Student Journey – Student Experience (SX) – An Introduction

At all levels of education, particularly in higher education and secondary education, the educational model should be centered on two distinct pillars: the academic model and the model based on the student's journey. The academic model is being addressed in another series of articles, the first of which is: “The need for an innovative academic model”. The theme of this article is an introduction to the student journey.

First, it is necessary to understand that the focus on the student's journey is based on making the student experience memorable, what we could call SX - Student eXperience, similar to that used, mainly in the last decade by large companies, the concept of CX – Customer eXperience. Memorable experiences stimulate the production of hormones such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin that are closely linked to: motivation, learning, feelings of pleasure, determination and focus, maintenance of relationships, self-confidence, among others.

Many companies like Disney, Starbucks and other leaders in the segment already masterfully adopt the concept of CX as one of the pillars of the company's operation. The first important point to highlight is that we are dealing with the customers' perception of their relationship with a given company. Thus, the first stage of this process is to know its customers, because by understanding who they are, it is possible to generate a personalized and memorable experience throughout their journey. This knowledge comes from collecting information about customers, generating a database that must be treated and analyzed efficiently during their journey. Therefore, it is imperative that companies undergo a digital transformation process, as described in the text: “Digital Transformation - Initial Discussion”. In due time, I will make a specific post on how to implement CX in small and medium-sized companies with low investment and high return.

According to a Forbes article from April 2019: “50 Stats That Prove The Value Of Customer Experience”, the successful implementation of CX in companies over the years is proven from a series of materials/articles. In general terms, the main results are: (i) improvement in customer retention, (ii) improvement in customer satisfaction, (iii) increasing in cross-selling and up-selling, (iv) increasing in revenue, (v) competitive differentiation and (vi) reduction in the cost of serving customers with the use of correct technology.

Structuring the student journey is, without a doubt, SX's main activity. It must be clear what this relationship will be like from the beginning, as a candidate, until the conclusion of the program, when the student assumes a new state – graduate/alumni. It is worth noting that throughout this journey, all existing critical points must be identified so that the institution can generate actions to strengthen the relationship. There is no single list of actions, but variations of these actions depending on the student's profile, since the concept is to define actions that are personalized to obtain a memorable experience. This personalization can only be done when the institution collects information about students, continuously throughout the journey, understanding their preferences, so that it can provide a truly memorable student experience. The Figure below (in Portuguese) presents one of the models that can be adopted from the student's journey. In a first analysis, it is verified how the candidate became a student (green arrows) and the possible dropouts (red arrows). There were also 4 distinct stages: beginning of the program (freshman), end of the first semester/year, end of the program and the graduation itself. In the next article, I will detail a little more about this journey, the actions that can be generated and how to gradually implement them in any institution.

#datascience #studentexperience #academicmodel #digitaltransformation