University of Michigan School of Information
Student Organization - Engaged Learning Leaders (SO-ELL)
Proposal open date: June 1
Proposal close date: August 2 (for September-December projects); November 2 (for January-April projects)
Project timeline: September-December or January-April
Project duration: 8-10 weeks
Number of projects needed: 30 per semester
Description
In the Student Organization Engaged Learning Leaders (SO-ELL) program, student organization teams are assigned real-world information projects, giving students the opportunity to ethically engage, practice skills and suggest or effect positive change. Leaders, including officers and project managers, are supported through a series of informational sessions, catered resources, project management workshops and regular peer-to-peer and mentorship opportunities that expose them to a wide variety of industry and civic real-world challenges associated with information. Student organizations work closely with a program manager who provides guidance and benchmarks deliverables with the student teams. Student teams will present the deliverables to the clients at the end of the semester.
Deliverables
Deliverables will vary by project and be based on the client needs and project scope. Examples may include:
- Design recommendations
- Data visualization
- Analytics and strategy recommendations
- Implementation plans
- Survey design
- Data analysis
- User experience testing
- User research reports
- Workflow strategy and documentation for archival work
- Written report
- Social media and marketing consulting
- Process consulting
- Prototypes
Client Requirements
- Level of engagement for course/program
- Regular feedback and communication to student team based on the course schedule
- Meet with the student team 3-4 times during the course of the project
- Provide access to organizational data, systems and/or resources necessary to project completion
Project Examples
- Students created a user-friendly business assessment questionnaire to be given to employees within a client company. Students evaluated the questions and made suggestions for changes and additional inquiries that could be added to facilitate the accurate acquisition of information through the survey tool.
- Students conducted a usability study on a website and provided recommendations for how to better organize and present information for diverse audiences.
- Students analyzed the historical data used in the prototype for a web-based sports game so that users could be presented with the odds of victory when playing the game.
Client Testimonials
- “The students’ work revolutionized how we present our product offerings to our clients.”
- Anonymous
- “The recommendations for improving the user experience of people accessing CIRCA's website were very valuable. In fact, a CIRCA volunteer has already started working on the action items recommended by the student team. We anticipate the impact to be huge once we apply the recommendations in the actual revamp of CIRCA's website. For all our users, the website will become more accessible and easier to navigate.”
- Client from Circa-Pintig
Past Clients
Contact us
Engaged Learning Office | [email protected] | (734) 763-1251
Please complete this form to submit a project proposal for one of our client-based courses or other programs, or to receive information about these opportunities throughout the year.
