21 Voices Annual Report Cengage Learning
REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS
voices
2016 ANNUAL PROGRAM REPORT
REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS
2016 ANNUAL PROGRAM REPORT
For Internal Educational Purposes Only
Privacy Statement
To ensure the validity of our research, we strive to ensure the privacy of our 21 Voices
participants. As such, the names and other identiiers used in this report are not those of the
real participants. All other information about the individual voices is true, including direct
quotes. If, as a Cengage employee, you have questions about a speciic participant, or would
like to learn more, please contact us at 21voices@cengage.com.
Program Design and Coordination
Lauren Grace R Gonzales, 21 Voices Program Manager
Raymond June, 21 Voices Research Manager
Andrei Pasternak, Managing Art Director – Cengage Creative Studio
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Contents
Executive Summary
5
How We Did It
7
Who and Where Are Our 21 Voices?
9
Student Proiles
11
Insights
21
Preview of his Year’s Activities
31
Addendum
37
3
4
Executive Summary
he goal of the 21 Voices program is to
empathize with today’s college students
so that we can understand how
Cengage’s products can better support
them.
How do we strive to achieve this
functional empathy? By putting aside
our preconceived notions and taking
students on their own terms. hat is,
we put their study behavior, everyday
lives, and personal viewpoints front
and center in our research. We go
beyond demographic and market data
to dig deeper into the meanings behind
their day-to-day practices, both inside
and outside the classroom, from a
longitudinal perspective.
he 21 Voices Discovery Team devoted
the program’s irst two years to
conducting exploratory, open-ended
research. Since this approach entailed
interacting with our students via a
relatively loose structure to allow
themes to emerge from the ground up,
it has allowed these insights to have a
longer-term impact on how Cengage
thinks about students and accordingly
designs products for them.
current and future products more
immediately. In this transitional third
year, the Discovery Team is alternating
between two main approaches:
1 Pursuing exploratory research
focused on speciic themes (such
as the role of social media in learning).
2 Tactical research conducted in collaboration with strategic product
groups within Cengage.
his report primarily covers our
activities during the second program
year and concludes with a brief
overview of activities planned for the
current year. Signiicantly, it includes
some preliminary insights and more
detailed discussions of our research
approach, in order to highlight the
features of the 21 Voices program that
distinguish it from other research
initiatives (e.g., usability studies,
market research) within and outside
the company.
Beginning this year—the program’s
third—the research has evolved, such
that there is a tighter integration of
ongoing exploratory activities with
more tactical inquiries that inform
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
5
How We Did It
RESEARCH AND PROGRAM DESIGN
he Cengage UX Research Team
launched the 21 Voices program
in September 2014. We conceived
this program as a longitudinal and
ethnographic research project that
would enable us to understand the
needs of our students on a very deep
level. his continued to be our focus in
the program’s second calendar year.
From the beginning, we decided to
utilize an iterative research process,
wherein we could take input gathered
in the ield and fold it back into the
very project design itself. Such an
approach has allowed us to avoid
making restrictive assumptions that
could limit the ability of some students
to participate fully. Instead, the
iterative research process enables us
to continually identify and capitalize
on the best methodologies to it the
diverse set of students in the program.
hus, our program:
• Enables Cengage to continuously
adapt and improve the program.
As we shifted our focus in our
second year to gathering speciic
kinds of data, for example, we added monthly themes and bi-weekly
surveys around those themes to
better capture key inputs from all
the students.
• Reinforces our commitment to
producing and utilizing practical
and lexible educational tools and
methodologies. his entire study
is an example of this commitment,
as we ourselves have worked such
principles into the very fabric of
the program.
In short, using an iterative process has
allowed us to gain richer insights into
students’ perceptions in a way that
suits them individually and allows them
to determine how they can best capture
information about their school and
personal lives.
• Allows students to take diferent
approaches to participating in
the program in ways that are best
suited to them. For example, students are required to submit weekly reports but are free to choose the
format they prefer, such as diaries,
pictures, or video iles.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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MONTHLY RESEARCH THEMES
Our team of researchers focused
on a speciic theme each month to
explore with our students. he themes
included:
• January 2016:
Relevance
• February 2016:
Making the Most of Time
• March 2016:
Peer Connection
• April 2016:
Building Skills and Networks
• May 2016:
Life After Graduation
THE PROCESS
he Discovery Team utilized a wide
range of tools to gain access to
students’ beliefs and daily practices.
hese included monthly diary studies,
interviews, focus groups, and ield
visits. We provide more in-depth
discussion about the methods we
used later in the report, where we
also provide a preview of some of
our activities and insights in the 3rd
program year (See Insights, page 21).
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
he research team utilized the same
analysis and synthesis process as
previous years: reviewing input
from individual students, analyzing
the information, and tying the data
together to ind broader patterns and
meanings.
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Who and Where Are
Our 21 Voices?
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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University of Nebraska
Lincoln NE
Univeristy of Montana
Missoula MT
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI
Columbia College Chicago
Chicago IL
Beloit College
Beloit WI
Ohio State
University
Columbus OH
Seattle Central College
Seattle WA
Washtenaw Community College
Ann Arbor MI
Utica College
Utica NY
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
North Adams MA
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence RI
Utah State University
Logan UT
Temple University
Philadelphia PA
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh PA
Arizona State University (Online)
Las Vegas NV
University of Southern California
Los Angeles CA
Guilford College
Greensboro NC
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights KY
St. Mary’s University
San Antonio TX
University of Texas, Austin
Austin TX
University of Saint Thomas
Houston TX
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater OK
Continuing 21V Students
New Additions
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University of Central Oklahoma
Edmond OK
Student Profiles
KRIS
Computer Engineering
Freshmen
AMBER
Biology
A freshman this year at the University
of Montana, Missoula, Amber sought
advice about her career path from
her mother, professional Nurse
Practitioners, and even student peers
at a TED Talk. When she learned
that as a pre-med student she would
basically have no life except school for
many years to come, she let go of her
dream of becoming an OB-GYN and
chose instead to pursue Biology and
a path toward becoming a Physician’s
Assistant. Amber is very clear that
college, for her, is about much more
than courses and a degree. “his is
where you make friends for life,” she
says.
Amber lives in a dorm where all the
students on her loor pursue similar
ields. Furthermore, they go to the
same classes and study together, and
some also play on the same basketball
team. Given her gregarious nature
and initiative, it’s hardly surprising
that her dorm life is a source of close
and supportive friendships where she
tutors and is tutored by her peers. For
Amber, her social networks/friendships
are integral to enhancing her learning
experience.
Kris isn’t having any trouble with the
content in his college classes—in fact,
he thinks the content is easier than his
high school classes. He does, however,
ind it diicult to learn and get used to
new study habits. He’s also still getting
used to his college town, which he
thinks is a pretty drastic change from
his hometown that was on the rise to
becoming very trendy. here isn’t much
to do around his campus, he says, but
he’s met a couple of local students
who are generous enough to show him
around.
To gain work experience related to his
major, he currently works part-time in
an IT/tech support position as a part
of work-study. He ills downtime there
by socializing with his co-workers (who
are upperclassmen and give him advice
and tips) and doing homework.
GABE
Biochemistry
Gabe has always wanted to be in the
health professions and has a particular
passion for research. his interest
was in part sparked by his mother
(who works at a major university
medical center), as well as his high
school teachers, many of whom had a
background in science and technology.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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After attending a public high school and
then transferring to a small boarding
school in the Paciic Northwest, Gabe
decided to attend a small liberal arts
college in the Midwest for its breadth of
classes and stress on critical thinking.
He has taken advantage of his school’s
summer research and internship
program to live in Germany for several
weeks, and hopes to eventually earn
a PhD in a STEM ield. But while
focused on academics in college, he has
expressed a strong awareness of social
justice issues and tries to participate in
socially aware campus activities when
he can.
Sophomores
ADRIAN
Real Estate Development
Adrian inds college interesting and
believes it is preparing him well for
his chosen ield. As one who makes
plenty of time for study and sleep, he
is slightly amused and perplexed at
the all-nighters his friends pull. He’s
hardly anti-social, though—Adrian
belongs to several on-campus clubs and
organizations, and actually sees clubs
as a way to develop diverse, lifelong
friendships. Indeed, he believes that
one of the purposes of college is to
develop such ties with students from
around the world. Not surprisingly,
then, he is glad that he chose a school
that features a unique mentor and
networking program designed to
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support students in successfully
transitioning from college to career.
AVA
Interior Design
Most of Ava’s peers are younger than
she is, but she feels like there’s good
chemistry with her classmates—she
its in with quite well. She’s certainly
one of the more talented members
of the class and is gaining a lot of
conidence. Ava generally respects their
opinions and enjoys working alongside
them.
Ava just bought a MacBook Pro this
summer and had to learn the OS, which
was challenging. “I wanted a Mac for
years, and now that I’m a designer
I really needed one… I’m learning
quickly.” She’s taking three classes
this semester, including computer
graphics, typography, and history of
design—with one of her classes being
online. “I love that History of Design
is online… I appreciate being able
to work at my own pace…. but I also
enjoy the on-campus part of my other
classes, especially the in-class critique
sessions.”
In addition to her job in the front oice
of the Oklahoma City Zoo, Ava works
on-campus 10-15 hours a week at the
communications oice. She only has
classes on Monday and Wednesday. “I
lessened my workload this year, and
that’s made things easier. Plus, I can
do ALL my work this semester on my
computer.”
CLAIRE
Sports Management
school… unless we’re cramming for
exams together.”
One who knows what she loves to
do and pursues her passions at every
turn, Claire is particularly enjoying
her Photography class this semester.
