a UCL community and have access to a variety of socialising opportunities to meet their needs

Students receive tailored support from academic staff and their Personal Tutor, giving them confidence they are on the right track

• On campus students – I meet other students on campus and connect with those studying remotely
• Remote students – I connect with other students and sign up to online clubs and societies
• I engage with UCL academic staff
• I engage with student reps
• I engage with student life
• I learn how to be a student
• I get set up for term

Students have a comprehensive knowledge of all the support services and resources that UCL offers

Feedback on assessments is timely and delivered in a constructive and sufficiently detailed manner to enable students to learn and improve

Communications are consistent and students know exactly where to go to access information

• I start to access available support services
• I complete ongoing coursework
• I engage academically outside my coursework
• I complete in term assessment
• I get support if I need it
• On campus students – I use the library and study spaces
• Remote students – I use the remove library services and create my own study space
• On campus students – I use other campus facilities
• Remote students – I use remote-student facilities
• My student life extends beyond UCL 
• I am kept informed by UCL
• I make the most of extra opportunities at UCL
• I plan for my career
• I sit in-term exams

End of year

Students have timely access to exam support and a suitable space to complete their exams that does not inhibit concentration

• I plan for the next academic year
• I sit end of year exams
• I plan for a life after UCL
• I find out my results

Student Journey Mapping: Redefining the Student Experience

With additional contributions from Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer at ACT | NRCCUA, and Clint Raine, Eduventures Client Research Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA.

The typical vision of the student journey is a single, seamless trajectory, beginning at admission and ending with graduation. In reality, it is more like a highway full of roadblocks and traffic jams. Unfortunately, the cost of adopting the typical view can be high for many schools, blinding them to problems students face in their institutional interactions and how these problems impact enrollment, persistence, or the student experience.

To better represent the reality of student experiences and reshape these experiences from a student perspective, some schools are borrowing a concept pioneered by the corporate world called customer journey mapping —or in the case of higher education, .

Our Research

Journey mapping is not a novel approach: organizations such as Emirates Airlines have deployed journey mapping to ensure all staff members understand what's expected of them with each customer interaction and illustrate the relationship a customer has with the airline. Overall, most journey maps comprise five components —personas, stages, touchpoints, mindsets, and opportunities—which enable stakeholders to illuminate the aspects of the journey. These components are outlined in Figure 1 below.

To understand the extent to which student journey mapping efforts are being used by institutions of higher education, we used Google searches and web scraping to find as many examples as we could. As shown in Figure 2 below, the output of this research revealed:

• 324 webpages had occurrences of at least one of our search terms, 222 of which were non-vendor and institutional sites.
• 34 webpages had either a student journey map or reflected a student journey approach.
• 24 webpages had at least one component.
• Five webpages had student journey maps had four components—the most of any in our sample: Arizona State University, Georgia Southern University, Laurentian University, New York University, and University of New Mexico.

On the surface, our research suggests that very few institutions have engaged in student journey mapping. Because this analysis relied on publicly available information, however, more schools may implement the practice of student journey mapping but decide to keep it confidential. Likewise, of the student journey maps we examined, there is little evidence that most of the institutions implemented the maps as part of an ongoing practice to better track progress of specific efforts for continuous improvement.

The most developed example of student journey mapping and implementation we found is Arizona State University (ASU). Its mapping approach , aligned with its lifelong learning efforts, includes a set of metrics, norms, and processes to better track, understand, and improve the student experience.

Under the leadership of the director of enrollment analysis (Office of the Provost), ASU spent six months gathering 65 data points and "student process artifacts," engaged more than 40 people across 12 departments, and convened more than 30 interviews and workshops. The primary focus of student journey mapping has been on the post-enrollment to graduation portion of the student life cycle, with less attention paid to pre-enrollment or alumni stages.

The Bottom Line

We suggest three considerations for any institution seeking to develop and implement student journey mapping to improve the student experience:

• Place students at the center of the effort: The goal of student journey mapping is to improve the quality of student interactions with the institution. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that any school embarking on a student journey mapping process first recognizes that not all students are the same and that they will experience similar interactions differently. Developing student personas (something ASU has also done), for example, is a valuable way to capture different student types and view how they progress along their journeys.
• Bring together institutional stakeholders: Some institutional maps appear to be narrow (focusing on admissions, for example), focused on one aspect of the student journey. Narrow journey mappings, however, may also signal a challenge in bringing together stakeholders from multiple departments, such as admissions, facilities, teaching and learning, and student support. Developing a journey map that encompasses the entire student journey will require thinking through all the unique touchpoints between a school and its students and the involvement of representatives from each touchpoint.
• Establish key performance indicators for measuring success: It is essential to develop metrics by which institutional leaders can determine whether the student journey map is successful in helping them deliver that quality experience. Without a review of metrics, there is a risk that the student journey map becomes a "point in time" artifact that does not help institutions understand the precise areas where they can improve the student experience.

