Ambition
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) aimed to create a community online learning platform at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The goal was to leverage digital technologies to unite HBCUs, increase accessibility and opportunity, and support black excellence. Through this project, UNCF hoped to address inequities and make HBCUs the leaders in online education.
Action
Deloitte took a collaborative and values-based approach, including staffing a diverse team, conducting bias training, and engaging UNCF in participatory research and ambition setting. The team conducted surveys, interviews, campus visits, and ethnographies to identify the current state and designed solutions to set the future state through co-creation labs, synthesis sessions, personas and user stories, priority features and functions, design principles, and MVP wireframes.
Achievement
UNCF continued the collaboration for a pilot at nine HBCUs and beyond, saying, “You all have truly heard our vision and are thinking progressively about higher education.”
The pilot will provide more than 8,000 students opportunities to cross-register across the platform. The platform generated substantial momentum in just months: It was featured in 12 news publications, received $10 million in funding for launch, and was presented at a summit to more than 130 institutions.