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Colleges and universities want to better analyze, improve, and compete on student experience. But many barriers stand in their way. Maybe there's no clear definition of what they mean by "student experience," or it's conflated with "student success" or "student engagement." Perhaps their organizational silos are getting in the way. Or they may be struggling to adapt to systemic changes in higher education like online delivery models or waves of first-gen students with new needs.

We recently taught an online course for EDUCAUSE on student experience in which more than 50 institutions participated.

In this post, I'll share the tools and advice covered in our course, as well as the insights we learned from the academic technology and student affairs leaders who participated. This will provide a useful snapshot of how many institutions are feeling about the subject of student experience today. We'll review assessment methods, common student experience challenges, proven strategies for addressing these challenges, ways to prototype and pilot ideas, and our lessons learned.
How Are Institutions Assessing Student Experience?
In this previous post, we provided an overview of student experience tools and formats. These include:

1. Mining existing data

2. Looking at ratings and review sites

3. Conducting surveys and observations

4. Facilitating forums, focus groups, and interviews

5. Engaging students in journaling or photo essays

As colleges and universities pick their preferred right combination of methods, our advice is to combine quantitative and qualitative data, campus data with external peer / industry benchmarking data, and subjective data like satisfaction with objective data like utilization.

Perhaps predictably, institutions in our EDUCAUSE course used mostly surveys and data mining, with some focus groups and interviews. Many expressed an interest in more generative research methods like journaling to be able to co-create solutions with students. For instance, a tool like dScout can be used to send students on "missions" where they answer research questions with photos and comments.

One of the most useful parts of the course was helping institutions distinguish between student success, student experience, and student engagement. We find that these are conflated or confused on most campuses.

Defining what student experience is and what it is not is a great way to start:

Student Success is an approach defined by focusing on the student and their persistence working toward completion of a credential and placement in a career.

Student Experience is a composite over time of a person's activities and interactions with technology, spaces, information, and other people.

Student Engagement is the degree of student investment in their learning as measured by their participation in purposeful activities and/or the degree of connection to these activities, their community, and their institution.

Who Are the Students and What Are Their Experiences Like?
Data only becomes wisdom if you put it in context and make connections. The central focus of our course was brightspot's Student Experience Canvas. We created this free tool to help institutions better understand and improve their students' experiences as they encounter all touch points from applicant to alum. Our course began by creating personas for each segment of the student population. We then used the Student Experience Canvas to map the persona's experience to academic programs, student services, technology, facilities, and the campus community. This empowered our participants to organize and evaluate the experience data for each segment of their student population - either developing their own personas or referencing these personas from the Lumina Foundation or these personas from Jeff Selingo and Pearson.
What Are the Common Student Experience Issues?
As the 50+ participating institutions completed Canvases, three critical challenges emerged:

1. Data silos. Gaps in data and organizational silos were common. Many participants only had access to a small percentage of the information needed to complete a full assessment.

2. Changes in higher ed delivery models. Many participants realized a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn't work. They required greater flexibility to support academic programs and provide student services at different times of day/week/year and at different locations.

3. Communication needs. Many participants identified opportunities to better communicate expectations to their students about important adjustments they'd need to make as part of adapting to campus life, like being away from home, studying online, or pursuing a new discipline to shift careers.

4. Service awareness. Many students are not aware, can't access, or have difficulty navigating the different academic and administrative student services in place to support them.

5. Distributed services and staff. Students get the runaround from office to office between staff and service that could be centralized.

6. No online community or culture. Many institutions noted that community and a sense of campus culture was lacking for online programs - they'd made an effective online classroom but not an online campus.

7. Support unique needs. There are also specific groups such as first-gen students, international students, and low-income students with specialized needs. Many institutions sought greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in their communities.

8. Outdated technology. Many felt behind with legacy systems and platforms that were not mobile-friendly and so not meeting students where they are while still others were experimenting with virtual assistance (i.e., chatbots) and wondering how to apply and assess them.

What Are the Common Strategies for Addressing Student Experience Issues?
The good news is all of our participants voiced a commitment to putting students first. They simply lacked a shared definition of "student experience," and they didn't have a way of assessing and benchmarking data to understand how their students' experiences compare to other institutions. These and other improvements can thus inform how other colleges and universities make progress.

To give institutions a sense of how a variety of institutions are addressing their student experience challenges, we discussed a variety of examples:

One other important role that significantly influences student experiences is faculty. Everyone agreed staff should not be solely responsible for reinventing student services and rethinking technology. Faculty can improve the student experience by better engaging students in the physical and digital classroom with more interactive, active learning strategies in which students work in teams to solve real-world problems that will make an impact, tie to their passions, and put them on a career path.