It is striking that few institutions have embarked on mapping efforts—or that at least few have made sufficient progress to justify public disclosure. The typical institution has no shortage of concerns about student engagement, achievement, and attrition, not to mention disparities by student type and background. The pandemic may force schools to pay more attention to the student journey but may equally sideline ambitious initiatives. It will be interesting to see whether mapping efforts grow in number from today's small base and whether pioneers such as ASU start to reap the rewards in terms of recruitment, retention and reputation.

Never Miss Your Wake-Up Call

Thank you for subscribing!

Learn more about our team of expert research analysts here.

Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA Contact

Thursday, September 3, 2020 at 2PM ET/1PM CT

Hindsight is 2020. While the uncertainty of the past several months has provided us with unforeseen challenges, it also offered us guidance on how to better prepare for the future.

On Thursday, September 3rd, President Brent Ramdin will be joined by University of Tampa’s AVP of Enrollment, Brent Benner, as well as Encoura Enrollment Consultant, Tye Mortenson, as they discuss how University of Tampa was able to navigate the challenges of the last recruitment cycle. The conversation will focus on the impact of test optional on admissions, the increased competition for out-of-state students, and the urgency to pivot to virtual recruiting methods.

Join us to learn how the University of Tampa is rising to the challenges of 2021 leveraging Encoura Data Lab and rolling out new practices. Participants will gain insights into best practices needed to make the class in 2021.

Also in Technology Research

Related posts.

Never Miss Your

Wake-Up Call

• Adult Learner Demand
• Program Innovation
• Student Success
• Technology Research
• Traditional Student Demand
• Chris Gardiner
• Richard Garrett
• Clint Raine
• Johanna Trovato

September 26, 2019

Experience Design Tool: Improving the Student Journey from Applicant to Alum

Designing Experiences

By Elliot Felix

Colleges and universities are trying to better analyze, improve, and compete on student experience, but they face three big challenges: they lack a shared definition and understanding of what they mean by “student experience;” they lack a holistic approach that connects different departments, services, and technologies; and student experience is typically assessed (if at all) through separate student surveys with low response rates that aren’t readily acted upon.

No matter how good their assessments, institutions still need an alignment tool that helps them synthesize what they know, uncover what they don’t, identify the student experience pain points, and spark collaboration across departments to make things better for students. So, building on the success of other tools we’ve created and courses we’ve taught, we created the Student Experience Canvas to help institutions literally get on the same page.

Why are Colleges and Universities Focusing on the Student Journey?

Based on our work with over 80 institutions, we’ve observed that while the nuances may vary, institutions have three aspects in common when they commit to a focus on student experience. First, they aspire to be “student-centered” by considering things from the student point of view – the Gates Foundation has an initiative on “ Student Centered Colleges ” on this very topic. Second, institutions act on this student-centered approach to design more effective and efficient services, policies, processes, and systems for students to interact with; for instance, if a student has a registration problem that turns out to be bill payment problem that’s caused by a financial aid issue, should she have to go to three different places to resolve it? Third, institutions aspire to better utilize data to measure and improve the impact of these interactions in terms of key metrics like acceptance rate, engagement, retention, graduation, and alumni giving – to name a few.

A student’s experience is a kind of mosaic built from his or her physical and digital interactions with the range of offerings from the school. These include academic programs, technology systems for everything from paying a bill to taking a course, administrative services like registration and financial aid, academic services like advising and tutoring, facilities like dorms and classrooms, and students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community.

What is the Student Experience Canvas?

The Student Experience Canvas is a tool to understand and improve your students’ experience holistically across all the different touchpoints along their journey from applicant to alum. The Canvas can be completed by students themselves, faculty, and/or staff from academic affairs, student affairs, technology, facilities, assessment, and other areas. Working individually or in teams in a facilitated workshop, you imagine different types of students, evaluate students’ journeys made up of touchpoints over time, identify what’s working and what isn’t in the current experience, and then reflect on the journey to identify priorities and questions.

The Canvas enables colleges and universities to synthesize what’s known, reveal what’s unknown, and combine different departments and perspectives to spark collaboration by taking a design thinking approach to student experience. First, we employ a student-centered ethos so institutions can design student services not around their internal business process or the technical requirements of their technology but based on the students’ needs. Second, with a holistic sense of what’s working and what isn’t, institutions can make progress by prototyping new programs, services, spaces, and technology tools to address specific pain points (e.g., summer melt) and our specific segments (e.g., first-gen students).

Beyond the holistic, design thinking philosophy embedded in the Canvas, it also has four important design principles:

• Adopt Student-POV : Completing the Canvas can be done by students themselves or by college and university staff based on what they have heard from students directly during interviews, workshops, surveys, and other research as well as what they’ve learned about students through other assessment activities (e.g., data analytics on LMS usage).
• Segment Students : Institutions may get started by creating one general Canvas for their overall student experience, but should then segment their students into strategic categories. There is no single “student experience” but rather a mosaic of them; for instance, there might be specific pain points and bright spots for a first-gen STEM student compared to a returning adult learner shifting careers.
• Organize by Persona : For each student segment, you will complete a Canvas by summarizing a student persona, evaluating their current experience, and reflecting on the journey to identify priorities and questions. These personas can be from national studies or be specific to the institution.
• Evaluate the Student Journey : To evaluate the current experience, the Canvas considers two dimensions together: the touchpoints students interact with including academic programs, student services, technology, facilities, and community as well as the phases of the student journey over time. We think about these as six stages in progression: apply > adjust > approach > advance > attain > affiliate.

