As part of my bachelor’s studies at Aalto University, I maintained a Telegram channel for my fellow students from 2018 to 2021, where I gathered and summarized the most important up-to-date information related to our studies. The channel helped students identify key matters amid the broad and often fragmented flood of messages, reducing stress and freeing up mental capacity for more important things such as learning and creative work. I chose Telegram because it was widely used among Aalto students. During the 2019–2020 academic year, I also created a similar information channel for first-year students, for whom I served as a tutor.

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I knew well what information was timely and relevant because I was myself part of the student community and heard directly what questions and challenges people were facing. Many posts emerged from situations where a friend or classmate was wondering about a practical matter and I either knew the answer or, after finding it out for myself, shared it with others. In this way, the channel also became a collection of my own notes that proved useful for many.

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I published instructions, for example, on when and how to register for courses, what course options were available, and I shared experiences about applying for various exemptions (such as from Swedish language studies). I also provided detailed instructions about application processes, required documents, and replacement studies. In addition, I created a large number of practical guides and tutorial videos for using Aalto University’s Sisu system, which at the time was still under development and often required creative workarounds. For instance, I showed how to create a personal study plan (PSP) and how to schedule courses.

 

The value of the channel lay in the fact that the information was already filtered and distilled to its essentials. For many students, identifying what was truly relevant in the flood of information was a challenge, and the channel provided significant support.

 

Independent project, 2018–2021

Aalto ARTS

Tools used: Telegram

 

Keywords: User-centered communication, Information visualization, Information filtering & structuring, User needs identification, Independent project, Student experience enhancement