---
tags: Projects
---

# Project 2

[TOC]

## Interview questions

### Aamir

- [x] Did you sign up for International buddy program? If yes what were the steps you had to do?
- [x] When did you get connected with your buddy ? Before the uni started or after?
- [x] What were the tasks buddy helped you with ?
- [x] What were the tasks buddy was not able to help with?
- [x] How was your International students interactions amongst other incomers?
- [x] If no? Then how was your experience after arriving to konstanz especially in the first week (list you important task which you had to do)
- [x] What problems (not able to do properly or inefficiently )you faced as an international in the first week?
- [x] What problems you faced on a longer term period?
- [x] How was your International students interactions amongst other incomers?

### Freddy

Questions for exchange students
- [x] What problems did you face at your stay abroad
- [x] Would these problems be easier to handle with a buddy?
- [x] Would you consider using a buddy program and why?
- [x] Would you like to join activitys like lakeside BBQ with other students and buddies?

Questions for exchange students with a buddy
- [x] Which program did you use and how did the whole starting progress work?
- [x] Did you recognize any issues with this program
- [x] Did the buddy fit your needs?
- [x] Which problems did the Buddy help you with?
- [x] Which problems you had trouble with and the buddy wasnt able to help you?
- [x] Would you recommend a buddy program and why?

### All (Incoming International Students)

* How was the signup process for the buddy program?
* Was anything tedious or annoying?
* Do you have any ideas for improvement?
* Follow up questions:
* Which steps did you go through to sign up
* How did your buddy help you?
* What did your buddy help you with? Can you recall a specific instance?
* Was there something that your buddy couldn't help you with?
* What kind of relationship did you have with your buddy?
* What did you guys do together when you met your buddy?
* Yes/no questions:
* Would you call them a friend/acquaintance?
* Are you still in contact with them?
* Did you ever hang out with your buddy?
* If you didn't, would you have liked to have a more personal relationship with your buddy? [Too unspecific / its badly phrased]
* Were you in contact with your buddy before uni started?
* How frequently did you interact?
* What important things did you have to do when coming to the Uni first?
* Was anything particularly hard or annoying?
* ? Did your buddy help you with any of these?
* ? Which (if any) issues did you have with your new environment after the first few weeks? [Mohnish says it's a bad question as he wouldn't be able to really answer for himself]
* Did your buddy help you with any of them
* If yes how?
* If no, why not?
* Would you recommend the buddy program and why?

-

* ? Did your buddy study in the same program
* If yes, what role did that play in your interaction if any?
* ? Did your buddy connect you to other people?
* Would you have liked to parttake in more social activities with them?
* What kinds of shared activites do you think you would have enjoyed?
* ? Was the buddy a good fit for you?
* What went well/ not so well?
* Recall particular instances?

### Buddy Questions

* How long are you a buddy?
* First time or previosuly as well?
* if previous -> observed any changes in the program?
* Sign up process to become a buddy
* Any particular/official requirements?
* Fill a form or send an email?
* How many students does each buddy be incharge of?
* Are you aware of the matchmaking process (by any chance)?
* Helping an international
* Who reached out first? You or the international?
* Any preferred means to communicate?
* How easily are you available to help?
* Any common instances of needing help (pickup at the station, information about bus lines etc)?
* Any bizzare/extreme instances of help needed by an international? (Good/offputting both is okay)
* Any instance when you wanted to help out but were in some way limited?
* Any instance when you were asked for help but just didn't want to help out? (We understand that the buddies also have their own lives and problems.. so this is hopefully not judgemental)
* Social
* How well do you know your assigned international?
* Did you have anything in common (language, hobbys, interests, program)?
* Do/Did you regularly checkup on your buddy?
* Do/Did you ever initiate a hangout or any other social activity to make them more welcome?
* If no, would you at least be interested in the future?
* Has the experience been in any way rewarding?
* If yes, how?
* International Office
* Any area where they could support the buddies or incoming internationals more?
* Is there any documentation to be maintained of your experience?