Mentoring and advising are also critical. The Gallup-Purdue index showed that students who reported that they "had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams" were 1.9 times more likely to be engaged in their work after college. Likewise, students working on long-term projects such as a capstone project or a faculty research project are 1.6 times more likely to be engaged in their work after college in the same study. These kinds of projects are also what the National Survey of Student Engagement identifies as "high-impact practices."
How Can You Get Aligned on Student Experience to Turn Your Insights into Action?
Colleges and universities should address these issues and apply these strategies in a way that makes sense to them - which likely means at least some assessment as to your capabilities and capacities. For the institutions in our course, when we asked what their biggest implementation challenges were besides funding, there was clear consensus on organizational silos, limited staff capacity, limited staff capability, and legacy systems and processes.

Once institutions have assessed their student experience, synthesized that data, and built consensus among their team, they'll need a tool to implement change. We created the Student Experience Roadmap for that purpose so that colleges and universities can get aligned and organize themselves for action. Institutions can use it to create a vision, identify goals, and assign actions by department/group in an effort to put their plans for improvement into action. As you implement, look for opportunities to learn as you make incremental changes through prototyping and piloting so that you can test ideas, build momentum, and make the case.

To move ahead improving the student experience at your college or university, we recommend that you start by creating a shared definition of student experience. Then seek a commitment to student experience across the institution - especially among your senior administration - and work to ensure your organizational structure reflects this focus. From there, you need regular assessment of experience internally and comparisons to peers and industry-wide benchmarks externally in order to create insights about what's working, what isn't, and what's missing. Take action on these insights in the short-term with a pilot project and in the long-term with a vision that can help you focus and serve as your "north star." You can you use our Student Experience Roadmap to make your plan, and as you move ahead, treat this not as a one-time journey, but rather part of a culture of continuous improvement. Good luck as you move ahead!

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How to Improve Student Experience at Higher Ed Institutions

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Colleges and universities want to better analyze, improve, and compete on student experience. But many barriers stand in their way. Maybe there's no clear definition of what they mean by "student experience," or it's conflated with "student success" or "student engagement." Perhaps their organizational silos are getting in the way.

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Student affairs officers have full agendas on college campuses, as they're often the point person for issues around such inflammatory issues as sexual violence, race relations and free speech. But those issues don't appear anywhere near the top when student affairs leaders are asked which issues dominate their time. The topics that do: student mental health, cited by 94 percent, and student well-being, by 91 percent. All other issues lagged well behind.

This is from the first-ever Inside Higher Ed survey of student affairs leaders, conducted by Gallup. The survey was conducted from Jan. 16 to Feb. 12, before the coronavirus left most campuses without students. The survey included answers from only one person per institution, with coding to allow for comparisons by sector.

Among the other findings:

78 percent of student affairs leaders said the number of campus visits to mental health professionals had "increased a lot" in the last five years, and 63 percent said the same for the number of students on prescription medicine for mental health issues.

Student affairs leaders classify race relations on their campuses as either excellent (6 percent) or good (48 percent). Another recent Inside Higher Ed survey, of college presidents, found that 77 percent rate them positively.

Student affairs leaders overwhelmingly (97 percent) say white students are treated well by other students on their campuses; far fewer (57 percent) say the same about black students ...

Fifty-eight percent said that they believe their college's president is familiar enough with student affairs issues that when she or he makes a decision on student affairs, it's the right one.

On average, student affairs leaders estimate that 5 percent of their students are homeless, and 17 percent that their students are food insecure. (The numbers were higher at community colleges.)

Sixty-eight percent of student affairs leaders say students on their campus generally respect free speech rights. But more student affairs officers say that liberal speakers (83 percent) than conservative speakers (68 percent) are treated with respect when they visit campus.

Student affairs leaders generally have a positive view of Greek life on their campuses. Twenty-five percent said they are glad their campus has a Greek system and it is operating well; 64 percent said they are glad they have a Greek system but would like to improve it.

What They Spent Their Time On
When student affairs officers were asked which issues "you have paid a significant amount of attention to in the past year," the answers were mostly similar for public and private nonprofit institutions, with the exception of spending time on hunger and homeless, where public institutions were more likely to answer yes than privates, 73 to 31 percent. The public side was strengthened by community colleges, at 78 percent.
Mental Health
Half of student affairs leaders say they think about student mental health "a great deal." The percentages were highest at public doctoral institutions (68 percent) and private baccalaureate colleges (66 percent), and lowest at community colleges (36 percent).