Her career aspirations have changed
course this year, due in part to all of
the positive opportunities she had to
participate in campus life during her
freshman year. Claire is still majoring
in Sports Management and is already
thinking about graduate school. She is
also looking into Student Afairs and
is accordingly involved with numerous
organizations on campus as a leader
and peer mentor. On top of all of this,
Claire has decided to minor in Women,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies, a
natural choice for someone as socially
conscious as she is. Finally, networking
is pretty much second nature for Claire,
allowing her to get the most out of
campus resources, whether through
students, professors, or staf.
Boredom is Eli’s biggest complaint
with school, particularly lectures.
“Lecture classes are always going to be
tedious. It needs to be done, but it’s
not enjoyable.” When it comes to group
activities, Eli says he almost always
steps in and takes on the bulk of the
workload - because he doesn’t trust his
classmates to deliver quality work. “I’d
rather shoulder a little extra work to
make sure we get the A,” he says.
Eli has a very pragmatic take on
academic success. “I talk to my English
professor a lot,” he says. “If you
take their advice during oice hours
and follow it, you’re pretty much
guaranteed an A.” He prefers to “cram”
for most assignments and tests, and
so he’s structured his schedule this
semester to better accommodate that
lifestyle - no classes on Tuesday or
hursday, and his earliest class begins
at 1:00 on MWF.
ELI
Computer Science, Business
Entrepreneurship
JEN
Computational Mathematics
Eli remains focused on doing just
enough to keep his scholarships and
honors dorm placement. He knows that
he’ll have to buckle down and study
harder in the coming semesters, but he
seems much more focused on enjoying
campus social life (especially late-latenight gaming with his dorm mates).
“Pretty much all of my friends are
‘school friends’ - we rarely talk about
Jen is pursuing an Associate’s degree
in Computational Mathematics,
choosing not to take on the full
4-course semester workload so that
she has time to write up her transfer
application this semester and to work.
(She works as a barista at a local
cofee shop, which allows her both
to support and not incur too much
student debt.) Jen is a very determined
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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and hardworking student, looking
to transfer to Caltech or one of the
research universities to complete her
Bachelor’s Degree in Computational
Mathematics. Citing the Allen Institute
(the leading Brain Research institute
in the Seattle area) as one of her dream
location to work at, her goal in life is
to become a mathematician who uses
computational methods to better
understand neurosystems and cure
neurological diseases.
Self-identiied as a Chicana, Jen is
very involved in the local community
in bringing more indigenous students
into the STEM ields and hosting
discussions in the community about
related histories and issues. She has
done outreach programs through local
K-12 schools and libraries where the
organization would put on science fairs
and educate students from indigenous
groups about diferent ways to become
involved in math and sciences.
RAQUEL
Chemistry
Raquel, a second-year participant in
the 21 Voices program, is a Chemistry
major with plans to pursue a career
in pharmacy work. In addition to
individual study time, she regularly
participates in group study sessions
at the library, where she and her peers
will collaborate on assignments to take
advantage of their individual strengths.
She prides herself at being particularly
math savvy, and often assists others
with equations and calculations.
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Raquel is quite comfortable with digital
learning solutions and uses them with
what might be called “mixed results”
(she cites technical limitations that
prevent her from rendering anatomical
models with the desired accuracy).
Raquel found the transition from high
school to college harder than expected
during her irst year, largely due to
the feeling of being on her own and
being away from her friends. But she
is thriving now as an active member
of her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi,
which is the center of her social
universe, both on and of campus.
She lives and studies in the sorority
house, participating in both social
events and fundraising activities for
the philanthropic work supported by
AOPi. Raquel’s social media identity is
almost wholly constructed of images
of the rich relationship she shares
with her sisters—there is little, if any,
separation between her studies, her
friendships, and her sense of self.
Juniors
CASIMIR
Political Science
Casimir has been pursuing the
requirements for a political science
degree at a few diferent universities,
although he plans to join the Marines
in winter 2017 as a way to explore his
career options. Casimir is all about
relationships. Although he has lived
in Southeast Michigan since he was a
teenager, he is still in constant contact
with his extended family back home in
Colombia via WhatsApp group chats.
He also relies on his strong friendships
and family connections here in the U.S.
and has a rich network of mentors that
lend him guidance. He loves to post on
social media, but his relationships here
in the States are mostly in-person.
Casimir makes ends meet as a youth
tennis instructor and a coordinator at
a non-proit. He also volunteers as a
tutor and mentor for local Latino high
school students. In his free time, when
he’s not playing soccer with friends,
he’s watching it on TV, especially when
Colombia plays.
DAVID
Microbiology
David feels that his background in
science and appreciation for the
outdoors will inluence his career. He
would like to work for the National
Park Service and is considering adding
Law Enforcement Certiication to his
credentials to help him get a job in a
National Park. He works in a science lab
for credit and also participates in the
Review Board for the school, where the
students handle such issues as Code of
Conduct violations. Being a part of the
Review Board, while not taking more
than 3 hours a week, has helped him to
learn that he likes being in a position of
authority.
ESME
International Business and Finance
Esme, who is very interested in working
for one of the Big Four auditors, took
advantage of her desire to study abroad
last year by taking business classes in
Japan. A focused and diligent student,
she has been studying Chinese as well.
Her schedule, going to class full-time
and holding three jobs, keeps her very
busy. As one of the jobs (at a market
research irm) is of-campus and
requires three days per week, she takes
all of her classes back-to-back for days
per week. Esme manages to use a lot
of her time at work to do school work.
She also takes some online classes, and
strives to work through the material
early so that all she has to do is take
the tests. Overall, her approach to
homework and other assignments
is to get everything done as early as
possible. She writes everything down
in her planner, and color codes all the
information to keep herself organized.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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HAZEL
Journalism
Giving a voice to the underserved in
society is a mission that Hazel has
taken on with a vengeance. She grew
up in Harlem and says she is “very
aware of social issues.” She holds
a job on campus at the Women’s
Resource Center, where she organizes
and publicizes events for the center,
and she’s also on the board of the
black student union. However, Hazel
expresses some disappointment with
college life. She had come with high
hopes that her lecture courses would
involve spirited group discussions and
be forums for intelligent discourse,
but she inds that her peers aren’t very
vocal in class and the instructors do not
really encourage it.
JUSTIN
Biomechanical Engineering
Justin, who plans on attending a
prestigious graduate school like MIT in
order to work under speciic industryleading researchers, wants to help make
smarter medical devices to greatly
improve the lives of patients with
disabilities. He generally can generally
be found in one of three places: the
library, a classroom or his apartment.
Degrees in the advanced sciences tend
to be grueling and isolating, and Justin’s
day is almost entirely consumed by
schoolwork and classes. Nevertheless,
focus and dedication have allowed him
to push through and continue to excel.
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Justin moved here from China in 2009
at age 23 to work for a family member.
His experience as both a slightly older
student and a recent immigrant is
certainly a signiicant component of his
college student experience in the US.
LEAH
Communications and French
Leah works hard, socializes, and
receives no inancial help from her
parents. She is a self-motivated person
whose life is very much her own.
here’s a stereotype that everyone
goes to college primarily for fun—but
she takes it seriously. She initially had
a hard time plugging into the social
side of school, as she didn’t like dorm
life or get along with peers her own
age. However, she has found a way to
overcome this struggle, by choosing to
live of campus with her own room, and
has since truly thrived.
Leah is active in several extracurricular
activities, including French club and a
sorority. She isn’t sure what her next
steps after graduation will be, and is
more focused on inding a job that pays
the bills. But she is considering options
such as being a language teacher
abroad, an ambassador, or an employee
in the corporate sector.
SALLY
Communications
Sally is our only distance learner for the
2016-17 program year. Even though
she still has a few years of school
remaining to complete, she has been
thinking of pursuing some type of
research as a career. Sally likes studying
online, which allows her to live near
friends and family but take classes from
an institution that ofers the courses
of study she wants, instead of settling
for the local oferings. She feels like
an online approach ofers her several
advantages: she can work at her own
pace, it adapts to her learning style, and
she doesn’t have to stop doing school
work to attend class.
Anika keeps herself busy, teaching
some classes in nutrition for 4-H
Clubs. She is also involved with the
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (Bible
studies and prayer groups) and the
United Council of Negro Women, where
she serves as the treasurer.
DAWN
Fine and Performing Arts, Arts
Management
Dawn is extremely passionate about
arts management and wants to bring
communities together through art.
Sally’s primary interest outside of
school is makeup and beauty products. She has mostly smaller classes and
has forged close relationships with
She has found an online community
her instructors and fellow students. A
where she can share that interest on
Twitter and Instagram and even started social organizer, she’s always pushing
the latest event for her dorm, church
a beauty inluencer blog last year. She
group, or other social committees
applies the same rigor to her blogging
through Facebook. And she enjoys
as she does to her school work and
being around the people she works
uses the techniques she has learned in
with.
school to improve the quality of her
posts.
Dawn is someone who sometimes gets
so excited about the work she’s doing
Seniors
that she overcommits herself and gets
stretched too thin. Nevertheless, she
ANIKA
almost always follows through and
Public Health, Women and Gender
maintains a high GPA, though she
Studies
frequently requests extensions and
Anika receives a dependent scholarship to sometimes works up until the last
minute.
attend the University of Nebraska, since
her mother works for the school. She
plans to graduate in May. In fact, she is DURRELL
considering going to graduate school, but Video Game Design
there is a possibility she could get a job As a native Chicagoan, Durrell is no
working for the University of Nebraska,
stranger to the public transportation
which would help with tuition.
commute. Always on the go, whether
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
17
it’s attending classes, or doing workstudy at Street-Level (a local afterschool
youth program) everything he does is
a train or bus ride away. In between
classes, Durrell heads to a common
study area to practice his drawing
skills by pulling up images of anime
characters on his phone and drawing
them in a sketchbook for leisure. With
courses in character development, 3D
composition, and interactive authoring,
Durrell has seen his interest in video
games, animation, and manga come full
circle and looks forward to eventually
working at a video game company.
artwork to explore race and language,
for example.