## Google Form

- Explanatory text for the Form
- What we are doing and why we need your help and stuff.
- We are 4 CS students, designing an app for our course.
- The app is aimed at improving the buddy program experience for internationals. (Maybe include a link to the Buddy program website)?
- We want to gain insights into your experience, to help us address the needs of internationals.
- You can help us by filling out this form! Thanks!
- ((We're doing interviews, and you can sign up to them.))
- Disclaimer
- We intend to keep your personal data completely confidential. Any responses used will be kept anonymous.
- Have you taken part in the Uni Konstanz Buddy program? Y/N
- Rate your experience with your buddy: On 1 being poor to 10 being excellent
- When did you signup for the buddy program? less than 6 months/more than 6 months
- In which country did you study before coming to Germany?
- Would you be interested for an interview? Y/N
- Name and Email
- Possible data and time for interview

## Documenting our process

- Show how did we get from Aamirs first question to the final version? - Removing bias, asking more open ended question to get more expanding and interesting answers
- Pictures of the Google form
- Pictures of the HackMD documenting our brainstorming sessions

## Gameplan

(01.12.)
- [x] Make dudle
- [ ] Everyone fill out dudle
- [ ] Send mails to Google Form respondents
- Reach out to buddies
- Make new (slightly adjusted) buddy version
- [x] Of form
- [ ] Of text we sent along with the form
- [ ] Post form on computer science discord / facebook / whatever
- [ ] Think of buddy specific questions / things we might observe
- Some ideas:
- What did they have to do to become a buddy
- Observe: Have them walk through sign up process or sth (Could also do that for students)
- How exactly did you get in touch and with student
- How were you notified of being matched with a student (Could also ask students that)
- Lots of the student question we can recycle just the other way around, e.g. we could ask "What was your relationship with the student like" etc.

(29.11.)
- Plan interviews
- Find interviewees
- Make a Google form
- Reach out to people who signed up

## Meeting 29.11. tasks

- Aamir make Google Form
- And publish it / send it
- Noah make presentation and share on WA
- Everyone: Reach out on Whatsapp if they have improvement ideas for presentation.
- Aamir prepare for presentation

## Links

- [Google Form - Internationals](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DF1-nTk1w2R9YO44hAQARpaJQlJ5MqcbMANA5dcWZdk/edit?usp=sharing)
- [Google Form - Buddies](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19xeviPokS8hPd_b-KnVJef41ViqKzjOtbPWoGc_bJe0/edit?usp=sharing)
- [Dudle - Interview Times](https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/Dany-N7EdQ/)
- [Presentation - Intermediate state 1](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12o8iTOdnHoHE5lvrqpq5dh7Mptu32HWNKssHDg15sFU/edit?usp=sharing)

## Interview Minutes

### Jeny(Buddy)
#### notes from Aamir
How long are you a buddy?
Since summer 2019 - 3 sems , winter 2019 no buddy, signed up late

Sign up process to become a buddy?
Exactly the same, but saw more international students started being buddies
Sign up process to become a buddy?
No requirements as it is voluntary, written on the website - groceries stores, classes, additional (her buddy did train station, bus tickets, signing up for TAN, zeus , became her friend)

There is a form on the website, she missed WS 19 cos she was not able to sign up, toggle for buddy being active or not

Buddies can choose how many students they can handle ( can download the form from the website)

They match the same department (maybe)

Helping an international?
Always the buddy reached out, (her buddy reached out her) typically the student reached out

Start with email , and switch to whatsapp ( basic chat functionality on the app not willing to give the number due to certain reasons), give people a heads up about being polite. Inform incoming students about respecting the buddies privacy

Social ?
Pretty much available (offered to pick up the keys and all that)

Keys for wg, picking them, showing them around uni, kaufland,

Thankfully no bizarre instances

She was able to help them in most cases

No instance where buddy didn’t want to help ( self sufficient students, she had to point the direction of help and not spoon feed)

Became friends , eaten dinner, Kaufland, meersburg, went to the lake.

All spoke English as common language, this seminar guy has the same program CS - similar academic backgroud is helpful, mixing nationality is a good idea ( could go both ways, bad and good, pro and cons)

First couple of weeks did the check up and eventually became friends so not really required

For social activity Not explicitly, but some common social circle was there and then unanimously decided for outdoor things,

Has the experience been in any way rewarding?
Rewarding?, you gain a friend

International Office ?
International office already goes above and beyond and does quite a lot.
No documentations regarding this necessary .

