Selected problem/solution

Brainstorming process

We recognized a difficulty within the university system concerning the location of mentorship or monitoring opportunities, commonly referred to as "Monitorias." After conducting interviews and analyzing a journey map, we found that students typically address their assistance needs by posting on a Facebook group and awaiting responses from fellow students. This approach frequently results in difficulties in finding appropriate tutors for specific subjects. Our objective is to improve this particular aspect of the issue.

To address this issue and give some smart features, we initially divided potential solutions into two categories, considering the perspectives of both possible actors in the app (students and tutors). We conducted a 15-minute brainstorming session where each team member generated ideas for improving the student's experience. And we came out with the following ideas:

• smart features for students

• smart features for tutors

After this initial brainstorming process we did the converge process by grouping the topics that were similar and voted for the ones we thought were the ones with more value, here you can see each member votes on the converge process:

• smart features for students

• smart features for tutors

BRAINSTORM BOARD

The Decision Process

As we described before we identified a challenge in the university system related to the difficulty of finding mentorship or monitoring spaces, commonly known as "Monitorias." To address this issue and give some smart features, we initially divided potential solutions into two categories, considering the perspectives of both possible actors in the app (students and tutors). We conducted a 15 minute brainstorming session where each team member generated ideas for improving the student's experience, this phase, called divergence, was followed by a process called Converge where we identifyed common themes among the ideas and grouped them accordingly. Subsequently, each team member voted on the three most promising idea clusters and synthesized the selected groups of ideas into a cohesive solution.

Then, we repeated the brainstorming process for tutors, exploring potential solutions from their perspective. The same divergence, grouping, voting, and convergence steps were applied to distill the ideas into a unified solution. Through this collaborative process, we aim to enhance the experience for both students and tutors in the university mentorship system.

Phases of the Brainstorming:

• diverge: A 15 minute brainstorming session where each team member generated ideas for improving the student's experience.
• Converge: Identifying common themes among the ideas and grouping them accordingly. Subsequently, each team member voted on the three most promising idea clusters and synthesized the selected groups of ideas into a cohesive solution.

DECISION PROCESS BOARD

XY empathy maps

Remember that each empathy map should correspond to a different prospective user. You should answer each question from the template accordingly and relate it to the prospective users. You must use the template provided by the course.

• Empathy map made by Diana Silva ( Empathy map about a student who is seeking tutorships or having answers on his classes inquiries )

• Empathy map made by José Fuentes ( Empathy map about a student who also wants to give and receive tutorships ).

• Empathy map made by Boris Reyes (Empathy map of a sutudent who takes and gives tutorships)

EMPATHY MAPS BOARD

YX personas

Persona 1:

Persona made out of a student in his last years who also wants to give and receive tutorships he likes doing tutorships because they help me stay updated on the topics he likes plus he likes helping people so he can satisfy both things by doing tutorships, but he also is a student so he wants to graduate and this can only be achieved by passing his exams and understanding the topics. He has also identified that there are certain things that as an independent tutor he struggles with such as places that are usually hard to reserve and there is a lack of material to teach students probably his biggest difficulty is getting students to know him as a tutor. As a student he has identified problems such as searching for tutors is a hard job and most of the time there is no material to study from. About he's technical abilities we can say that he has great communication skills, can give excellent tutorships, and has experience with phones.

Persona 2:

Persona made of a student who is worried about his grades and he is not able to find the slots available to ask the questions he has and the professor takes too much time to answer his questions. He wants to have a good grade on science classes as he is not on a science career and the topics are more difficult to adress than the ones on his field. He wants to have flexibility on his schedule and someone who answers his questions quickly, but does not know who to ask or where to find help other than his professor.

PERSONA BOARD

Solution of the problem selected

We have identified a convergence between two issues, which essentially involves one: student tutoring at university. It is important to highlight that it is difficult for a student who wants to offer tutoring to find someone to help, but it is also challenging for a student who needs help to know how to search or whom to ask for references regarding tutoring at the university, which is often a common practice, but currently done through channels like Facebook or Instagram, which can be time-consuming and tedious to navigate as we saw on the empathy maps and the personnas made.

Therefore, we propose as a general solution to integrate both profiles within the problem. We believe that one way to more easily locate tutoring spaces could be to consolidate these channels into a single platform. Here, a student can register for the classes they are taking each semester, thereby selecting the classes they are enrolled in. Within each class, there would be a section for tutors, where their qualifications, available times, and a chat feature for communication can be displayed. This would not only make it easier for students who want to help others and earn income from tutoring to set up their profiles with their qualifications but also serve as an effective means of disseminating assistance to those in need, some of this ideas were highlighted by the prototyping on ms2, but as the personnas were added and the empathy maps we think some ideas must be restructured to emphasise on the tutors profile information and the possibility of quick questions to ask from the students like on a forum for them to be answered fast as the time is an important factor.

This approach could greatly improve the management of student-led tutoring at the university, providing substantial value to both tutors and students seeking academic support.