What’s in the Student Experience Canvas?

The Student Experience Canvas contains four sections: student persona, evaluating the student experience, vision and goals, and planning implementation.

Step 1. Personas : Each canvas you complete will correspond to a segment of your student population. While there is not one student experience (and Malcolm Gladwell’s TED Talk on spaghetti sauce is great background on this philosophy), we’ve found that sometimes doing a more general, overall student experience first is a great way to get oriented before moving into specific segments.

• Institutions may have an existing set of personas, want to use an existing set that represents students nationally such as the Lumina Institute’s personas , or create new ones ( this page in the Learning Space Toolkit we co-created with NC State is a good free resource).
• Regardless, students, faculty, or staff can start by summarizing the motivations, behaviors, and expectations of their personas which correspond to different segments of their population, and then summarize the persona in a name that captures the essence of the persona, like “Career Shifter.” (hint: these typically contain a verb ending in -or or -er)

Step 2. Evaluating the Student Journey : The Canvas evaluates the student journey along phases of time from applicant to alum as students interact with touchpoints including programs, services, technology, facilities, and communities.

A. Touchpoints : The Canvas asks college and university staff to consider what students interact with, and each moment of interaction is a “ touchpoint ” for a student, which can be a pain point or a bright spot in their experience. The touchpoints to consider are:

• Academic Programs: Interactions, relationships, projects, and motivations related to degree and non-degree programs Student Services: Academic and admin support such as admissions, enrollment, finance, advising, library, and career
• Technology: Technology hardware, software, and infrastructure for creating, communicating, and collaborating
• Campus Facilities: Classrooms, dining, health, laboratory, library, residential, sports and study spaces
• Community and Culture: Belonging, feeling supported, having a say, opportunities to lead, participating in groups/activities

B. Phases : An experience is made up of these student interactions over time. The phases of the student journey include the following:

• Apply: Searching for, applying to, and deciding on a school
• Adjust: Getting oriented to the school’s programs, people, and places
• Approach: Early experiences to explore different topics & communities
• Advance: Later experience to focus on progressing along a selected path
• Attain: Transitioning to becoming part of the workforce
• Affiliate: Staying connected to and affiliated with the school as an alum

Step 3. Reflection : Once you’ve completed the evaluation of the student journey – qualitatively and quantitatively – it’s time to reflect and prioritize to identify the top three to five student pain points to address or “ bright spots ” to sustain and scale up. This reflection will also likely uncover gaps in your knowledge that you’ll need to fill by working with students and staff from other departments, by gathering new data, or by analyzing data you have in new ways.

How Will You Move Ahead?

Once you have thought about your students, evaluated their experiences, prioritized their needs, and identified future questions, what should you do next? We recommend that you set your vision and goals, identify actions by department/group to hold staff accountable, and conduct prototyping and piloting of the proposed changes to create some quick wins that build momentum and refine your ideas.

Keep your eye out for a companion tool we’ll soon by launching – The Student Experience Roadmap – to prompt and organize these next steps. In the interim, we’ll explain these steps below.

Set your Vision and Goals : Look across the Canvases you’ve completed, and create your overall student experience vision and goals. (You will probably have somewhere between 6 to 10 refined Canvases to represent your different student segments.)

• Your vision describes is your ideal future state (e.g., Bill Gates’s vision in the 90s: “A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.”). This will likely be common across personas.
• Your goals are the major specific things you’ll need to do to make it happen. A great way to get this started is to write a bunch of “From ____ to _____ so that ____.” statements that you can shape into a set of goals.

Plan for Implementation : Once you’ve evaluated the current experience and then set vision and goals, it’s time to get into the implementation mindset and start thinking about how to sustain and scale up what’s working and address the pain points that aren’t.

• Given that many student experience problems occur where greater coordination or integration is needed – the course registration problem that turns out to be a bill payment problem that turns out to be a financial aid problem – think about accountability within and across departments by identifying actions needed to address the priorities you identified.
• To apply the design thinking mindset, you should prototype and pilot your ideas. So, identify some options and look for ways to test your ideas, reduce risk, and build momentum. Something as easy as a pop-up service point at a table in a building lobby can teach you a lot while demonstrating your commitment to meet students where they are.

Using the Student Experience Canvas, college and university staff can better understand, improve, and compete on the basis of their student experience. Completing a canvas will spark collaboration and coordination across departments and help create a shared definition and understanding of what they mean by “student experience” to promote a holistic approach that looks across the different parts of the institution that students interact with along their journey from applicant to alum.

Good luck as you move ahead!

We’d also love to hear from you about how you’re using the Canvas and what feedback you have on it – please drop us a line . We are always trying to improve our tools and help colleges and universities transform their student experience.

