ASSIGNMENT ASSESSMENT CONVERGENCE
RESEARCH / WIREFRAMES / USER TESTING / HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
The Problem
McGraw Hill Education's online Open Learning platform is an environment used by students and instructors in both K-12 and Higher Education. Open Learning consists of multiple applications within the platform to assist users in completing various tasks. Some application examples for teachers include Dashboard, Gradebook, Assignments, Test and Quizzes, Reports, and Classes. The goal of this project was to merge "Assignments" and "Test and Quizzes" into one application to allow instructors to create both types in one application and unify the workflow for overall usability and consistency. It would also allow direct links between completed tests and the Gradebook application.
Throughout the UX process, I worked closely with several teams including UX Research, UX Designers, Engineers, Business Stakeholders, and Visual Designers before final designs were created.
The image below shows application examples which includes Assignments and Tests & Quizzes as separate apps.
User Persona and Interviews
Enough time was allocated to conduct in-person User Persona Interviews and the Business Product Manager and I went to several schools in Southern California to get to know our users in their settings. I attended 4 different interviews which included 3 teachers and 1 principal.
Some areas we focused are questions around:
Goals and Motivations
Typical day at school
Devices used in their classrooms
How often they collaborated with others
Pain Points
Observational notes included:
What stands out about the subjects environments?
What resources is the the subject using?
Do any blockers appear in the subjects activities?
Is the subject interacting with others?
Does the subject spend significant time on tasks that seem redundant or do not support their goals?
Based on these interviews, various personal templates were created for reference purposes to be used throughout the company and by individual teams.
The image below is an example of one of the personas that was created.
The Research
Working with the UX Research team, we wanted to investigate two objectives.
1. Determine how instructors from both K-12 and Higher Education define the terms "assessment" and "assignment".
2. Determine whether or not using the label "assignments" would prevent instructors from completing various assignment and assessment related tasks by evaluating click through wireframes.
A total of 10 participants took part in a 1 hour interview in which participants discussed their views and went through the clickable wireframes.
Findings:
Assignments were generally viewed as practice and a part of learning. It was something that teachers would help students complete.
Assessments were often seen as more final at the end of a unit. Teachers would not provide any assistance with completing.
In the clickable prototype, participants were able to learn the basic process of creating various types of assignments. Steps in some assignment types were not intuitive.
Most participants expressed positive feedback regarding the prototype flows. The challenges that were mentioned were in regards to wayfinding, inconsistencies, labeling issues and expectations.
The image below is a sample screen shot of the low fidelity clickable prototype created working alongside another UX Designer.
Usability Testing
Based on the feedback received from the User Research and clickable wireframes, a High Fidelity prototype was built in Axure. Working with the UX Research team, we conducted a moderated usability test with 7 full time Higher Ed Instructors and encouraged them to think aloud the walkthrough for
Create an Assignment option type (Submission Homework)
Create an Assesment
Gradebook Settings
Overall, the assessment/assignment creation flows were on par with the ease of doing so in the participants' existing Learning Management System. They understood the overall process for creating assignments and assessments and thought the existing flows was appropriate for both.
The instructor's recommendations were around losing the functions that made it easy to assign groups of assignments/assessments due at the same time for their courses. Based on the feedback, I worked with the engineers/product manager and continued to implement adjustments to the final round of designs before deployment.
The image below is a sample screen shot of the User Testing Deck created by the UX Research team.
Final Screens
During the process of finalizing the designs, a new style guide was produced and was to be implemented globally across Open Learning platforms. The images below are some examples of the final screens that were created below. I working closely with the Visual Design team to apply the correct color palette and specs of the new style guide to the existing prototype I had built.