Monica is contemplating teaching after
college or working in online editorial
design. She inds time to volunteer as a
tutor (TOEFL) on Fridays, and during
the weekend she also TA’s continuing
education classes for kids and serves as
a lab monitor.
KELLY
Communications
Kelly, who entered college at 16 and is
now a senior, wants to join the Peace
Corps after inishing college. Because
Meanwhile, Street-Level, a non-proit
she changed her majors several times,
organization that empowers Chicago
she is extending her studies by an
youth with literacy in media arts,
additional two semesters. he inal
has also made a signiicant impact in
Durrell’s life. he group ofers youth the major she chose is Communications
opportunity to participate in programs because she wants to gain skills that
would be useful for the nonproit
including stop-motion animation,
sector.
audio and music production, digital
photography, and more. After being
Since she is supporting herself through
involved with the organization for 7
college, she constantly has to balance
years, most of Durrell’s mentors have
numerous jobs with her academic load,
attended the same school where he is
and inds it challenging to create a
studying.
“win-win” situation. Right now, she has
MONICA
Graphic Design
Most days you can ind Monica in the
Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD)
studio space before classes start. She
grew up and studied in Haiti before
moving to the US during her junior year
in high school. Monica explores social
mores through her art, having recently
completed projects that used her
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decided on cutting back on jobs to focus
more on studies, which has made her
inancial situation more challenging.
Despite the time and money
constraints, she is an active member
in her sorority and draws emotional
support from the members.
Fifth Year Students
AARON
Information Science, Engineering
to employees. She spends what little
free time she has with her son and
his extracurricular activities. She has
coached/volunteered at Odyssey of the
Mind and her son’s swim team, though
she had to stop after the birth of her
second child. Currently a senior, she is
planning on pursuing a Master’s degree
in an education-related ield after she
inishes her undergraduate degree in
the spring.
Aaron, originally from Ghana, has an
internship at his school’s computer
center, where he works on networking,
hardware, software, and managing
the system. He loves IT in general and
has also studied architecture, having
obtained a degree in it from Ghana. He
lives in an apartment by himself and
SKYE
is about 15 minutes from campus. He
says that he manages his life by keeping Women’s and Gender Studies; Science,
it simple and trying to remain positive. Technology, and Public Policy
Skye left high school outside of
His family supports his decision to
suburban Chicago knowing what she
move to the US, and they do not expect
wanted to be—an astrophysicist.
him to return home. Some of the
However, she didn’t see herself
money he makes he sends home to help
enjoying a career working in the lab and
with medical issues with his Auntie,
wanted to do work advocating for the
and he inds that burden to be heavy
sciences. So Skye became involved in
at times. He keeps in touch with his
a group that supports and encourages
family by using WhatsApp. He has used
women in physics and astronomy.
a Facebook group as a collective place
She believes she has found something
for other students from Africa to have a
that is much more to her liking than
peer mentor program.
pushing through a PhD program would
have been. In prior semesters, she ran a
MARIAH
swing dance group on campus.
Education
Mariah is a lifelong, non-traditional
learner who decided to pursue a degree
despite having a full time job and
children. During her irst semester
of the program, she quit her job to
work at St. homas University in the
admissions department, which actually
allowed her to pursue a degree fulltime since the school ofers free tuition
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
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Insights
is decontextualized and largely
disconnected from their lives beyond
the classroom. Too often, what
Before exploring the Discovery
students learn in school bears little
Team’s Preliminary Insights in depth,
or no relationship to the knowledge
it’s important to understand that
and skills they actually need in the
these insights are grounded in a new
paradigm of understanding the learning workplace.
process that has taken shape over the
New Approaches to Learning
past two decades: the importance of
social interaction in driving engaged
More recent research, informed by
learning.
social and cultural perspectives on
education, suggests that the most
successful learning happens when
Background
schools are able to integrate their
Traditional Approaches to Learning
students’ academic and non-academic/
For much of the 20th and into the early extracurricular lives holistically.
his approach has been called social,
21st centuries, learning in the United
situated, or connected learning1.
States has often looked like this:
SOCIAL INTERACTION DRIVES
LEARNING
Rather than conceiving the learning
process as merely the acquisition of
knowledge (i.e., as purely a mental or
cognitive activity), socially informed
approaches recognize that engaged
learning happens most often in the
context of students’ interaction with
others inside and outside of the
“four walls” of formal educational
institutions.
In this model, students learn more
or less by themselves through rote
memorization and standardized
testing. As a result, much of
what they have learned in school
[Learning] really only happens
when students integrate what
they’re studying across their
courses and extracurricular
experiences. Yet, too often
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
21
institutions leave this integration
to chance… and never explicitly
ask students to consider how what
they’re learning its together and
might help them in their future
endeavors.” 2
(and others’) learning. Such an approach
is indeed efective, as we discovered in
the research discussed in the following
section.
Speciic Preliminary Insights
Our research team, after having worked
More speciically, this research addresses with the 21 Voices students up to this
two central problems in the individualist point, have uncovered two particularly
signiicant preliminary insights—
and cognitive approaches to learning
namely, the importance of context for
that still largely predominate:
efective learning and the key role played
1 the observation that students who
by the social arrangements of learning.
acquire knowledge/skills in one
In this section, we will present these
context cannot in fact transfer it
insights in some detail.
to another context—a problem
frequently exacerbated in formal
Context Matters
academic settings by disconnecting
classroom practices from the world Most students typically ind academic
outside. Such a practice means that learning to be lacking because it’s
disconnected from the broader contexts
students often fail to see the relein which they forge social connections
vance of their studies and to build
and create meaning in their lives.
the necessary skills for “real life”
while in college or university.
Preliminary results show that some 21
Voices students are often more engaged
with learning in sites outside of formal
educational institution (such as gaming
communities) than within them,
because the “outside” subject matter is
more personally interesting or relevant
Instead, this research indicates that
to them. hese students ind that their
engaged learning is driven by students’
college and university classes tend to
social interactions, which encourage
be disconnected from the contexts in
connections between their academic and which they ind meaning, relevance,
non-academic interests and experiences. and connections (e.g., extracurricular
It can be achieved, in part, by supporting activities, work, hobbies).
user-driven and collaborative activities
that treat students as active producers of (his is related to Opportunity 1 on the
knowledge and participants in their own Relevance of Classes from 21 Voices
research published in December 2015.)
2 the general treatment of students as
passive recipients rather than active
producers of knowledge through
top-down instructor lectures and
rote student tasks.
22
3. Durrell wanted to expand on his own ideas of characterization.
From creating a storyline, understanding player perspective, and
developing character growth, he jots down his notes.
1. Durrell, a video game design major, wastes no time on his
morning commute to school. Here, he video streams episodes of
Anime on Crunchyroll to catch up on the latest Japanese animation
series.
4. Durrell’s interest in pursuing video game design was inspired
through his involvement at Street-Level, a non-profit organization
that empowers Chicago youth with literacy in media art. His
involvement in the org spans 7 years. Currently, he is a mentor for
the Anime Club.
2. In between classes, he practices his drawing skills in his
sketchbook. He pulls up images of manga, or Japanese comics, on
his phone and starts sketching away.
5. Durrell merges his interest in Japanese animation and knowledge
of graphic design to share with youth at Street-Level. Here, he
continues to develop his creative potential.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
23
STUDENTS ON THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN ACADEMIC
LEARNING AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
“As a whole, I am not
thrilled about the higher
education system. Time
was wasted. Life skills
would be more important
for me to learning in the
college environment. I can
buy books, read articles
online, and do a lot on my
own.” – RENATO, 21 VOICES GRAD
“At work, I am learning new
things everyday […] On my
second job as coordinator
[...] I get to go to conferences
and training that are way
more effective than a year- CASIMIR
long class.”
STUDENTS ON INTEGRATING ACADEMIC LEARNING AND
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
“There has to be a way to
work real life situations in
on the computer. We had
this nursing course. We saw
a video of a patient problem.
Then you’d have questions
about what you would do in
that situation. Then you saw
the outcome.
It mirrors real-life situations.
I thought that was brilliant.
It mirrored real-life decision
making.”— SEAN, 21 VOICES GRAD
24
“I’m a volunteer coach at the
running store, so it’s good
way to ease into [coaching]
as opposed to having no
support in the beginning.
I can talk to other coaches
in the running store… They
are the kind of people you
want to be around. They are
very encouraging and why
I’m motivated to study in
school.” - BRIT, 21 VOICES GRAD
LOVE YOUR SELFIE
“Love Your Selie” was an activity
Dawn organized as RA in her dorm on
Valentine’s Day. he idea was to get
residents to interact with each other
and promote afection by having them
write something nice about the other
residents.
his example raises at least two vital
questions:
• How can institutional learning tie
together social practices that students ind meaningful from their
everyday life (such as selies, video-making, gaming, podcasting,
etc.) with academically enriching
experiences?
• How can our company meet students where they already are to
help facilitate connections between
their social and academic activities?
Social Arrangements of Learning
Depending on their interests and
learning styles, students tend to prefer
one or more of the following social
arrangements in learning:
1 Peer Learning
In certain contexts peer learning
provides an enriching environment for
some students to be more engaged with
their academic studies.
Dawn integrated selies—a pervasive
everyday practice among young
adults – into her academic context of
residential living. Rather than signalling
narcissism, Dawn’s selie activities
suggested a more profound motivation:
reaching out to others to forge social
connections, which are so important
to both establishing and sustaining
friendships as well as academic success3.