PS: If you’d like more of a “blank” Canvas approach where you can define your own rows and columns based on terminology your institution already uses, you can download that version here .

Related articles

• Defining “Experience”
• Defining Design Strategy
• A More Equitable Student Experience
• How Three Institutions are Assessing Their Student Experience
• Library Design: The Arrival Experience

The State of Student Journey Mapping in Higher Education

Everyone in higher education wants to make decisions based on evidence and logic. We also have a desire to improve our student experience, from investing in food services to peer mentoring, most investments are student-centric. However, few tools give the appropriate first party data to improve the student experience in a way that is customized for our campuses.

Enter Student Journey Mapping .

While the process of journey mapping is certainly not unique to higher education, we do have a unique lens, as our students (in my somewhat controversial opinion) are both our customer and our product. It is critical to understand their journey in order to improve the experiences they live.

Having performed journey mapping exercises across a dozen campuses, I was very interested to explore how this process has evolved in other colleges and universities. To do so, I’ve canvassed the higher education community and interviewed leaders in this area who have implemented elements of journey mapping on their campuses.

Laurentian University Undergraduate Prospective Student Journey as designed by Studio123 .

Source: https://www.jprains.com/student-journey-mapping/

Article Contributors:

• Paul Redfern, Vice President for Communications, St. Lawrence University
• Stacey Funderburk, Director of Publications, Missouri State University
• Joe Winton, Director of Web & Digital Strategy, University Marketing & Communications, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Joseph J. Master, Executive Director, Marketing & Digital Strategy, University Communications, Drexel University
• Meg Frisch, Associate Director, Digital Strategy, Strategic Marketing and Communications, Temple University

While working with these talented individuals, a few themes emerged as constants through each campus that are consistent with my experiences and thoughts on the future of Student Journey Mapping:

• It can be one of the best ways to shift internal process to become student-centric.
• It fosters the growth of experience-based research within institutional decision making
• It improves communication across campus through sharing the results
• It allows administrators to better understand student experiences in a quantitatively representative sample size while nuancing the results with qualitative data.  

Journey Mapping for Process Improvement

In speaking with these leaders, it became clear that student journey mapping is a practice in which campus administrators and faculty members have extracted tremendous value. For most, this value has taken the shape of process improvement.

One such example comes from Paul Redfern, now the Vice President for Communications at St. Lawrence University and formerly the Executive Director of Communications and Marketing at Gettysburg College. During Paul’s time at Gettysburg College, he was one of the leaders on campus implementing Student Journey Mapping to better understand a specific phase of the student experience.

They sought out to learn more about this prospective undergraduate journey, and specifically discover the sections of that journey where Gettysburg incoming students were struggling.

“We brought together all of the administrators on campus that would have a touch point during this phase of journey and wrote them all out. Understanding where we had overlap and where we had gaps. The experience gave us a much better sense of everything that students would see and allowed us to change our process.”

This work not only improved the student journey, but has also been recognized more broadly at the CASE District II 2018 Accolades with a Gold Award in the Communications and Marketing category. While Paul has since joined St. Lawrence (and has begun a new student journey mapping exercise), he comments that there are many talented individuals who have continued to use this process to improve the student experience at Gettysburg.

Growth of an “Experience Research” Culture

Another trend that came through was the idea that journey mapping (and related concepts) has fostered the growth of an experience-based research culture.

At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Joe Winton, Director of Web & Digital Strategy, has seen a shift in their internal culture. His specific experience with elements of journey mapping take root in a website redesign which included thorough user research as a base for design changes.

“We really started to ask students what they thought and tried to learn how they were using the website. Understanding more of their tendencies allowed us to make changes based on research. We set up a display in a high traffic area of campus and learned directly from students. This type of research is growing as a culture around campus. We’re asking more questions, learning more about our students and creating better products because of it.”

While my conversation with Joe covered many areas of web and digital, we kept coming back to the key concept that this data-driven decision making was shaping operational activities on campus. Departments have increased their desire to collect first party data and influence their decisions around those findings. They’ve gained a deeper understanding student challenges and have been able to address them where they start – with the student.

Another part of my conversation with Joe, which was echoed by multiple leaders, was that communication across teams has improved. As one team discovers student tendencies and shares them with other teams, that becomes the expectation and propels a culture of data-driven decision making.

Improved Cross-Team Communication

This outcome of improved communication was also emphasized by Joseph Master, now at Drexel University as the Executive Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy (speaking primarily of his experiences as the former Assistant Dean, Marketing, Communications and Enrollment Strategy at Temple University’s College of Liberal Arts, a school with more than 400 faculty and 5,000 students.

For Joseph, this communication was increased as the User Experience (UX) team at Temple (which is led by Meg Frisch) was able to dive into a very lengthy student journey mapping process and then communicate the results across their campus. This led to multiple discussions on campus which centred on improving the student experience and allowed senior leadership to have a further understanding of the prospective student thought process, especially from an emotional point of view.

