What is Persona Mapping?

Persona mapping is a design thinking Links to an external site. exercise (i.e.: a mix of empathy mapping Links to an external site. and personas Links to an external site.) that asks you to describe the user of a product or service - in this case it's a student that you'd like to help succeed in your course. By thinking deeply about your students, this creative problem-solving process will help you make small changes to your course design that have a big effect on student success. For example, in a summer online course you might find that changing assignment deadlines from weekdays to weekends could help students who work on weekday evenings.

How does student empathy mapping help?

• It reveals the underlying “why” behind students’ actions, choices and decisions so we can proactively design for their real needs, the needs that are difficult for students’ to perceive and articulate.
• It sticks. It invites you and your colleagues to internalize parts of the students’ experience in ways that reading student evaluations cannot.
• It paves the way for innovative learning design. Now that you and our Course Design cohort better understand the context of a student in your course, it's easier to realize how slight course design changes can make a big impact on student success. 

(adapted from Persona Empathy Mapping via Cooper)

Which type of student should you embody in your persona?

There are likely at least three or four types of students that need your help to do better in your course. For this exercise, we'd like you to choose the type of student that you're most worried about in the online learning environment. For example, one type of student is conscientious but keeps getting tripped up by key concepts in your course. Maybe this student runs out of steam at exactly the wrong time. Try to visualize this student. Thinking deeply about this student will help you tell the story of your course from the student's perspective.