3rd student: L

Intelligent, articulate student - high value person to have involved.

Bachelor of Design Innovation, majoring in Culture+Context and minoring in Marketing. Also doing a BA in Philosophy.

So is across three campuses. But courses are spread around throughout the week so plenty of time to get around. Walks - good exercise - can't afford to go to the gym!

2nd year

Is a student rep on the Faculty of Architecture and Design Board.

From Auckland. Why Victoria?

Has two siblings - one is in Dunedin and one in Auckland. Wanted to be physically halfway.
Wellington is known for being good for art and culture.

"I love that if I want to go home, it's a $30 flight."

Loves the city - you can walk anywhere.

Lives in a 12-person flat on The Terrace.

Own businesses - photography and small design business.

Hard balancing everything and isn't a schedule person, but "I'm never someone to not get something done."c

Social media

Loves social media and spends a lot of time on it.

BUT: "I don't want to be one of those people on their phones all the time." (Doesn't want to be checking her phone when talking to people.)

Last semester she was off Facebook for a month - but missed out on uni updates so went back on it.

Acknowledges that she is on social media 'all the time' for her business.

Also has a website for her business.

Uses Instagram for her photos and drawings (which she sells)

Facebook (see below).

Channels

Main channels for info from Vic: Facebook and email.

Email - doesn't sign up to anything she doesn't want or need.

Facebook - follows:

Textbook sales
Vic Deals
Pages for each 'paper'
Design, uni etc

BlackBoard - "Notoriously awful" "Interface should be something students love" "A let down".

MyVic and Blackboard should all be one thing.

Screens - might look at them if she happens to be in the area.

Vic website, Faculty site, School site - really confusing. Everything should be on the main site. Schools, faculties and Vic should all be one. We are all one university. I don't see why it can't all be the same thing.

“This should all be one thing – School, Faculty and Victoria. And it is all the same thing. We are one University and there is no reason why it can’t all be together. And if there is private stuff, well then you sign in. My Vic and Blackboard should also be integrated together."

"I’m really interested in psychological side of technology. It has to be totally human friendly. There’s just too much stuff here where it could all be put down to one. So MyVic and Blackboard should be one site."

“This is a learning institution, you shouldn’t have to have these complicated parts.”

Did not choose text (I haven't had a text from Victoria)

or

e-newsletter (she doesn't sign up to anything she doesn't want or need).

Devices

Phone

MacBook

Tablet (Sam, she mumbled here - I think she said tablet)

Takes a laptop to uni for notes unless it's raining. Always has her phone - good in class for looking things up, such as online dictionary to look up a term the lecturer has used.

Info needs from Vic

Uni - "the larger scale" - ie, overview of where you're heading and what skills you'll have at the end.

MyQual on MyVic definitely helps for this. Needs "more of those things".

Planning study

Scary that choices you make when you're 15 or 16 (ie, school subject choices) define what you will do. "You have no idea until you're at uni."

Has made lots of changes to course (paper) choices. Not enough info about what a course will cover: "You find out what they're about when you're into them". She has withdrawn from courses and changed courses, but the deadline is 2 weeks after they start. Sometimes she's had a fail recorded and incurred fees if she did it too late. Wants her GPA to be high and it is affected by this.

Looked around the site but quickly decided it was too complicated, so emailled someone and got a quick response. “If the website is easy enough then you use the website, but if it’s complex then its quicker to just email.”

Enrolment process

Difficulty was knowing what she liked. A smoother transition of 'subjects' from school to uni would help (ie, uni subjects were different).

Process was that she chose her subjects then did the online enrolment. Already knew a bit about how uni worked so was OK.

Expectations

Thought uni would be full time, but actually it isn't. She thinks there's too much downtime - she'd like to see the semesters being shorter and the workload more compressed.

Plans for PG

Not sure. "Design is really about your experience and your portfolio." "Design is practical."

Might do PG at Vic or PG overseas. Is also thinking about career - travel - and starting a family at some point.

News and events

Not so interested in wider life at Vic. No real interest in Vic news and events. Might read the Vic magazine (Victorious?)

Behaviour online

Looked for courses: Started from google. Searched "design vic photography". Opened the first four or so results in different tabs. The top one was a page from the design school. She skimmed the content but didn't realise she was on a school site. Looked at the points requirements. "The this is, you don't know what it means until you know what it means." The course outlines were confusing, as was the timetabling information. "Everything is just a little bit too complicated."

Planning her schedule: Looked at a subject page. "After looking at papers online I often send an email to someone. I can't rely on the website, I don't feel like it's up to date. I feel like I can't trust the website." Mainly uses MyVictoria for scheduling. "The lecture timetable is not good enough. It's not something you'd want to print out and stick on your wall. I make my own in excel and colour code it." Would love to be able to do this online.

On school and faculty sites: "None of the information on the homepage is important to me." "I didn't know the were their own sites. I didn't know they were different. I would email someone, it's so much easier than using the website."

"Using a website is nice if it's well designed."

General website: Very informative. You can find out everything about everything. But do you need to?