“Journey mapping didn’t just help us understand the prospective student experience; it helped us to build administrative positions and messaging strategies to align with the experiences we mapped. And having deans in the room during the exercise was the best part. They saw all of the emotions – and all of the gaps – unfold in front of their eyes during our mapping exercise.”

More tangibly, the student journey mapping process was a significant factor in changes to the his institution’s enrollment marketing infrastructure (specifically around the recruitment of transfer students). This enrollment process change, which led Joseph to push for the creation of a transfer advising role instead of a transfer enrollment position, led to what Joseph identified as “the largest enrollment increase for the College of Liberal Arts” in five years. More so, it helped build the kind of infrastructure necessary for sustained success.”

“Rather than hire someone on my team, I was able to advocate for a very talented advisor to fill this gap on the advising team, bridging the gap between enrollment, marketing and academic advising.”  

“Journey mapping isn’t just a user experience tool. It’s a communications tool. A PR tool. It is as much a tool for communicating as it is for charting those user journeys. Because once you do it, you realize that the journey cannot be separated from the advisors, the faculty and the marketers. The world gets smaller. And infrastructure begins to make sense. There is a reason journey mapping often leads to a tactical artifact…like a subway map. It is because the exercise can truly show you ‘the way.’ “

Understanding Specific Challenges Faced by Students

As administrators, we are very well versed in the significant challenges faced by students. However, we have a filtered view of them – we only see the questions when they require intervention. We don’t see uncertainties, micro-questions and smaller the stressors students face. When evaluated in a cumulative sense, these uncertainties have significant impact on the student experience.

Stacey Funderburk, Director of Publications at Missouri State University, has used the journey mapping process to explore the experiences of local community college transfer students. Their work led to a deeper understanding of the uncertainties these students have about heading to campus. Their results found that their students were looking for more than checklists to support their transitions. Seems simple, but it’s perhaps not the first thing administrators would have thought of implementing. Stacey sees the journey mapping process evolving to respond to the needs of their institution over time. “It’s been a fantastic foundation for our teams to reaffirm what they are doing. There’s a need to revisit the student journey, as it changes over time. One of the things that gave us traction for this idea, is that we’ve had a wonderful history of enrolment growth. There are times where we think we will plateau, and we’re trying to implement as many plans as we can to continue to grow. We need to understand student needs to continue our sustained growth .”

Similarly, the journey-mapping pioneers at Temple University (as previously mentioned by Joseph Master) have found new insights by focusing their journey mapping efforts on specific audiences. One of these pioneers is Meg Frisch, Associate Director of Digital Strategy, Department of Strategic Marketing and Communications at Temple University.  

Due to their unique and diverse student population, there are specific audiences which they place a focus on.

“Parents and family are very important to us because we have many first generation students. Taking the customer experience mindset, putting our students and their families first is critical. We’ve done a tonne of usability testing and contextual inquiry while backing it up with behavioural metrics from Google Analytics. We have about two million pages and PDFs, we found that 70% of this is internal documents and wasn’t focused towards these audiences.”

“Our prospects were encountering too much information that didn’t relate to their student journey. We needed to focus on the content that relates to our audience and develop an internal content strategy. We’ve now been able to streamline our content and prioritize (from a project management standpoint) our actions based on the questions students are asking. For example, we know students are asking if we have their major, we need to start there.”

Frisch also commented that they have also been able to help people shift their organizational labels from a scenario where they had mirrored the institutions hierarchy to a more articulate presentation that allows students to better identify with an activity’s label. Students don’t know what a Registrar does, but they know how to appeal a mark in a course.

This focus on students has allowed their team to transfer the academic program content from individual schools/colleges microsites to the central temple.edu site. Through this, they’ve seen a dramatic visibility in organic search and user engagement ( pages per session, time on page). It has also allowed them to update the content in a central database, increasing accuracy and reducing duplication.

The Future of Journey Mapping

This brings me to conclude that throughout these conversations, many commonalities point to similar conclusions. As a sector, we need to hear more from our students and improve our process. Many times, this will be motivated by an end result to positively impact student enrolment, however, the process can be used to achieve any number of positive outcomes for our students.

These positive results can, and should be, reached through the mix of both qualitative and quantitative research that journey mapping can deliver. Furthermore, sharing these results (which are quite specific to our individual campuses) across institutions can increase the digital IQ of our industry. As Frisch put it “we could do very well for ourselves if we were more open with each other about our findings.”

In conversations with each leader, I’ve heard that they are all pursuing additional journey mapping activities to further understand sections of the student journey. Whether that is how they engage as a prospective graduate student with our institutions, how international students complete their processes around obtaining study permits, or even about how a specific academic program achieves exceptional degree completion rates. In all of these cases, we have much to learn.

The ways in which journey mapping is being used is also expanding, with origins in changing the tone and voice of communications for students, this process is also influencing the navigation of a website, the internal admissions process and even the signage on campuses.

In summary, we need to use student journey mapping as a way to listen to our students, change our administrative practices, and deliver a student experience that exceeds expectations. The moment we stop learning from students is the moment we stray from a foundational tenet.

