Administrative processes in higher education significantly increase student stress and exacerbate existing conditions.

Why It Matters

Understanding the user experience of administrative systems is crucial for designing inclusive educational environments. By identifying pain points, designers and institutions can create more equitable and supportive pathways for all students.

Key Finding

University administrative tasks, especially those related to disability support, are a major source of stress and difficulty for students, often worsening their health conditions and taking time away from their studies.

Key Findings

• Administrative processes create significant burdens and barriers for disabled students.
• The most common negative impact reported was on student stress levels.
• Other reported impacts include exacerbation of existing conditions, time lost from study, and delays in support.
• Processes for applying for disability-related support were found to be particularly challenging.

Research Evidence

Aim: To investigate the accessibility challenges faced by disabled university students within administrative processes and to identify the resulting impacts.

Method: Mixed-methods research, combining literature review with a participatory survey.

Procedure: A literature review was conducted to understand systemic administrative burdens. A survey was then developed through a participatory research exercise with students and administered to 104 respondents with various declared disabilities.

Sample Size: 104 participants

Context: Higher education institutions, focusing on administrative processes.

Design Principle

Design administrative systems with empathy, focusing on reducing user burden and enhancing support accessibility.

How to Apply

When designing or reviewing any student-facing administrative system, map out the user journey, identify potential friction points, and conduct user testing with students who have diverse needs.

Limitations

The study relies on self-reported data and perceptions, and the sample, while diverse in declared disabilities, may not represent all potential challenges.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: University paperwork and online forms can be really hard to deal with, especially if you have a disability. This makes students stressed, sick, and takes time away from learning. Making these processes easier helps everyone.

Why This Matters: This research highlights how the design of everyday systems can have a profound impact on user well-being and success, making it a critical consideration for any design project.

Critical Thinking: To what extent do the 'systemic characteristics of administrative burdens' identified in the literature review manifest in other service-oriented design contexts beyond higher education?

IA-Ready Paragraph: This research underscores the critical impact of administrative process design on user well-being, noting that 'The most common negative impact reported was on stress levels' and 'exacerbation of existing conditions' for disabled students. This highlights the necessity of designing administrative systems with a strong user-centred approach to mitigate such negative outcomes and ensure equitable access.

Project Tips

• When designing a system that involves administrative tasks, consider the emotional and cognitive load on the user.
• Think about how different user groups might experience the same process differently.

How to Use in IA

• Use this research to justify the need for user-centred design in your project, especially if it involves complex procedures or support systems.
• Cite the findings on stress and exacerbation of conditions to emphasize the importance of user experience.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how design choices can create barriers or facilitators for specific user groups.
• Show how you have considered the emotional and psychological impact of your design on users.

Independent Variable: Type and complexity of administrative processes, accessibility features of administrative systems.

Dependent Variable: Student stress levels, exacerbation of existing conditions, time lost from study, timeliness of support.

Controlled Variables: Type of disability, academic year, specific university policies (implicitly).

Strengths

• Participatory research approach involving students in survey development.
• Combines literature review with empirical data collection.

Critical Questions

• How can the design of administrative processes be proactively designed for accessibility rather than reactively adapted?
• What are the long-term consequences for student retention and success when administrative burdens are not addressed?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate the administrative processes of a specific organization (e.g., a local council, a healthcare provider) and assess their accessibility for a target user group, proposing design improvements.
• Develop a prototype for a more accessible administrative interface for a common service, such as applying for benefits or registering for a course.

Source

The accessibility of administrative processes: Assessing the impacts on students in higher education · 'Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)' · 2018 · 10.1145/3192714.3192820