Preliminary 21 Voices data suggest
that many students feel disconnected
from their peers and mentors. As a
result, they frequently study on their
own. his impedes many (though not
all) students from achieving their full
learning potential.
hese students report that they are
more engaged with learning when
they interact and participate in shared
activities and goals with supportive
peers and mentors who have similar
interests.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
25
his insight supports secondary
research that indicates peer-supported
networks are important in allowing
students to share, discuss, and
provide feedback in a socially inclusive
and supportive environment. In
the process, they develop skills in
collaboration, self-expression, and
leadership while also sharing in each
other’s expertise -- all of which help
students become higher academic
achievers and understand better how
to collaborate once they enter the
workforce after college or university.
(his is related to Opportunity 4 on
Building Networks and Skills from 21
Voices research published in December
2015.)
Again, the importance of peer culture
among college students should not be
underestimated. It is a central locus
of social interaction and identity
for many youth and young adults
—indeed, constituting an informal
learning community—that’s too often
disconnected from school:
he notion […] that peer culture is of
central importance and that, for most
segments of the student community,
academic life is tangential to or at
odds with peer culture are consistent
with every major study of college life.
– Rebekah Nathan4
26
STUDENTS ON THE VALUE OF
PEER LEARNING
“A lot of the assignments
you have [in college], you’re
working by yourself. But
I was involved in other
groups, and the government
at UCLA. I loved it because
I worked with people with
similar interests, and was
able to work with people
who are passionate about
something, and have goals.
You’re part of a group/
coalition. Now [at work]
I’m not part of anything.
Now I feel disconnected
with everything. I want
to be part of something.”
- CLARISSA, 21 VOICES GRAD
“I would
often step up to do things
that I’m good at. Someone
else wanted to try things
that he’s not good at.”
[For group work]
- JASON, 21 VOICES GRAD
[On getting feedback from
[Researcher’s notes on Eli]
other students vs. the instructor]
When he has extra time,
he likes to reach out to all
the students and give them
feedback when they are
in critique mood. When I
asked him why he does this
extra work, he said he felt
as if he had an obligation
and wanted to help “the
kids.”
“All through school your
teachers
proofread
whatever it is that you’re
writing so they can already
get an idea what that final
paper is gonna be like based
off their recommendations
and revising. However,
with other students, each
is gonna have their own
strengths in writing and
help you see a different
point of view when revising
to make it more unique and
- ELI
a better quality.”
“The way I am studying,
and me being around my
future in-laws, since they
work in the medical field
every day, has helped me
tremendously. I go to class
and get the teachers’ way of
explaining things, and then
I come home and get my
in-laws’ way of explaining
- ZOE
things.”
“[Learning with peers]
is definitely beneficial.
You learn so much from
other people and their
experiences … They think
in a different way. You see
a group’s perspective.”
- CANDICE, 21 VOICES GRAD
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
27
2 Dynamic User-Driven Content
A few 21 Voices students found
opportunities to create and circulate
media/online content helpful in
bolstering their participation,
creativity, and engagement with
academic materials. For our students
this mainly involved creating videos
for group projects or individual
assignments.
STUDENTS ON THE BENEFITS
OF USER-DRIVEN CONTENT
“Did a presentation
with a classmate where
I integrated videos and
pictures. I wish I was able
to do more of that, and
have conversation with my
friends/classmates. I think
it catered to that creative
side. You’re working with
someone with the same
work ethics. It was a good
experience – you know who
you’re working with, you’re
able to be honest, you’re
being creative. Talking out
ideas was cool.”
- CLARISSA, 21 VOICES GRAD
[Casimir did well in his leadership
class vs. his “traditional” class
because he was allowed to be
creative in the former by making
videos and interviewing people]:
“This one leadership class
was about how creative
can you get through the
process of learning about
leadership, and how you
can introduce leadership
in your own life. The whole
class was about being
creative. There were many
activities. One of them was
about making a video about
everything you learned in
– CASIMIR
the class.”
“We chose to do a video
because we all came to the
consensus that no one likes
a presentation. Video was
easier and that went really
well… I think we all enjoyed
doing the assignment
more because it allowed
us to incorporate all of our
capabilities.”
- ERIN, 21 VOICES GRAD
28
“…we could do anything for
our French final. Our group
did a video of American Idol
in French. It was fun and
I learned more because
we were speaking a lot.”
- CANDICE, 21 VOICES GRAD
3 Creative Collaborative ProblemSolving
Some students expressed enthusiasm
for creative team problem-solving
activities such as role-playing and
game simulations to cultivate learning,
because it was connected to an existing
or latent interest. However, at least
one student noted that such activities
should be supported by clear objectives
from the instructors/mentors—joined
by other students who share similar
goals—to make them meaningful.
STUDENTS ON COLLABORATIVE
PROBLEM-SOLVING
“There was a class where we
did 3 group assignments. My
favorite [group assignment]
was we had to build a chair.
It had to be able to hold a
specific amount of weight.
We got into a group of 3
and we sketched ideas and
decided which would be
the best and then we had
to get the cardboard and
put it together. It was a fun
assignment. You feel almost
like a real designer…You had
to think outside the box.”
– AVA
“I gave a presentation with
another girl in my math
class – it was on hyperbolic
geometry. One of the ways
you can model hyperbolic
geometry is with crochet.
So I crocheted a couple of
models of geometry and let
everyone interact with it.”
- SKYE
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
29
30
Preview of This Year’s Activities
Diary Studies
GOALS
• Cultivate empathy for students
(ongoing).
• Conduct exploratory (or “heuristic”) research that informs product
development for the upcoming 2-5
year horizon.
• Conduct tactical product research
that focuses on more immediate
market questions and needs.
Use a combination of lifestreaming5
and self-reported diary studies roughly
every other month to gather ongoing
data from students.
THEMES
hroughout the year, the research
team will tack back and forth between
exploratory and tactical questions.
hus, we will pursue more open-ended
research on speciic themes like social
media and learning that will ultimately
have longer-term implications for how
the company thinks about student
learning and behavior. Meanwhile,
on the tactical side, we anticipate
collaborating with strategic product
teams, such as MindTap mobile, to
address current market dynamics.
Interviews
Explore issues in greater depth through
monthly call-ins and interviews conducted
during ield visits.
METHODS
Focus Groups
Initiate occasional focus group
conversations with students to follow up
on speciic topics.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
31
Facebook private group chat
Secondary Research
Facilitate student engagement in a
private chat conversation amongst
themselves in response to bi-monthly
prompt.
Integrate secondary research from
social theories of learning and studies
of social media and communication.
PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS FROM
SEPTEMBER 2016 ACTIVITIES ON
SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEARNING
We provide the following items to
indicate some of the salient indings
that we’ll continue to explore as part
of our ongoing exploratory/heuristic
research.
Field Visits
Conduct quarterly ield visits with
students to observe typical day-in-the
life activities.
32
1 For many students, social media
is often used as a tool for informal
learning with their peer group.
However, social media plays a
limited role in student-instructor
interactions.
2 Students distinguish usage of social
media platforms depending on the
nature of their social connections.
For example, a LinkedIn account
is primarily used to connect with
instructors and peers in leadership organizations to build their
resume online. On the other hand,
Facebook may be a more useful
networking tool for school or interest-related events because it’s more
deeply embedded in their everyday
social relations.
3 he dense circulation of selies,
memes, and other forms of visual
self-expression on social media
suggests that many college students are informally learning to
work through their values and
identities—including who they are,
their fears, and what they aspire to
become—through these platforms.
Facebook, etc. may provide a safe,
creative, curated space for them
to learn how to cultivate a sense
of who they are during the crucial
college years.
CO-CREATION/PARTICIPATORY
ACTIVITIES
Journey Maps
Students are helping the Discovery
Team co-produce “journey maps” that
visualize the entire lived experience
they go through while striving to
achieve a particular objective in a single
day. Journey maps are particularly
useful to product teams and other
stakeholders in the early development
phase because they help identify
students’ needs, touch points, and pain
points as they go about their daily lives
to meet an objective.
How We Are Doing It
Researchers and students are in the
process of co-creating these maps
focused on two particular objectives
during a “typical day”:
• Balancing academic and nonacademic (work, family,
extracurricular, social) activities
and responsibilities
• Studying while “on the go”
Once all the students in the program
have completed the exercise,
researchers will synthesize the
materials to produce journey maps
that illustrate the “typical” experiences
a student goes through to meet those
objectives (including their emotional
journeys).
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
33
Once the inal journey maps are
created, we hope speciic products
teams across the company can use them
so that users are always in their minds
throughout the decision-making and
development process.
As heuristics, they can also be used
in conjunction with personas to
paint a broader picture of students’
experiences. Although the journey
maps will not include how students
interact with Cengage products, they
can be used to illuminate the potential
experiences of students with particular
products as they go through the day.
Social Network Mapping
34
In addition to the ongoing work on
the journey maps, our researchers
collaborated with students in the
beginning of the third program year
to create a visual social network map
of each student’s most meaningful
relationships on social media and other
communication platforms. he purpose
of this generative research activity was
to better understand the dynamics of
their interactions with the people in
their lives who were personally most
important to them in their formal and
informal learning experiences.
they were the most, and the least, close
to emotionally. hen they asked which
social media/communication tool they
used to interact with those people, the
general topics of conversation, and the
types of activities they perform on the
platform (e.g., sending links, photos,
etc.).
How We Are Doing It
Insights
In remote Skype interviews, researchers
asked students to draw three concentric
circles and write down the names of all
the people (peers, family, instructors,
mentors, coworkers, etc.) with whom
One of our key insights from this
activity was the central role that
Facebook played in many students’ lives
—in signiicant part because it helped
them stay connected not just with
those they were close to emotionally,
but also with casual acquaintances
with whom they had “weak ties” (see
image of social map below).
connections and share information that
we wouldn’t otherwise have access to if
we just limited our networks to those
cl
voices
2016 ANNUAL PROGRAM REPORT
REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS
2016 ANNUAL PROGRAM REPORT
For Internal Educational Purposes Only
Privacy Statement
To ensure the validity of our research, we strive to ensure the privacy of our 21 Voices
participants. As such, the names and other identiiers used in this report are not those of the
real participants. All other information about the individual voices is true, including direct
quotes. If, as a Cengage employee, you have questions about a speciic participant, or would
like to learn more, please contact us at 21voices@cengage.com.
