The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) is a STEM education nonprofit serving K12 students and educators across the US. The summer is the busiest time of year, with hundreds of training events taking place at schools across the country.
The 2020 pandemic, however, required us to rethink our approach.
The Challenge:
How might we provide educators with a world-class online summer learning experience during COVID?
Goals:
• Design and deliver engaging live and self-guided learning experiences for educators
• Increase and facilitate user participation
• Improve user registration experience
Timeline:
March - July 2020
My Role:
Product Designer / Product Manager
The Team:
Program Design, Coach Development, MarCom, Program Delivery and Operations, Technology
Tools:
Blackboard LMS, Miro
Skills:
Strategy, UX, user research, user flows, project management, instructional design
Platform:
Web
Having prior experience in designing online experiences proved advantageous, allowing us to build upon our existing efforts. We utilized user survey data from previous summer training events to inform our decisions regarding course topics. Additionally, we leveraged user feedback from past online learning events to enhance the user registration process.
User feedback played a pivotal role, and based on their input, we incorporated the following improvements:
• Increased opportunities for peer feedback and collaboration
• More flexible options to accommodate users' busy schedules
• Streamlined registration and account creation processes
In alignment with organizational goals, we also aimed to enhance the collection and reporting mechanisms for program participation and attendance. This iterative approach, fueled by past experiences and user insights, contributed to a more refined and user-friendly online learning experience.
A major challenge in this project stemmed from the time constraints that hindered the integration of our various systems, leading to manual processes on the backend.
To maintain continuity with our historical attendance tracking through Eventbrite for summer events, user registration took place on this platform. As we transitioned our events online, a manual process became necessary to transfer user data from Eventbrite into our Student Information System (SIS). This triggered the account creation process in our Learning Management System (LMS), where users could access and complete their courses.
Executing this intricate process involved multiple teams, emphasizing the need for each member to comprehend their role in this complex endeavor. The collaborative effort was pivotal in navigating the challenges posed by the lack of time for a seamless system integration.
We also ran into a few challenges working within the constraints of our learning management system.
Challenge: There aren’t enough time to configure the system to completely separate each program experience; users would see all courses
Decision: Use color-coded graphics and send an onboarding email communicating how to register for relevant courses
Challenge: Users who taught multiple subjects may be overwhelmed by enrolling in multiple courses
Decision: Adjust registration survey to ask users to choose their preferred subject
Challenge: Course registration page didn’t display course information like date and time
Decision: Change course name to include date and time
Our final deliverable was a two week learning conference with live and self-paced courses and events.
Course completion was triggered by user participation and submission of learning artifacts, and we used color-coded graphics to differentiate course experiences during user registration.
Overall, the project was a huge success. Educators were really appreciative of the opportunity to engage in the summer series.
“The NMSI Summer Series instructors and courses were wonderful. I learned great strategies and helpful resources.”
“I truly enjoyed my courses and gained more than enough knowledge and resources to feel confident as I begin this school year teaching AP Lit for the first time!”
“I love the collaboration and having the chance to hear and learn from other teachers of the same content from different districts, schools, and states.”
This was the largest online event in organization’s history:
• 10,000+ user registrations
• 100+ courses
• 40,000+ unique enrollments
• 500+ hours of learning content
The organization also invested in upgrading our learning management system from Blackboard Original to Blackboard Ultra. This provided a more user-friendly and intuitive user experience, and improved our user registration experience.
• 93% decrease in password reset issues
• 85% decrease in account access issues
Leading this initiative provided me with invaluable leadership experience. The project unfolded within a tight timeline, demanding frequent interactions with multiple teams. Effective communication and collaboration were paramount throughout this process.
While the project achieved success, I recognized opportunities for improvement. Specifically, our user registration process should not require extensive instructions or manual steps.
I also gained insights into the unintended consequences of design decisions:
Users felt overwhelmed due to an abundance of options and lengthy course titles.
Acknowledging the importance of context, rigid course completion criteria during a global pandemic was not considerate of our users' circumstances.
These realizations underscore the need for continuous refinement and a user-centric approach in our design and implementation processes.