Interactive Lab to Get HCT Students Feedback on Effective Communication Channels

Subject of Consultation

The HCT will implement its first interactive lab under the supervision of the HCT Communications Department and with the participation of various student categories. Through this interactive lab, challenges facing the Higher Colleges of Technology will be presented and participants will be encouraged to present their ideas and proposals that could contribute to addressing this challenge. The process will be concluded by selecting the winning feasible idea

The main interactive lab question will be “What is the best way to communicate to students the news, latest updates and any important information

The process will begin with the presentation of HCT’s efforts in utilizing multiple channels to communicate information to students, e.g. social media, email, student portal, website, and electronic app, in order to ensure that information will reach the largest category of students. In view of the keenness of the HCT Communications Department to keep abreast of all the developments in both the internal and external media, the Department will implement the interactive lab to listen to students’ innovative ideas and adopt the proposals that can be directly implemented

The next stage will focus on generating ideas, where the participants will enter all their ideas in their phones and smart devices that are automatically connected to the interactive lab, and all the ideas will instantly appear on the screen without any reference to the idea owners

Subsequently, voting begins to select the best ideas in two phases. The first phase includes the selection of the top five ideas, and the second phase includes the selection of the winning idea out of the shortlisted five ideas

Aim of Consultation

The aim of the HCT Communications Department is to listen to students’ ideas about the best ways to communicate to them the news and updates they are interested in, and to adopt any new and innovative ways to achieve this goal, in addition to stimulating idea generation to propose radical solutions in a new, innovative and immediate manner

E-Decision

The HCT Communications Department will represent the Higher Colleges of Technology in studying all the presented ideas with a focus on the development of the winning idea so as to ensure optimal and prompt implementation

Outcome

Expected results of the consultation

More than 20 students participated in the interactive lab, where they proposed a range of innovative ideas to be implemented by HCT. The winning idea involved adapting HCTs e-application by adding interactive features, which provide students with the latest developments in HCT, as well as providing alerts on academic issues, and ensuring the interactive application is synched with HCT corporate website in order to improve the user experience

The winning idea was presented to the relevant HCT department for consideration and implementation prior to the end of the 2020-2021 academic year