Program Design and Coordination
Lauren Grace R Gonzales, 21 Voices Program Manager
Raymond June, 21 Voices Research Manager
Andrei Pasternak, Managing Art Director – Cengage Creative Studio
2
Contents
Executive Summary
5
How We Did It
7
Who and Where Are Our 21 Voices?
9
Student Proiles
11
Insights
21
Preview of his Year’s Activities
31
Addendum
37
3
4
Executive Summary
he goal of the 21 Voices program is to
empathize with today’s college students
so that we can understand how
Cengage’s products can better support
them.
How do we strive to achieve this
functional empathy? By putting aside
our preconceived notions and taking
students on their own terms. hat is,
we put their study behavior, everyday
lives, and personal viewpoints front
and center in our research. We go
beyond demographic and market data
to dig deeper into the meanings behind
their day-to-day practices, both inside
and outside the classroom, from a
longitudinal perspective.
he 21 Voices Discovery Team devoted
the program’s irst two years to
conducting exploratory, open-ended
research. Since this approach entailed
interacting with our students via a
relatively loose structure to allow
themes to emerge from the ground up,
it has allowed these insights to have a
longer-term impact on how Cengage
thinks about students and accordingly
designs products for them.
current and future products more
immediately. In this transitional third
year, the Discovery Team is alternating
between two main approaches:
1 Pursuing exploratory research
focused on speciic themes (such
as the role of social media in learning).
2 Tactical research conducted in collaboration with strategic product
groups within Cengage.
his report primarily covers our
activities during the second program
year and concludes with a brief
overview of activities planned for the
current year. Signiicantly, it includes
some preliminary insights and more
detailed discussions of our research
approach, in order to highlight the
features of the 21 Voices program that
distinguish it from other research
initiatives (e.g., usability studies,
market research) within and outside
the company.
Beginning this year—the program’s
third—the research has evolved, such
that there is a tighter integration of
ongoing exploratory activities with
more tactical inquiries that inform
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
5
How We Did It
RESEARCH AND PROGRAM DESIGN
he Cengage UX Research Team
launched the 21 Voices program
in September 2014. We conceived
this program as a longitudinal and
ethnographic research project that
would enable us to understand the
needs of our students on a very deep
level. his continued to be our focus in
the program’s second calendar year.
From the beginning, we decided to
utilize an iterative research process,
wherein we could take input gathered
in the ield and fold it back into the
very project design itself. Such an
approach has allowed us to avoid
making restrictive assumptions that
could limit the ability of some students
to participate fully. Instead, the
iterative research process enables us
to continually identify and capitalize
on the best methodologies to it the
diverse set of students in the program.
hus, our program:
• Enables Cengage to continuously
adapt and improve the program.
As we shifted our focus in our
second year to gathering speciic
kinds of data, for example, we added monthly themes and bi-weekly
surveys around those themes to
better capture key inputs from all
the students.
• Reinforces our commitment to
producing and utilizing practical
and lexible educational tools and
methodologies. his entire study
is an example of this commitment,
as we ourselves have worked such
principles into the very fabric of
the program.
In short, using an iterative process has
allowed us to gain richer insights into
students’ perceptions in a way that
suits them individually and allows them
to determine how they can best capture
information about their school and
personal lives.
• Allows students to take diferent
approaches to participating in
the program in ways that are best
suited to them. For example, students are required to submit weekly reports but are free to choose the
format they prefer, such as diaries,
pictures, or video iles.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
7
MONTHLY RESEARCH THEMES
Our team of researchers focused
on a speciic theme each month to
explore with our students. he themes
included:
• January 2016:
Relevance
• February 2016:
Making the Most of Time
• March 2016:
Peer Connection
• April 2016:
Building Skills and Networks
• May 2016:
Life After Graduation
THE PROCESS
he Discovery Team utilized a wide
range of tools to gain access to
students’ beliefs and daily practices.
hese included monthly diary studies,
interviews, focus groups, and ield
visits. We provide more in-depth
discussion about the methods we
used later in the report, where we
also provide a preview of some of
our activities and insights in the 3rd
program year (See Insights, page 21).
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
he research team utilized the same
analysis and synthesis process as
previous years: reviewing input
from individual students, analyzing
the information, and tying the data
together to ind broader patterns and
meanings.
8
Who and Where Are
Our 21 Voices?
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
9
University of Nebraska
Lincoln NE
Univeristy of Montana
Missoula MT
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI
Columbia College Chicago
Chicago IL
Beloit College
Beloit WI
Ohio State
University
Columbus OH
Seattle Central College
Seattle WA
Washtenaw Community College
Ann Arbor MI
Utica College
Utica NY
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
North Adams MA
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence RI
Utah State University
Logan UT
Temple University
Philadelphia PA
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh PA
Arizona State University (Online)
Las Vegas NV
University of Southern California
Los Angeles CA
Guilford College
Greensboro NC
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights KY
St. Mary’s University
San Antonio TX
University of Texas, Austin
Austin TX
University of Saint Thomas
Houston TX
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater OK
Continuing 21V Students
New Additions
10
University of Central Oklahoma
Edmond OK
Student Profiles
KRIS
Computer Engineering
Freshmen
AMBER
Biology
A freshman this year at the University
of Montana, Missoula, Amber sought
advice about her career path from
her mother, professional Nurse
Practitioners, and even student peers
at a TED Talk. When she learned
that as a pre-med student she would
basically have no life except school for
many years to come, she let go of her
dream of becoming an OB-GYN and
chose instead to pursue Biology and
a path toward becoming a Physician’s
Assistant. Amber is very clear that
college, for her, is about much more
than courses and a degree. “his is
where you make friends for life,” she
says.
Amber lives in a dorm where all the
students on her loor pursue similar
ields. Furthermore, they go to the
same classes and study together, and
some also play on the same basketball
team. Given her gregarious nature
and initiative, it’s hardly surprising
that her dorm life is a source of close
and supportive friendships where she
tutors and is tutored by her peers. For
Amber, her social networks/friendships
are integral to enhancing her learning
experience.
Kris isn’t having any trouble with the
content in his college classes—in fact,
he thinks the content is easier than his
high school classes. He does, however,
ind it diicult to learn and get used to
new study habits. He’s also still getting
used to his college town, which he
thinks is a pretty drastic change from
his hometown that was on the rise to
becoming very trendy. here isn’t much
to do around his campus, he says, but
he’s met a couple of local students
who are generous enough to show him
around.
To gain work experience related to his
major, he currently works part-time in
an IT/tech support position as a part
of work-study. He ills downtime there
by socializing with his co-workers (who
are upperclassmen and give him advice
and tips) and doing homework.
GABE
Biochemistry
Gabe has always wanted to be in the
health professions and has a particular
passion for research. his interest
was in part sparked by his mother
(who works at a major university
medical center), as well as his high
school teachers, many of whom had a
background in science and technology.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
11
After attending a public high school and
then transferring to a small boarding
school in the Paciic Northwest, Gabe
decided to attend a small liberal arts
college in the Midwest for its breadth of
classes and stress on critical thinking.
He has taken advantage of his school’s
summer research and internship
program to live in Germany for several
weeks, and hopes to eventually earn
a PhD in a STEM ield. But while
focused on academics in college, he has
expressed a strong awareness of social
justice issues and tries to participate in
socially aware campus activities when
he can.
Sophomores
ADRIAN
Real Estate Development
Adrian inds college interesting and
believes it is preparing him well for
his chosen ield. As one who makes
plenty of time for study and sleep, he
is slightly amused and perplexed at
the all-nighters his friends pull. He’s
hardly anti-social, though—Adrian
belongs to several on-campus clubs and
organizations, and actually sees clubs
as a way to develop diverse, lifelong
friendships. Indeed, he believes that
one of the purposes of college is to
develop such ties with students from
around the world. Not surprisingly,
then, he is glad that he chose a school
that features a unique mentor and
networking program designed to
12
support students in successfully
transitioning from college to career.
AVA
Interior Design
Most of Ava’s peers are younger than
she is, but she feels like there’s good
chemistry with her classmates—she
its in with quite well. She’s certainly
one of the more talented members
of the class and is gaining a lot of
conidence. Ava generally respects their
opinions and enjoys working alongside
them.
Ava just bought a MacBook Pro this
summer and had to learn the OS, which
was challenging. “I wanted a Mac for
years, and now that I’m a designer
I really needed one… I’m learning
quickly.” She’s taking three classes
this semester, including computer
graphics, typography, and history of
design—with one of her classes being
online. “I love that History of Design
is online… I appreciate being able
to work at my own pace…. but I also
enjoy the on-campus part of my other
classes, especially the in-class critique
sessions.”
In addition to her job in the front oice
of the Oklahoma City Zoo, Ava works
on-campus 10-15 hours a week at the
communications oice. She only has
classes on Monday and Wednesday. “I
lessened my workload this year, and
that’s made things easier. Plus, I can
do ALL my work this semester on my
computer.”
CLAIRE
Sports Management
school… unless we’re cramming for
exams together.”
One who knows what she loves to
do and pursues her passions at every
turn, Claire is particularly enjoying
her Photography class this semester.