Recommend the buddy program for sure.

### Lizzy (Buddy)

#### Notes from Noah

This semester sign up first time buddy
Summer: International Office sent out a link
* thinks it was a google doc
* gender preference was an option she thinks
When she was a new student - knew there was a buddy program and wanted to sign up but too late
In the next sem, she thought it would be nice to help out so she became a buddy
Is not aware of match making process
* Has sense that is pairs people with similar majors together (That's what she heard from other people too)
she reached out first
They used email and then whatsapp
because of coraona buddy is still in japan
* They had questions about ilias, blockseminars, ...
* not that much contact
Extreme instances of requests? not really, nothing too crazy
Ilias can be hard to explain not sure if she did the best job there
Doesn't know her very well - their contact is very focused on practical things
Not too much in common (Have a somewhat similar major but that's it)

Would have been helpful to gauge in advance how much engangement is wanted from each side
She doesn't feel needed that much
Has capacity to to help someone Konstanz in person

She hoped to extend her crew to people from countries

One reason to do the buddy program: Buddy program is another thing to put on a resumee

Wishes that there would have been more of an opportunity for a connection to be made

Flexibility on... ?? [My mind wandered for a minute]
Do a training with a certificate at the end [Lacked context to understand this]

To get the certificate they'll have to write an essay in the end

Would recommend buddy program
Thinks that it's probably helpful because
* Good to feel not totally alone in the beginning
* Good if you do not speak german probably
(I felt like she didn't really feel qualified to speak on this because she barely had any contact with her buddy, yet)

### Jeny (Incoming International)

#### Notes from Aamir

How long are you a buddy?
Since summer 2019 - 3 sems , winter 2019 no buddy, signed up late

Sign up process to become a buddy?
Exactly the same, but saw more international students started being buddies
Sign up process to become a buddy?
No requirements as it is voluntary, written on the website - groceries stores, classes, additional (her buddy did train station, bus tickets, signing up for TAN, zeus , became her friend)

There is a form on the website, she missed WS 19 cos she was not able to sign up, toggle for buddy being active or not

Buddies can choose how many students they can handle ( can download the form from the website)

They match the same department (maybe)

Helping an international?
Always the buddy reached out, (her buddy reached out her) typically the student reached out

Start with email , and switch to whatsapp ( basic chat functionality on the app not willing to give the number due to certain reasons), give people a heads up about being polite. Inform incoming students about respecting the buddies privacy

Social ?
Pretty much available (offered to pick up the keys and all that)

Keys for wg, picking them, showing them around uni, kaufland,

Thankfully no bizarre instances

She was able to help them in most cases

No instance where buddy didn’t want to help ( self sufficient students, she had to point the direction of help and not spoon feed)

Became friends , eaten dinner, Kaufland, meersburg, went to the lake.

All spoke English as common language, this seminar guy has the same program CS - similar academic backgroud is helpful, mixing nationality is a good idea ( could go both ways, bad and good, pro and cons)

First couple of weeks did the check up and eventually became friends so not really required

For social activity Not explicitly, but some common social circle was there and then unanimously decided for outdoor things,

Has the experience been in any way rewarding?
Rewarding?, you gain a friend

International Office ?
International office already goes above and beyond and does quite a lot.
No documentations regarding this necessary .

Recommend the buddy program for sure.

#### Notes from Noah
Sign up process was sleek
Easier to connect with the guy he met in the ((Whatsapp group)) because he was Indian (Ali was Pakistani, they share a language) and also a CS major
Asked buddy how to find accomodation -> sent links
Asked for part time jobs → sent links

Did have a call in the beginning
Didn't discuss that much over Whatsapp
Guided him through the process (of) [Not sure what I wanted to write here]
Didn't help with socializing
* Was understandable

Tried to reach out to a new buddy just for a change
* Mailed them (International Office)
* Got referred a new person
* But new person didn't respond to his mail

Buddy is okay fit
if he has questions he can just text them up

### Ivan (Incoming International)
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### Francisco (Incoming International)
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### Piyush (Incoming International)

### Ali