• All Journals
• Real Estate / Property

Defining student journey mapping in higher education: The ‘how-to’ guide for implementation on campus

Click the button below to download the full text of the article.

Abstract : A definitive process for reshaping the student experience — student journey mapping — allows for campus administrators to draw unique insights from the perspective of their key audience. Rooted in creating a user-centric experience, the concept of user journey mapping, also known as customer experience mapping, can be a cornerstone for projects in higher education. From changing the way in which students are recruited to the way donors are engaged, the student journey mapping process can help good business practices evolve into great ones. This process will describe how to bring together quantitative and qualitative data from multiple campus stakeholders (staff, faculty, students, etc.) and translate these data into insights that can reshape the student experience. Most importantly, the process describes how to develop this into actionable information that a campus community can understand. This paper will define the process of student journey mapping and provide campus administrators with concrete examples. Additionally, details are provided on how to best capture qualitative and quantitative data sets to inform the journey map. Finally, the connection between these data sets and the implementation plan is detailed to allow for actionable items to stem from the creation of a journey map.

Keywords : student journey mapping; marketing; communications; student services; websites; customer experience

JP Rains is the Director of the Digital Strategy Office at his alma mater of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He oversees the institution’s digital footprint on the web and through social media while aiming to increase the digital IQ of the campus community. He is also President of Rains Media, where he works as a consultant in marketing and communication to private industry. Prior to this, Rains led strategy for two years as Vice-President of Strategy for Soshal Group, a digital agency working with a focus on clients in higher education. His work at Soshal led to multiple national awards and record setting performance for clients including: York University, University of New Brunswick and Cambrian College. He started his career after graduation at Laurentian University, working in the Office of Student Recruitment, followed by roles in various offices including: Marketing & Communications, Office of the Chief of Staff and Information Technology before joining Soshal Group. Rains has seen multiple years of success in student recruitment, including two years of 20 per cent plus increases to applications. Rains has consulted with over 25 Canadian and US-based higher education institutions and has implemented the Student Journey Mapping process with more than a dozen campuses. Additionally, he has interviewed over 1,000 stakeholders through the journey mapping process in an effort to deeply understand the perspectives of prospective students, current students, alumni and donors. Rains is the board chair of the Post-Secondary Education Web Conference of Canada and is a board member of the Laurentian University Alumni Association.

“I find the content of Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning to be up to date, easy to follow, and applicable to the professional in the field, the student in the class, and the academic.  This journal offers a mix of articles from many disciplines in a manner that allows the professional to utilise the data immediately. I have personally used material from this journal on multiple occasions, both in my academic and professional endeavours.”

“The Journal of Financial Compliance is at the intersection of research and the practice of compliance at a time when technology and regulatory challenges hold profound implications for compliance professionals. I find the Journal to be an invaluable resource for the latest trends and techniques in compliance and I am proud to serve as a member of the Editorial Board.” 

“ Journal of Digital and Social Media Marketing provides a unique blend of practitioner and academic expertise to offer the reader an in-depth understanding of digital marketing case studies and authoritative opinion.  Each article passes a peer-review prior to publication, by leaders in the industry from around the globe, ensuring the reader gets the best-of-the-best in digital marketing insights.”

" Journal of Digital Media Management  provides a vital professional resource that accomplishes three important objectives for the field of digital asset management: a peer-reviewed publication, a history of best practices, and a practical source of learning for anyone with responsibility for organising and sharing content."

" Corporate Real Estate Journal is a definitive source for the latest research-based thinking and knowledge in corporate real estate. Everyone wanting to keep up with the latest thinking needs to include this journal within their regular learning."

“The thought leadership and knowledge sharing by industry experts contained within this Journal truly exemplifies how cyber security is a non-competitive environment.”

"The journal has interesting and thought provoking articles covering a wide range of topics. The articles are written by highly competent participants from the industry that can give a good insight in to its various areas."

"Written by and for the professional, it provides me with the kind of practical, real-use cases I can apply in my job."

"As an Editorial Board member for Corporate Real Estate Journal , I have first-hand knowledge of the rigour and standards applied to the selection and review of content ... clear evidence how the Journal is able to provide such industry leading access into the views of our profession."  

Contact Information

Henry Stewart Publications LLP

Registered office: Ruskin House, 40/41 Museum Street

London, WC1A 1LT, UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7092 3465

Email: [email protected]

Registered in England, Incorporation No. OC 317997

Footer Menu

• © 2016 Henry Stewart Publications
• Terms & Conditions
• Publication Ethics
• Accessibility
• Copyright and Permissions
• Sustainability and Environment

• Finance, Accounting & Economics
• Global Business Management
• Management, Leadership & Organisation
• Marketing & Sales
• Technology & Operations

Notifications

Share these talks and lectures with your colleagues

Welcome Guest

Login via your organisation, defining student journey mapping in higher education: the ‘how-to’ guide for implementation on campus.