Her career aspirations have changed
course this year, due in part to all of
the positive opportunities she had to
participate in campus life during her
freshman year. Claire is still majoring
in Sports Management and is already
thinking about graduate school. She is
also looking into Student Afairs and
is accordingly involved with numerous
organizations on campus as a leader
and peer mentor. On top of all of this,
Claire has decided to minor in Women,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies, a
natural choice for someone as socially
conscious as she is. Finally, networking
is pretty much second nature for Claire,
allowing her to get the most out of
campus resources, whether through
students, professors, or staf.
Boredom is Eli’s biggest complaint
with school, particularly lectures.
“Lecture classes are always going to be
tedious. It needs to be done, but it’s
not enjoyable.” When it comes to group
activities, Eli says he almost always
steps in and takes on the bulk of the
workload - because he doesn’t trust his
classmates to deliver quality work. “I’d
rather shoulder a little extra work to
make sure we get the A,” he says.
Eli has a very pragmatic take on
academic success. “I talk to my English
professor a lot,” he says. “If you
take their advice during oice hours
and follow it, you’re pretty much
guaranteed an A.” He prefers to “cram”
for most assignments and tests, and
so he’s structured his schedule this
semester to better accommodate that
lifestyle - no classes on Tuesday or
hursday, and his earliest class begins
at 1:00 on MWF.
ELI
Computer Science, Business
Entrepreneurship
JEN
Computational Mathematics
Eli remains focused on doing just
enough to keep his scholarships and
honors dorm placement. He knows that
he’ll have to buckle down and study
harder in the coming semesters, but he
seems much more focused on enjoying
campus social life (especially late-latenight gaming with his dorm mates).
“Pretty much all of my friends are
‘school friends’ - we rarely talk about
Jen is pursuing an Associate’s degree
in Computational Mathematics,
choosing not to take on the full
4-course semester workload so that
she has time to write up her transfer
application this semester and to work.
(She works as a barista at a local
cofee shop, which allows her both
to support and not incur too much
student debt.) Jen is a very determined
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
13
and hardworking student, looking
to transfer to Caltech or one of the
research universities to complete her
Bachelor’s Degree in Computational
Mathematics. Citing the Allen Institute
(the leading Brain Research institute
in the Seattle area) as one of her dream
location to work at, her goal in life is
to become a mathematician who uses
computational methods to better
understand neurosystems and cure
neurological diseases.
Self-identiied as a Chicana, Jen is
very involved in the local community
in bringing more indigenous students
into the STEM ields and hosting
discussions in the community about
related histories and issues. She has
done outreach programs through local
K-12 schools and libraries where the
organization would put on science fairs
and educate students from indigenous
groups about diferent ways to become
involved in math and sciences.
RAQUEL
Chemistry
Raquel, a second-year participant in
the 21 Voices program, is a Chemistry
major with plans to pursue a career
in pharmacy work. In addition to
individual study time, she regularly
participates in group study sessions
at the library, where she and her peers
will collaborate on assignments to take
advantage of their individual strengths.
She prides herself at being particularly
math savvy, and often assists others
with equations and calculations.
14
Raquel is quite comfortable with digital
learning solutions and uses them with
what might be called “mixed results”
(she cites technical limitations that
prevent her from rendering anatomical
models with the desired accuracy).
Raquel found the transition from high
school to college harder than expected
during her irst year, largely due to
the feeling of being on her own and
being away from her friends. But she
is thriving now as an active member
of her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi,
which is the center of her social
universe, both on and of campus.
She lives and studies in the sorority
house, participating in both social
events and fundraising activities for
the philanthropic work supported by
AOPi. Raquel’s social media identity is
almost wholly constructed of images
of the rich relationship she shares
with her sisters—there is little, if any,
separation between her studies, her
friendships, and her sense of self.
Juniors
CASIMIR
Political Science
Casimir has been pursuing the
requirements for a political science
degree at a few diferent universities,
although he plans to join the Marines
in winter 2017 as a way to explore his
career options. Casimir is all about
relationships. Although he has lived
in Southeast Michigan since he was a
teenager, he is still in constant contact
with his extended family back home in
Colombia via WhatsApp group chats.
He also relies on his strong friendships
and family connections here in the U.S.
and has a rich network of mentors that
lend him guidance. He loves to post on
social media, but his relationships here
in the States are mostly in-person.
Casimir makes ends meet as a youth
tennis instructor and a coordinator at
a non-proit. He also volunteers as a
tutor and mentor for local Latino high
school students. In his free time, when
he’s not playing soccer with friends,
he’s watching it on TV, especially when
Colombia plays.
DAVID
Microbiology
David feels that his background in
science and appreciation for the
outdoors will inluence his career. He
would like to work for the National
Park Service and is considering adding
Law Enforcement Certiication to his
credentials to help him get a job in a
National Park. He works in a science lab
for credit and also participates in the
Review Board for the school, where the
students handle such issues as Code of
Conduct violations. Being a part of the
Review Board, while not taking more
than 3 hours a week, has helped him to
learn that he likes being in a position of
authority.
ESME
International Business and Finance
Esme, who is very interested in working
for one of the Big Four auditors, took
advantage of her desire to study abroad
last year by taking business classes in
Japan. A focused and diligent student,
she has been studying Chinese as well.
Her schedule, going to class full-time
and holding three jobs, keeps her very
busy. As one of the jobs (at a market
research irm) is of-campus and
requires three days per week, she takes
all of her classes back-to-back for days
per week. Esme manages to use a lot
of her time at work to do school work.
She also takes some online classes, and
strives to work through the material
early so that all she has to do is take
the tests. Overall, her approach to
homework and other assignments
is to get everything done as early as
possible. She writes everything down
in her planner, and color codes all the
information to keep herself organized.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
15
HAZEL
Journalism
Giving a voice to the underserved in
society is a mission that Hazel has
taken on with a vengeance. She grew
up in Harlem and says she is “very
aware of social issues.” She holds
a job on campus at the Women’s
Resource Center, where she organizes
and publicizes events for the center,
and she’s also on the board of the
black student union. However, Hazel
expresses some disappointment with
college life. She had come with high
hopes that her lecture courses would
involve spirited group discussions and
be forums for intelligent discourse,
but she inds that her peers aren’t very
vocal in class and the instructors do not
really encourage it.
JUSTIN
Biomechanical Engineering
Justin, who plans on attending a
prestigious graduate school like MIT in
order to work under speciic industryleading researchers, wants to help make
smarter medical devices to greatly
improve the lives of patients with
disabilities. He generally can generally
be found in one of three places: the
library, a classroom or his apartment.
Degrees in the advanced sciences tend
to be grueling and isolating, and Justin’s
day is almost entirely consumed by
schoolwork and classes. Nevertheless,
focus and dedication have allowed him
to push through and continue to excel.
16
Justin moved here from China in 2009
at age 23 to work for a family member.
His experience as both a slightly older
student and a recent immigrant is
certainly a signiicant component of his
college student experience in the US.
LEAH
Communications and French
Leah works hard, socializes, and
receives no inancial help from her
parents. She is a self-motivated person
whose life is very much her own.
here’s a stereotype that everyone
goes to college primarily for fun—but
she takes it seriously. She initially had
a hard time plugging into the social
side of school, as she didn’t like dorm
life or get along with peers her own
age. However, she has found a way to
overcome this struggle, by choosing to
live of campus with her own room, and
has since truly thrived.
Leah is active in several extracurricular
activities, including French club and a
sorority. She isn’t sure what her next
steps after graduation will be, and is
more focused on inding a job that pays
the bills. But she is considering options
such as being a language teacher
abroad, an ambassador, or an employee
in the corporate sector.
SALLY
Communications
Sally is our only distance learner for the
2016-17 program year. Even though
she still has a few years of school
remaining to complete, she has been
thinking of pursuing some type of
research as a career. Sally likes studying
online, which allows her to live near
friends and family but take classes from
an institution that ofers the courses
of study she wants, instead of settling
for the local oferings. She feels like
an online approach ofers her several
advantages: she can work at her own
pace, it adapts to her learning style, and
she doesn’t have to stop doing school
work to attend class.
Anika keeps herself busy, teaching
some classes in nutrition for 4-H
Clubs. She is also involved with the
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (Bible
studies and prayer groups) and the
United Council of Negro Women, where
she serves as the treasurer.
DAWN
Fine and Performing Arts, Arts
Management
Dawn is extremely passionate about
arts management and wants to bring
communities together through art.
Sally’s primary interest outside of
school is makeup and beauty products. She has mostly smaller classes and
has forged close relationships with
She has found an online community
her instructors and fellow students. A
where she can share that interest on
Twitter and Instagram and even started social organizer, she’s always pushing
the latest event for her dorm, church
a beauty inluencer blog last year. She
group, or other social committees
applies the same rigor to her blogging
through Facebook. And she enjoys
as she does to her school work and
being around the people she works
uses the techniques she has learned in
with.
school to improve the quality of her
posts.
Dawn is someone who sometimes gets
so excited about the work she’s doing
Seniors
that she overcommits herself and gets
stretched too thin. Nevertheless, she
ANIKA
almost always follows through and
Public Health, Women and Gender
maintains a high GPA, though she
Studies
frequently requests extensions and
Anika receives a dependent scholarship to sometimes works up until the last
minute.
attend the University of Nebraska, since
her mother works for the school. She
plans to graduate in May. In fact, she is DURRELL
considering going to graduate school, but Video Game Design
there is a possibility she could get a job As a native Chicagoan, Durrell is no
working for the University of Nebraska,
stranger to the public transportation
which would help with tuition.
commute. Always on the go, whether
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
17
it’s attending classes, or doing workstudy at Street-Level (a local afterschool
youth program) everything he does is
a train or bus ride away. In between
classes, Durrell heads to a common
study area to practice his drawing
skills by pulling up images of anime
characters on his phone and drawing
them in a sketchbook for leisure. With
courses in character development, 3D
composition, and interactive authoring,
Durrell has seen his interest in video
games, animation, and manga come full
circle and looks forward to eventually
working at a video game company.
artwork to explore race and language,
for example.
