Scenario development to address critical issues at AAU

The Service Design Lab at Aalborg University in Copenhagen is developing scenarios to reveal the critical issues and everyday challenges faced by students in WeNet project pilots. Understanding the variety of contexts in which the WeNet project will operate is a crucial step to identifying meaningful approaches and solutions that could help all students, whether Danish or Mexican.

Data about students´ needs, behaviors and motivations has been collected by means of mixed research methods as desk research, focus group interviews and in-depth interviews. The research team collected qualitative data by means of online interviews with experts – study counsellors, professors – and students from various countries. The online approach was used to eliminate the constraints of time and distance.

The purpose of the online interviews was to compare different perceptions, attitudes, cultures, and lifestyles of university students in relation to their local contexts. In this initial phase of the projects the research focused mainly on the following pilots:

• University of Trento (Italy)
• Ipicyt University (Mexico)
• Jilin University (China)
• Aalborg University (Denmark)

The preliminary field research across the pilot projects reveals that the transition to university life implies academic, social and psychological adjustments for the students, many of whom have difficulty adapting to the new environment.

The acknowledgement of the complex, intertwined nature of students´ needs will be relevant when designing for richer and more diverse social interactions.

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