A definitive process for reshaping the student experience — student journey mapping — allows for campus administrators to draw unique insights from the perspective of their key audience. Rooted in creating a user-centric experience, the concept of user journey mapping, also known as customer experience mapping, can be a cornerstone for projects in higher education. From changing the way in which students are recruited to the way donors are engaged, the student journey mapping process can help good business practices evolve into great ones. This process will describe how to bring together quantitative and qualitative data from multiple campus stakeholders (staff, faculty, students, etc.) and translate these data into insights that can reshape the student experience. Most importantly, the process describes how to develop this into actionable information that a campus community can understand. This paper will define the process of student journey mapping and provide campus administrators with concrete examples. Additionally, details are provided on how to best capture qualitative and quantitative data sets to inform the journey map. Finally, the connection between these data sets and the implementation plan is detailed to allow for actionable items to stem from the creation of a journey map.

The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.

Author's Biography

Jp Rains is the Director of the Digital Strategy Office at his alma mater of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He oversees the institution’s digital footprint on the web and through social media while aiming to increase the digital IQ of the campus community. He is also President of Rains Media, where he works as a consultant in marketing and communication to private industry. Prior to this, Rains led strategy for two years as Vice-President of Strategy for Soshal Group, a digital agency working with a focus on clients in higher education. His work at Soshal led to multiple national awards and record setting performance for clients including: York University, University of New Brunswick and Cambrian College. He started his career after graduation at Laurentian University, working in the Office of Student Recruitment, followed by roles in various offices including: Marketing & Communications, Office of the Chief of Staff and Information Technology before joining Soshal Group. Rains has seen multiple years of success in student recruitment, including two years of 20 per cent plus increases to applications. Rains has consulted with over 25 Canadian and US-based higher education institutions and has implemented the Student Journey Mapping process with more than a dozen campuses. Additionally, he has interviewed over 1,000 stakeholders through the journey mapping process in an effort to deeply understand the perspectives of prospective students, current students, alumni and donors. Rains is the board chair of the Post-Secondary Education Web Conference of Canada and is a board member of the Laurentian University Alumni Association.

• Download PDF

Share This Article

Personal Account Required

To use this function , you need to be signed in with a personal account.

If you already have a personal account, please login here .

Otherwise you may sign up now for a personal account.

Cookies and Privacy

We use cookies, and similar tools, to improve the way this site functions, to track browsing patterns and enable marketing. For more information read our cookie policy and privacy policy .

Cookie Settings

How cookies are used.

Cookies are of the following types:

• Essential to make the site function.
• Used to analyse and improve visitor experience.

For more information see our Cookie Policy.

Some types of cookies can be disabled by you but doing so may adversely affect functionality. Please see below:

Essential Cookies

If you block these cookies or set alerts in your browser parts of the website will not work.

Functional Cookies

Cookies that provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. If not allowed functionality may be impaired.

Performance Cookies

Cookies that count and track visits and on website activity enabling us to organise the website to optimise the experience of users. They may be blocked without immediate adverse effect.

• MyAucklandUni
• Student Services Online
• Class search
• Student email
• Change my password
• MyCDES+ (job board)
• Course outlines
• Learning essentials
• Libraries and Learning Services
• Forms, policies and guidelines
• Campus Card
• Enrol in courses
• Postgraduate students
• Summer school
• AskAuckland
• Student Hubs
• Student IT Hub
• Student Health and Counselling
• Harassment, bullying, sexual assault and other violence
• Complaints and incidents
• Career Development and Employability Services (CDES)
• Ratonga Hauātanga Tauira | Student Disability Services (SDS)
• Rainbow support
• Covid-19 information for our community
• Emergency information
• Report concerns, incidents and hazards
• Health and safety topics
• Staff email
• Staff intranet
• ResearchHub
• PeopleSoft HR
• Forms register
• Careers at the University
• Education Office
• Early childhood centres
• University Calendar
• Opportunities
• Update your details
• Make a donation
• Publications
• Photo galleries
• Video and audio
• Career services
• Virtual Book Club
• Library services
• Alumni benefits
• Office contact details
• Alumni and friends on social media
• No events scheduled for today You have no more events scheduled for today
• Next event:
• Show {0} earlier events Show {0} earlier event
• Event_Time Event_Name Event_Description
• My Library Account
• Change Password
• Edit Profile
• My GPA Grade Point Average About your GPA GPA not available Why can't I see my GPA?
• My Progress
• Points Required Completed points My Progress Progress not available All done!
• Student hubs
• Health and counselling
• All support
• Health, safety and well-being

Breadcrumbs List.

• Mō mātou | About us
• About the University
• The University
• Digital transformation showcase
• You are currently on: Student Journey Mapping

Student Journey Mapping

Since 2016 the University has been using Journey Mapping to tell the overall story of its student experience - from their perspective.

Hundreds of students, from prospect to alumni, have participated in this insightful process which has resulted in numerous University initiatives to increase student success – from Strategy development (like the Student Digital Strategy) to significant capital projects (like Connected Experiences).    