Monica is contemplating teaching after
college or working in online editorial
design. She inds time to volunteer as a
tutor (TOEFL) on Fridays, and during
the weekend she also TA’s continuing
education classes for kids and serves as
a lab monitor.
KELLY
Communications
Kelly, who entered college at 16 and is
now a senior, wants to join the Peace
Corps after inishing college. Because
Meanwhile, Street-Level, a non-proit
she changed her majors several times,
organization that empowers Chicago
she is extending her studies by an
youth with literacy in media arts,
additional two semesters. he inal
has also made a signiicant impact in
Durrell’s life. he group ofers youth the major she chose is Communications
opportunity to participate in programs because she wants to gain skills that
would be useful for the nonproit
including stop-motion animation,
sector.
audio and music production, digital
photography, and more. After being
Since she is supporting herself through
involved with the organization for 7
college, she constantly has to balance
years, most of Durrell’s mentors have
numerous jobs with her academic load,
attended the same school where he is
and inds it challenging to create a
studying.
“win-win” situation. Right now, she has
MONICA
Graphic Design
Most days you can ind Monica in the
Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD)
studio space before classes start. She
grew up and studied in Haiti before
moving to the US during her junior year
in high school. Monica explores social
mores through her art, having recently
completed projects that used her
18
decided on cutting back on jobs to focus
more on studies, which has made her
inancial situation more challenging.
Despite the time and money
constraints, she is an active member
in her sorority and draws emotional
support from the members.
Fifth Year Students
AARON
Information Science, Engineering
to employees. She spends what little
free time she has with her son and
his extracurricular activities. She has
coached/volunteered at Odyssey of the
Mind and her son’s swim team, though
she had to stop after the birth of her
second child. Currently a senior, she is
planning on pursuing a Master’s degree
in an education-related ield after she
inishes her undergraduate degree in
the spring.
Aaron, originally from Ghana, has an
internship at his school’s computer
center, where he works on networking,
hardware, software, and managing
the system. He loves IT in general and
has also studied architecture, having
obtained a degree in it from Ghana. He
lives in an apartment by himself and
SKYE
is about 15 minutes from campus. He
says that he manages his life by keeping Women’s and Gender Studies; Science,
it simple and trying to remain positive. Technology, and Public Policy
Skye left high school outside of
His family supports his decision to
suburban Chicago knowing what she
move to the US, and they do not expect
wanted to be—an astrophysicist.
him to return home. Some of the
However, she didn’t see herself
money he makes he sends home to help
enjoying a career working in the lab and
with medical issues with his Auntie,
wanted to do work advocating for the
and he inds that burden to be heavy
sciences. So Skye became involved in
at times. He keeps in touch with his
a group that supports and encourages
family by using WhatsApp. He has used
women in physics and astronomy.
a Facebook group as a collective place
She believes she has found something
for other students from Africa to have a
that is much more to her liking than
peer mentor program.
pushing through a PhD program would
have been. In prior semesters, she ran a
MARIAH
swing dance group on campus.
Education
Mariah is a lifelong, non-traditional
learner who decided to pursue a degree
despite having a full time job and
children. During her irst semester
of the program, she quit her job to
work at St. homas University in the
admissions department, which actually
allowed her to pursue a degree fulltime since the school ofers free tuition
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
19
Insights
is decontextualized and largely
disconnected from their lives beyond
the classroom. Too often, what
Before exploring the Discovery
students learn in school bears little
Team’s Preliminary Insights in depth,
or no relationship to the knowledge
it’s important to understand that
and skills they actually need in the
these insights are grounded in a new
paradigm of understanding the learning workplace.
process that has taken shape over the
New Approaches to Learning
past two decades: the importance of
social interaction in driving engaged
More recent research, informed by
learning.
social and cultural perspectives on
education, suggests that the most
successful learning happens when
Background
schools are able to integrate their
Traditional Approaches to Learning
students’ academic and non-academic/
For much of the 20th and into the early extracurricular lives holistically.
his approach has been called social,
21st centuries, learning in the United
situated, or connected learning1.
States has often looked like this:
SOCIAL INTERACTION DRIVES
LEARNING
Rather than conceiving the learning
process as merely the acquisition of
knowledge (i.e., as purely a mental or
cognitive activity), socially informed
approaches recognize that engaged
learning happens most often in the
context of students’ interaction with
others inside and outside of the
“four walls” of formal educational
institutions.
In this model, students learn more
or less by themselves through rote
memorization and standardized
testing. As a result, much of
what they have learned in school
[Learning] really only happens
when students integrate what
they’re studying across their
courses and extracurricular
experiences. Yet, too often
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
21
institutions leave this integration
to chance… and never explicitly
ask students to consider how what
they’re learning its together and
might help them in their future
endeavors.” 2
(and others’) learning. Such an approach
is indeed efective, as we discovered in
the research discussed in the following
section.
Speciic Preliminary Insights
Our research team, after having worked
More speciically, this research addresses with the 21 Voices students up to this
two central problems in the individualist point, have uncovered two particularly
signiicant preliminary insights—
and cognitive approaches to learning
namely, the importance of context for
that still largely predominate:
efective learning and the key role played
1 the observation that students who
by the social arrangements of learning.
acquire knowledge/skills in one
In this section, we will present these
context cannot in fact transfer it
insights in some detail.
to another context—a problem
frequently exacerbated in formal
Context Matters
academic settings by disconnecting
classroom practices from the world Most students typically ind academic
outside. Such a practice means that learning to be lacking because it’s
disconnected from the broader contexts
students often fail to see the relein which they forge social connections
vance of their studies and to build
and create meaning in their lives.
the necessary skills for “real life”
while in college or university.
Preliminary results show that some 21
Voices students are often more engaged
with learning in sites outside of formal
educational institution (such as gaming
communities) than within them,
because the “outside” subject matter is
more personally interesting or relevant
Instead, this research indicates that
to them. hese students ind that their
engaged learning is driven by students’
college and university classes tend to
social interactions, which encourage
be disconnected from the contexts in
connections between their academic and which they ind meaning, relevance,
non-academic interests and experiences. and connections (e.g., extracurricular
It can be achieved, in part, by supporting activities, work, hobbies).
user-driven and collaborative activities
that treat students as active producers of (his is related to Opportunity 1 on the
knowledge and participants in their own Relevance of Classes from 21 Voices
research published in December 2015.)
2 the general treatment of students as
passive recipients rather than active
producers of knowledge through
top-down instructor lectures and
rote student tasks.
22
3. Durrell wanted to expand on his own ideas of characterization.
From creating a storyline, understanding player perspective, and
developing character growth, he jots down his notes.
1. Durrell, a video game design major, wastes no time on his
morning commute to school. Here, he video streams episodes of
Anime on Crunchyroll to catch up on the latest Japanese animation
series.
4. Durrell’s interest in pursuing video game design was inspired
through his involvement at Street-Level, a non-profit organization
that empowers Chicago youth with literacy in media art. His
involvement in the org spans 7 years. Currently, he is a mentor for
the Anime Club.
2. In between classes, he practices his drawing skills in his
sketchbook. He pulls up images of manga, or Japanese comics, on
his phone and starts sketching away.
5. Durrell merges his interest in Japanese animation and knowledge
of graphic design to share with youth at Street-Level. Here, he
continues to develop his creative potential.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
23
STUDENTS ON THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN ACADEMIC
LEARNING AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
“As a whole, I am not
thrilled about the higher
education system. Time
was wasted. Life skills
would be more important
for me to learning in the
college environment. I can
buy books, read articles
online, and do a lot on my
own.” – RENATO, 21 VOICES GRAD
“At work, I am learning new
things everyday […] On my
second job as coordinator
[...] I get to go to conferences
and training that are way
more effective than a year- CASIMIR
long class.”
STUDENTS ON INTEGRATING ACADEMIC LEARNING AND
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
“There has to be a way to
work real life situations in
on the computer. We had
this nursing course. We saw
a video of a patient problem.
Then you’d have questions
about what you would do in
that situation. Then you saw
the outcome.
It mirrors real-life situations.
I thought that was brilliant.
It mirrored real-life decision
making.”— SEAN, 21 VOICES GRAD
24
“I’m a volunteer coach at the
running store, so it’s good
way to ease into [coaching]
as opposed to having no
support in the beginning.
I can talk to other coaches
in the running store… They
are the kind of people you
want to be around. They are
very encouraging and why
I’m motivated to study in
school.” - BRIT, 21 VOICES GRAD
LOVE YOUR SELFIE
“Love Your Selie” was an activity
Dawn organized as RA in her dorm on
Valentine’s Day. he idea was to get
residents to interact with each other
and promote afection by having them
write something nice about the other
residents.
his example raises at least two vital
questions:
• How can institutional learning tie
together social practices that students ind meaningful from their
everyday life (such as selies, video-making, gaming, podcasting,
etc.) with academically enriching
experiences?
• How can our company meet students where they already are to
help facilitate connections between
their social and academic activities?
Social Arrangements of Learning
Depending on their interests and
learning styles, students tend to prefer
one or more of the following social
arrangements in learning:
1 Peer Learning
In certain contexts peer learning
provides an enriching environment for
some students to be more engaged with
their academic studies.
Dawn integrated selies—a pervasive
everyday practice among young
adults – into her academic context of
residential living. Rather than signalling
narcissism, Dawn’s selie activities
suggested a more profound motivation:
reaching out to others to forge social
connections, which are so important
to both establishing and sustaining
friendships as well as academic success3.
