The work of Compton College in student-centered redesign is profiled in CLP’s new case study and tool, Equity Walk at Compton College. The equity walk exercise helps participants gain insight into how students experience the college by asking them to assume a specific student’s perspective and navigate the campus through that point of view.
The team at Compton College first learned about the equity walk from Fullerton College, through a connection made by a Guided Pathways regional coordinator. When the COVID-19 pandemic upended their plans for a physical campus equity walk, the Compton College team realized that students in the remote learning environment were navigating campus exclusively through the college website, so they enlisted CLP’s help to transform the exercise to move it online, renaming it the digital equity walk.
On the day of the event, 128 participants including faculty, staff, and students convened virtually. In small groups, they navigated the college website using the perspective of an assigned “student experience snapshot,” a short profile describing an individual student’s background including their college and career aspirations. One of the key success factors identified by the Compton College team was including students and people who were less familiar with the college to help provide objective feedback.
The case study describes Compton College’s approach and the accompanying tool details five key steps to planning an equity walk: 1) Build student experience descriptions; 2) Establish a vision for the equity walk; 3) Plan the equity walk; 4) Survey participants after the event; and 5) Analyze and share data with constituents.
To help college teams who are interested in developing their own equity walks, other resources including sample agendas, slide templates, and facilitator tips are available on the CLP website. Additional materials will be posted as they become available.
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- Download the case study and tool.
- Access sample agendas, slide templates, and other resources.