This year we are undertaking a new Journey Mapping exercise to identify the top pain points for Academic roles important to the delivery of key University services,  starting with our Academic Heads. It will complement other planning and prioritisation activities (Business Capability Road Maps, IT Capability Plans, etc) around key University functions and recommend mana-enhancing system, process, and material improvements around each journey.

In parallel, we will be refreshing our existing Māori Undergraduate Student Journey Map.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer
• QuestionPro

• Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
• Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Stanford Student Journey Map as an Example of CX

In the academic field, students are at the heart of all initiatives and actions, which is why it’s not surprising that methodologies have been developed to ensure their satisfaction. Let’s explore the Stanford student journey map.

One of the most popular and effective methodologies is undoubtedly the implementation of a Student Journey Map. This tool allows institutions to visualize and analyze every point of interaction between students and the educational institution.

Let’s delve into this popular methodology and take an example from one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the United States: the Stanford Student Journey.

What is a Student Journey Map?

A Student Journey Map is a visual representation or diagram that outlines the various stages, touchpoints, interactions, and experiences that a student goes through during their educational journey. It provides a comprehensive overview of the entire student lifecycle, from the initial awareness of an educational institution or program to post-graduation activities.

A Student Journey Map aims to better understand a student’s perspective and emotions at each stage of their educational journey. It helps educational institutions, administrators, and educators identify pain points, opportunities for improvement, and areas where they can enhance the overall student experience. By mapping out the student journey, institutions can design and implement strategies to provide students with better support, guidance, and resources, ultimately leading to increased student satisfaction, retention, and success.

By creating and analyzing a Student Journey Map, educational institutions can gain insights into students’ emotions, pain points, and successes at each stage. This enables them to make informed decisions to enhance the overall student experience, improve retention rates, and foster a more supportive and conducive learning environment.

Stanford Student Journey Map Example

To better understand this concept, we’ve created a simplified version of what a Stanford Student Journey might look like. In this example, we’ve included some of the common touchpoints found in universities and highlighted a few initiatives announced through Stanford’s website and other media.

Stage 01: AWARENESS

Stage 02: consideration, stage 03: application, stage 04: acceptance, stage 05: enrollment, stage 06: academics, stage 07: graduation, stage 08: advocacy, stanford’s initiatives for ensuring student satisfaction.

The journey of a student is often complex and filled with ups and downs. To address this, Stanford University has implemented various programs to provide their students with more and better options to complete their studies with minimal stress and in the most optimal way possible. Here are some of their key and noteworthy initiatives that can serve as inspiration for your company or educational institution:

Time Away from Stanford: This program allows students to take time away from their studies at the university. They have implemented various levels of leave, as well as the option to withdraw from a Stanford degree program or request reinstatement. This enables students to take a break and complete their program optimally.

Online Documentation: Stanford students have the option to access all documentation related to their academic journey at any time through the university portal. Resources include the academic calendar, schedule of classes, academic forms and processes, academic support, and university policies (Student Policies, GAP). This ensures that students have access to relevant information whenever they need it.

Tuition & Fees Transparency: Stanford believes it’s important for students to understand the tuition and fees associated with their academic journey. The student financial account aggregates charges from various campus services, including tuition, academic fees, housing and dining, health insurance and services, student activities, and more. This provides students with access to critical financial information.

Start Building and Enhancing Your Student Journey!

At QuestionPro, we have developed a range of features to meet any educational need, both internal and external. Some of our standout tools include:

Powerful Survey Software: With our survey software, you can create surveys in just a few clicks to assess critical points in the student journey. Moreover, students can gain free access using their institutional email and utilize our hundreds of templates and advanced features to execute their educational projects with professionalism and excellence.

Customer Journey Tool: If you’re looking to create your first student journey map, QuestionPro SuiteCX makes it easy with its robust platform and diverse templates. SuiteCX allows you to visualize the most important touchpoints in your student journey and enrich them with specific information to clearly understand what’s happening at each stage of their education.

Want to learn more? Contact us, and we’d be delighted to support you in your next major project.

LEARN MORE         FREE TRIAL

MORE LIKE THIS

Employee Listening Strategy: What it is & How to Build One

Jul 17, 2024

Winning the Internal CX Battles — Tuesday CX Thoughts

Jul 16, 2024

Knowledge Management: What it is, Types, and Use Cases

Jul 12, 2024

Response Weighting: Enhancing Accuracy in Your Surveys

Jul 11, 2024

Other categories

• Academic Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessments
• Brand Awareness
• Case Studies
• Communities
• Consumer Insights
• Customer effort score
• Customer Engagement
• Customer Experience
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Research
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Benefits
• Employee Engagement
• Employee Retention
• Friday Five
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Insights Hub
• Life@QuestionPro
• Market Research
• Mobile diaries
• Mobile Surveys
• New Features
• Online Communities
• Question Types
• Questionnaire
• QuestionPro Products
• Release Notes
• Research Tools and Apps
• Revenue at Risk
• Survey Templates
• Training Tips
• Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
• Uncategorized
• What’s Coming Up
• Workforce Intelligence