Preliminary 21 Voices data suggest
that many students feel disconnected
from their peers and mentors. As a
result, they frequently study on their
own. his impedes many (though not
all) students from achieving their full
learning potential.
hese students report that they are
more engaged with learning when
they interact and participate in shared
activities and goals with supportive
peers and mentors who have similar
interests.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
25
his insight supports secondary
research that indicates peer-supported
networks are important in allowing
students to share, discuss, and
provide feedback in a socially inclusive
and supportive environment. In
the process, they develop skills in
collaboration, self-expression, and
leadership while also sharing in each
other’s expertise -- all of which help
students become higher academic
achievers and understand better how
to collaborate once they enter the
workforce after college or university.
(his is related to Opportunity 4 on
Building Networks and Skills from 21
Voices research published in December
2015.)
Again, the importance of peer culture
among college students should not be
underestimated. It is a central locus
of social interaction and identity
for many youth and young adults
—indeed, constituting an informal
learning community—that’s too often
disconnected from school:
he notion […] that peer culture is of
central importance and that, for most
segments of the student community,
academic life is tangential to or at
odds with peer culture are consistent
with every major study of college life.
– Rebekah Nathan4
26
STUDENTS ON THE VALUE OF
PEER LEARNING
“A lot of the assignments
you have [in college], you’re
working by yourself. But
I was involved in other
groups, and the government
at UCLA. I loved it because
I worked with people with
similar interests, and was
able to work with people
who are passionate about
something, and have goals.
You’re part of a group/
coalition. Now [at work]
I’m not part of anything.
Now I feel disconnected
with everything. I want
to be part of something.”
- CLARISSA, 21 VOICES GRAD
“I would
often step up to do things
that I’m good at. Someone
else wanted to try things
that he’s not good at.”
[For group work]
- JASON, 21 VOICES GRAD
[On getting feedback from
[Researcher’s notes on Eli]
other students vs. the instructor]
When he has extra time,
he likes to reach out to all
the students and give them
feedback when they are
in critique mood. When I
asked him why he does this
extra work, he said he felt
as if he had an obligation
and wanted to help “the
kids.”
“All through school your
teachers
proofread
whatever it is that you’re
writing so they can already
get an idea what that final
paper is gonna be like based
off their recommendations
and revising. However,
with other students, each
is gonna have their own
strengths in writing and
help you see a different
point of view when revising
to make it more unique and
- ELI
a better quality.”
“The way I am studying,
and me being around my
future in-laws, since they
work in the medical field
every day, has helped me
tremendously. I go to class
and get the teachers’ way of
explaining things, and then
I come home and get my
in-laws’ way of explaining
- ZOE
things.”
“[Learning with peers]
is definitely beneficial.
You learn so much from
other people and their
experiences … They think
in a different way. You see
a group’s perspective.”
- CANDICE, 21 VOICES GRAD
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
27
2 Dynamic User-Driven Content
A few 21 Voices students found
opportunities to create and circulate
media/online content helpful in
bolstering their participation,
creativity, and engagement with
academic materials. For our students
this mainly involved creating videos
for group projects or individual
assignments.
STUDENTS ON THE BENEFITS
OF USER-DRIVEN CONTENT
“Did a presentation
with a classmate where
I integrated videos and
pictures. I wish I was able
to do more of that, and
have conversation with my
friends/classmates. I think
it catered to that creative
side. You’re working with
someone with the same
work ethics. It was a good
experience – you know who
you’re working with, you’re
able to be honest, you’re
being creative. Talking out
ideas was cool.”
- CLARISSA, 21 VOICES GRAD
[Casimir did well in his leadership
class vs. his “traditional” class
because he was allowed to be
creative in the former by making
videos and interviewing people]:
“This one leadership class
was about how creative
can you get through the
process of learning about
leadership, and how you
can introduce leadership
in your own life. The whole
class was about being
creative. There were many
activities. One of them was
about making a video about
everything you learned in
– CASIMIR
the class.”
“We chose to do a video
because we all came to the
consensus that no one likes
a presentation. Video was
easier and that went really
well… I think we all enjoyed
doing the assignment
more because it allowed
us to incorporate all of our
capabilities.”
- ERIN, 21 VOICES GRAD
28
“…we could do anything for
our French final. Our group
did a video of American Idol
in French. It was fun and
I learned more because
we were speaking a lot.”
- CANDICE, 21 VOICES GRAD
3 Creative Collaborative ProblemSolving
Some students expressed enthusiasm
for creative team problem-solving
activities such as role-playing and
game simulations to cultivate learning,
because it was connected to an existing
or latent interest. However, at least
one student noted that such activities
should be supported by clear objectives
from the instructors/mentors—joined
by other students who share similar
goals—to make them meaningful.
STUDENTS ON COLLABORATIVE
PROBLEM-SOLVING
“There was a class where we
did 3 group assignments. My
favorite [group assignment]
was we had to build a chair.
It had to be able to hold a
specific amount of weight.
We got into a group of 3
and we sketched ideas and
decided which would be
the best and then we had
to get the cardboard and
put it together. It was a fun
assignment. You feel almost
like a real designer…You had
to think outside the box.”
– AVA
“I gave a presentation with
another girl in my math
class – it was on hyperbolic
geometry. One of the ways
you can model hyperbolic
geometry is with crochet.
So I crocheted a couple of
models of geometry and let
everyone interact with it.”
- SKYE
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
29
30
Preview of This Year’s Activities
Diary Studies
GOALS
• Cultivate empathy for students
(ongoing).
• Conduct exploratory (or “heuristic”) research that informs product
development for the upcoming 2-5
year horizon.
• Conduct tactical product research
that focuses on more immediate
market questions and needs.
Use a combination of lifestreaming5
and self-reported diary studies roughly
every other month to gather ongoing
data from students.
THEMES
hroughout the year, the research
team will tack back and forth between
exploratory and tactical questions.
hus, we will pursue more open-ended
research on speciic themes like social
media and learning that will ultimately
have longer-term implications for how
the company thinks about student
learning and behavior. Meanwhile,
on the tactical side, we anticipate
collaborating with strategic product
teams, such as MindTap mobile, to
address current market dynamics.
Interviews
Explore issues in greater depth through
monthly call-ins and interviews conducted
during ield visits.
METHODS
Focus Groups
Initiate occasional focus group
conversations with students to follow up
on speciic topics.
21 Voices · REAL INSIGHTS FROM REAL STUDENTS · 2016 Annual Report
31
Facebook private group chat
Secondary Research
Facilitate student engagement in a
private chat conversation amongst
themselves in response to bi-monthly
prompt.
Integrate secondary research from
social theories of learning and studies
of social media and communication.
PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS FROM
SEPTEMBER 2016 ACTIVITIES ON
SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEARNING
We provide the following items to
indicate some of the salient indings
that we’ll continue to explore as part
of our ongoing exploratory/heuristic
research.
Field Visits
Conduct quarterly ield visits with
students to observe typical day-in-the
life activities.
32
1 For many students, social media
is often used as a tool for informal
learning with their peer group.
However, social media plays a
limited role in student-instructor
interactions.
2 Students distinguish usage of social
media platforms depending on the
nature of their social connections.
For example, a LinkedIn account
is primarily used to connect with
instructors and peers in leadership organizations to build their
resume online. On the other hand,
Facebook may be a more useful
networking tool for school or interest-related events because it’s more
deeply embedded in their everyday
social relations.
3 he dense circulation of selies,
memes, and other forms of visual
self-expression on social media
suggests that many college students are informally learning to
work through their values and
identities—including who they are,
their fears, and what they aspire to
become—through these platforms.
Facebook, etc. may provide a safe,
creative, curated space for them
to learn how to cultivate a sense
of who they are during the crucial
college years.
CO-CREATION/PARTICIPATORY
ACTIVITIES
Journey Maps
Students are helping the Discovery
Team co-produce “journey maps” that
visualize the entire lived experience
they go through while striving to
achieve a particular objective in a single
day. Journey maps are particularly
useful to product teams and other
stakeholders in the early development
phase because they help identify
students’ needs, touch points, and pain
points as they go about their daily lives
to meet an objective.
How We Are Doing It
Researchers and students are in the
process of co-creating these maps
focused on two particular objectives
during a “typical day”:
• Balancing academic and nonacademic (work, family,
extracurricular, social) activities
and responsibilities
• Studying while “on the go”
Once all the students in the program
have completed the exercise,
researchers will synthesize the
materials to produce journey maps
that illustrate the “typical” experiences
a student goes through to meet those
objectives (including their emotional
journeys).
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33
Once the inal journey maps are
created, we hope speciic products
teams across the company can use them
so that users are always in their minds
throughout the decision-making and
development process.
As heuristics, they can also be used
in conjunction with personas to
paint a broader picture of students’
experiences. Although the journey
maps will not include how students
interact with Cengage products, they
can be used to illuminate the potential
experiences of students with particular
products as they go through the day.
Social Network Mapping
34
In addition to the ongoing work on
the journey maps, our researchers
collaborated with students in the
beginning of the third program year
to create a visual social network map
of each student’s most meaningful
relationships on social media and other
communication platforms. he purpose
of this generative research activity was
to better understand the dynamics of
their interactions with the people in
their lives who were personally most
important to them in their formal and
informal learning experiences.
they were the most, and the least, close
to emotionally. hen they asked which
social media/communication tool they
used to interact with those people, the
general topics of conversation, and the
types of activities they perform on the
platform (e.g., sending links, photos,
etc.).
How We Are Doing It
Insights
In remote Skype interviews, researchers
asked students to draw three concentric
circles and write down the names of all
the people (peers, family, instructors,
mentors, coworkers, etc.) with whom
One of our key insights from this
activity was the central role that
Facebook played in many students’ lives
—in signiicant part because it helped
them stay connected not just with
those they were close to emotionally,
but also with casual acquaintances
with whom they had “weak ties” (see
image of social map below).
connections and share information that
we wouldn’t otherwise have access to if
we just limited our networks to those
cl