0.0 Background

The objective of this project was to gain a better understanding of prospect students interested in pursuing a technical career at this very traditional institution and to identify their motivations for choosing an undergraduate technical program. This was particularly important as lower cost universities were competing for the same prospect students, causing them and their families to consider studying at a university that was almost as expensive as the technical institute. Prospect students were teenagers between 16 and 20 who had recently finished high school and were deciding what to study.

1.0 Research activities

To achieve this objective, we began by holding a kick-off meeting with stakeholders from the institute, including sponsors from marketing, technology, customer service, and education. This allowed us to understand the different motivations of team members from different areas and their expectations for the project.

With this understanding, we planned various research activities, including:

• recruited and interviewed prospect and current students of the institute

• conducted fieldwork at different locations and randomly talked to students about their decision-making process, motivations, and reasons for choosing the institution

• conducted several usability tests to identify any usability problems with the site

• held a mystery shopper exercise and pretended to be parents or family members of prospective students

• analyzed different competitors and references to identify what other technical institutions were doing to provide students with the necessary information to apply

Our goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the entire process that a prospective student goes through when deciding where to study.

2.0 Findings

The key findings of this research project were:

• core family played a significant role in the decision-making process of prospective students. Many students reported that their older brother, cousin, or uncle had studied at the institution and had recommended it to them

• physical touchpoints, such as information kiosks at the main location, played a crucial role in the decision-making process, as many students and their families visited these kiosks and asked questions

• although the site looked very dated and cluttered it has very complete and thorough information that was relevant for prospective students.