Asked to rate the mental health of students, only 1 percent of student affairs leaders said that it was excellent. Thirty-four percent said that it was good, 58 percent fair and 8 percent poor. Seventy percent of officials at private baccalaureate institutions and 74 percent at public doctoral institutions said their students' mental health was either fair or poor.

Consider these two figures -- on the volume of visits to campus mental heath professionals and on the number of students receiving prescription medicine in the last five years. Both show substantial gains.
Volume of Visits to See Mental Health Professionals in the Last Five Years Volume of Students on Campus Receiving Prescription Medication for Mental Health Issues
One issue students have complained about at many colleges concerns limits placed on the number of times a student can see a mental health professional on campus. Half of those at public colleges have such limits, and 46 percent of private colleges have such limits.

The respondents -- at public and private colleges alike -- also expressed concern about the impact of students' mental health issues on mental health professionals.

Last year, the head of counseling at the University of Pennsylvania died by suicide; he had complained about the demands of the job.

Of respondents to the survey, 37 percent said they were very concerned about the impact of student mental health issues on the mental health of those who treat them, and 45 percent were somewhat concerned.

The survey found colleges to be split on the use of outside providers for mental health. Forty-seven percent said they do -- with a higher percentage at public (51 percent) than at private institutions (39 percent).

But those that do use them are at least somewhat satisfied. Thirty percent of respondents said they were very satisfied, and 61 percent were somewhat satisfied.

Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, said via email that he was "not surprised" by the data on mental health.

"We see incidents of self-reported depressive episodes increasing year over year for adolescent boys and girls. These young people end up on our college campuses. It is the reality of the increases we are seeing that has resulted in a major reinvestment in health promotion and prevention efforts on campus. There is a clear understanding on campus that the long-term solutions must include population-level wellness and well-being initiatives in addition to therapeutic interventions."
Race Relations
The survey asked a series of questions about race relations, similar to those asked in a recent poll of college presidents.

Both sets of officials were asked to assess the state of race relations in higher education nationally and on their own campuses, and the surveys found student affairs to be more skeptical in both cases. Both student affairs leaders and college presidents were more likely to see problems in American higher education at large than on their campuses.
How Are Race Relations on Your Campus? How Are Race Relations in Higher Education?
But despite this view, 31 percent of student affairs leaders said their institution has done a lot to support diversity and inclusion on campus, at 48 percent said it done something to promote diversity and inclusion.

One question on the survey asked the student affairs leaders how various groups of students at their college are treated. The very best off, they said, were white students. Minority students -- and conservative students -- did not do as well.
How Student Groups Are Treated
Kruger said that "college campuses across the country struggle with racial climate issues -- particularly at predominantly white institutions. Student affairs vice presidents see these issues on an individual level in their interactions with students across all races and ethnicities. College presidents may see a healthier climate as measured by fewer protests, but student affairs professionals are more likely to hear the stories that students of color experience in their daily lives. These can be the big stories of racism that make the news -- but often are found in the daily interactions student of color experience in the classroom, in their residence hall or simply walking through the campus. That only 54 percent of [the respondents] have a positive view of race relations on campus is indicative of the significant work that needs to be done on this critical issue."

One of the most controversial issues in student affairs is free speech on campus. Seventy-eight percent of student affairs leaders believe their campus is excellent or good "as a place where students can express their ideas and opinions freely." Public institutions were more likely than private institutions to answer that way.

Student affairs leaders also believe -- but narrowly -- that their campuses host speakers representing a range of political viewpoints.
Campuses and Free Speech
Some of the most contentious issues surrounding campus speech are whether students understand why free speech is important on campus, and the punishments (if any) for those who disrupt free speech.

Colleges generally bar students from protesting a speaker in a way that would disrupt speech, but permit protests that don't. For example, at many colleges there would be no consequence for protesting a speaker outside the designated venue, but some colleges would punish interrupting or shouting down a speaker.

The answers reveal strong disagreement among the student affairs leaders.
Free Speech Issues
Another issue that has consumed student affairs leaders on many campuses is sexual assault. The Trump administration is expected -- perhaps in coming days -- to propose substantial changes to the federal rules spelling out colleges' responsibilities in preventing and dealing with sexual assault.

The answers on this issue were split: large majorities said that higher education must improve the way it responds to issues of sexual assault, but they asserted that their institutions handle sexual assault allegations appropriately.
Sexual Assault Low-Income Students
While there have always been homeless and hungry students on campuses, the issue has gained considerable attention in recent years.

