LearnCoach for Teachers
OVERVIEW:
LearnCoach aimed to redesign the LearnCoach for Teachers platform to better deliver the renowned purpose of allowing teachers to focus on catch-up learning and assessments over class management.
GOAL:
Redesign the LearnCoach for Teachers platform to effectively deliver the new purpose in a more enhanced and efficient way.
COMPANY:
LearnCoach - An online learning platform tailored for New Zealand high school students and teachers, offering resources to support the NCEA curriculum.
ROLE:
Co-Lead Product Designer - User research, ideation, visual design, prototyping, user testing and cross-functional collaboration.
Defining the Purpose:
I engaged with the product lead and co-designer to explore and define the value proposition of LearnCoach for Teachers. During this phase, the pivotal questions that we posed were:
• What do teachers need?
• Why would they want to use us?
• How can we be different from what already exists in the market?
After executing three user interviews and further user research, it became evident that:
• Teachers feel overwhelmed by the volume of tasks that they have to manage.
• External factors such as COVID, sickness, and absences have created challenges to fully support students.
From this identification, I concluded (with the co-designer) that the product values were:
• Teachers can provide students with learning anytime, anywhere.
• Teachers can give extra support to students in an effective and time-efficient way.
With a strong emphasis on these values, we were confident to develop a solution that would enable teachers to provide students with support in a more accessible and time-efficient way.
Creating the Flow:
After identifying the proposed values, I collaborated with internal stakeholders to outline and define the user flow. As LearnCoach for Teachers was an existing product, this phase focused on refining and enhancing the flow to align with the newly defined values.
Breaking it down:
From the previous session, it was clear that the project needed to be broken down into four main areas:
1. Features and changes inside a classroom.
2. Features and changes outside of the classroom.
3. Marking.
4. Ability to upload practice and real assessments.
User Interview:
I then spoke with a high school teacher to explore additional pain points and goals. The conversation revealed key frustrations, including:
• Being limited to school hours for student support
• A desire to assist students who couldn’t attend classes
• Struggles with day-to-day technology issues
These insights were crucial, as the primary demographic for LearnCoach teachers was aged 50-60 with limited tech experience. This discussion also paved the way for further conversations with other teachers already using LearnCoach.
Creating the Designs (Wireframes and Mockups):
Using the high-level flow, breakdown, and user research, I was well-positioned to begin the designs. My main focus was translating the values of "teachers providing learning anytime, anywhere" and "offering effective, time-efficient support" into intuitive, user-friendly designs for teachers with limited tech experience.
Key design considerations included:
• Clear call-to-actions, applying Fitt's Law to make actions larger and closer to relevant sections.
• Minimal features, guided by Hick's Law, to reduce complexity and improve decision-making efficiency.
To ensure feasibility and streamline the designs, I worked closely with developers throughout this phase, regularly communicating to check for any technical constraints.
Further Details - The Four Main Areas:
(1) Features and changes inside a classroom:
Research revealed that simplifying the process of assigning learning and assessments was key for teachers. Based on this, I designed an intuitive flow for setting up classrooms, assigning materials, and tracking student progress. Key features included :
• Class management
• Editing standards
• Discovering resources
• Viewing progress
(2) Features and Changes Outside a Classroom:
After designing for classroom use, I focused on improving access to materials outside the classroom. I introduced solutions like:
• Allowing all teachers to browse content
• Adding a "Present" mode for in-person lessons
• Simplifying how materials are added to classes.
This helped teachers explore the platform’s value before committing, addressing frustrations highlighted in user interviews.
(3) Marking:
The next focus was marking, where the goal was to make the "Assessments" feature portable and accessible for teachers to provide feedback. To achieve this, we addressed key questions such as how to ensure easy accessibility for less tech-savvy teachers. Solutions included:
• A universal marking page for easy access
• Separation of marked and unmarked assessments
• Ability to download student submissions
• A grade input system to help students track progress
Additionally, we provided teachers with:
• NZQA marking rubrics
•Modal answers for comparison
(4) Ability to Upload Practice and Real Assessments:
The final focus was developing a new flow for teachers to upload practice and real assessments. Initially, teachers could only create real assessments, but following the user interview where a teacher expressed a need for practice assessments, this feature was introduced. The goal was to allow students access to resources and provide them with a similar assessment environment while giving teachers more visibility into progress.
This insight led to an intuitive design with clear call-to-action buttons, simple, clearly labelled sections, and bold instructions to help guide teachers. As this was a new feature, the emphasis was on usability, ensuring teachers could easily upload and review assessments without complexity.
User Tests:
This allowed me to plan and execute user tests with teachers to assess the user-friendliness of the interface. Considering the platform's constraints and requirements, I conducted three separate tests with case scenarios for teachers to complete. Examples included:
(1) "Your student has just completed their practice assessment and requires marking. Please show how you would do this on the platform, and give them an 'Excellence' grade with the comment 'Very good.'"
(2) "You want to assign students to your classroom. How would you go about doing this?"
The results of these tests were highly informative, helping me iterate on the designs and conduct further testing to ensure a seamless, intuitive experience.
Delivery:
After completing the user tests and validating the success of the experience, I then created requirements to pass the quality assurance test, so once the developers had completed the build, various use cases could be tested before the launch.
Once launched, to promote the new platform, internal representatives conducted workshops and visited schools to introduce LearnCoach for Teachers. The outcome was highly successful, with hundreds of teachers across New Zealand signing up for the platform.
Conclusion:
For the design of LearnCoach for Teachers, I focused on empowering teachers to support students in catching up with their learning and completing assessments anytime, anywhere. By prioritising the values of accessible, time-efficient support, I worked cross-functionally, gathered user feedback, and ideated designs to deliver this vision. The project introduced new features while leaving room for future growth. The final product was more user-friendly, ensuring that even teachers with minimal tech experience could effectively use the platform.
Skills gained:
- Research and user testing skills
- Copywriting
- Working cross-functionality
- Leadership
- UX/UI Design
- Product Design
- QA
- Ideating and Conceptualising
- Copywriting
- Working cross-functionality
- Leadership
- UX/UI Design
- Product Design
- QA
- Ideating and Conceptualising