Nonetheless, only a minority of colleges know how many of their students are either homeless or food insecure. Thirty-four percent of respondents said their college attempts to measure the share of students who are homeless. (The figure was 48 percent at community colleges.) A higher percentage -- 47 percent -- said their college measures the percentage of students who are food insecure.
Homeless and Hungry Students
Colleges were also asked if they provide certain things to students who are homeless or food insecure.

The survey also included a series of questions on issues facing colleges.

On the issue of monitoring students' social media accounts, only 14 percent said that their college monitors students accounts. But the percentage was higher at private institutions (17 percent) than at public institutions.

Student affairs leaders agreed (barely) that the needs of residential students dominate their agendas. And only a minority of student affairs leaders agreed that students' career services expectations are unreasonable.

Student affairs leaders also were asked to respond to the statement "My president has enough knowledge of student affairs issues that when he or she makes a decision, it is the right one."

Twenty-one percent strongly agreed, while 37 percent agreed, 23 percent were neutral, 11 percent disagreed and 7 percent strongly disagreed. At community colleges, 30 percent of the student affairs leaders strongly agreed.

Kruger of NASPA said about this finding, "Virtually every vice president of student affairs who has served in their role for more than 10 years would say that their role is qualitatively different than it was even five years ago. The reality is that the issues, problems and challenges of the modern campus are significantly different than they were when most members of the president's cabinet themselves were students. This can create a kind of lag in decision making that is grounded in an understanding of what is happening on campus today.

"For example, the protests we have seen on campus the last five years caught many campuses by surprise. Where student affairs staff would have seen the increase in activism among this newer group of students increasing over the years. Finally, it is almost in the student affairs ethos to make their work seem effortless and to quietly manage the ongoing challenges and crises on campus. Most respondents try to keep these issues from rising up the president's desk -- which on the one hand is a good instinct, but can also lead to the kind of disconnect the survey data suggests."

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Student Affairs Leaders on Mental Health, Race Relations, Free Speech and More

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March 26, 2020 -- Inside Higher Ed's 2020 Survey of College and University Student Affairs Officers was conducted by Gallup. A copy of the report can be downloaded here. Inside Higher Ed regularly surveys key higher ed professionals on a range of topics. On Tuesday, April 28, at 2 p.m.

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Segal et al (2020) mentions that emotional intelligence is “the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.”

Common Attributes:

· Self-Management

· Self-Awareness

· Social Awareness

· Relationship Management

Reference:
Segal, J., Smith, M., Robinson, L., & Shubin, J. (October 2020). Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Help Guide. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm

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Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (n.d.) mentions that servant leadership is done by focusing on the improvements of those around you. As a leader, you work for your employees and ensure they are provided with the proper training and equipment to complete their job properly. The servant leader always puts the need of others first.

Robert K. Greenleaf Center For Servant Leadership. (n.d.). The Servant As Leader. Retrieved from

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions...The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the "top of the pyramid," servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

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What is Servant Leadership? - Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: "The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.

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You can take an emotional intelligence exam using the following link.

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The Global Emotional Intelligence Test uses 40 questions which are derived from, the Global instrument, which contains 158 items. These are based on Goleman's four quadrant Emotional Intelligence Competency Model (2002). Click EI Capability Assessment here for more details. Short EI quizzes such as this are meant to be fun, and to give you a guide to which EI areas you are doing well in and those which perhaps you need to focus on for development.

This Test, is a forced-choice psychological test which requires you to choose Instructions for the FREE EI Test one statement in each pair of statements that describes you best. For each pair of statements, select the statement that best applies to you. Do not over-analyse the questions, or try to think of "exceptions to the rule." Be spontaneous and choose the statement that comes closest to the way you are.

Occasionally there will be questions that ask you to make a close call between two choices. This is because the Test is trying to distinguish between specific areas. If a question is very close and you can't decide which statement applies to you best, you can come back to it after you have completed the other questions.

The Test usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the test, click on the Score Test button, and wait for the computer to generate an EI profile of your scores. If you have answered honestly and accurately, your scores will reflect your capability level within each of the EI quadrants.

We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the results of this Test - only that it can help you begin your journey of self-development!

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Emotional Intelligence Test - Global Leadership Foundation

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Free emotional intelligence test developed by Global Leadership Foundation

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You do not have to be in a leadership role to display leadership qualities or to practice leadership. Leaders are the people that take the first step in making a change (J. Galvan, personal communication, April 23, 2021).