Hi There
As part of the Autonomous Learning Support Facility team at a vocational school, I lead a project to deliver innovative and accessible English learning content for students unable to attend school in person due to the pandemic.
Okay, Let's continue ↓
Role :
Instructional・UI・UX designer
Project duration :
2021-2022 Academic Year
Learning a language requires "Patience" but at the same time, it should be an "Enjoyable" experience to keep being motivated to learn it.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, students were not allowed to attend school. Like many schools, ours took a variety of measures to provide a better learning experience. Our team set out to create a new material that could be accessed from anywhere to support English language learning, that would be less overwhelming and more enjoyable for students compared to traditional learning materials.
Problem
- All classes switched to online due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Many students struggled to keep their motivation up when they study from home.
- Learning materials in the class are not always entertaining for students.
Goal
- Provide learning material that can be accessed from anywhere.
- Make students' learning experience enjoyable as possible.
- The learning material helps students to motivate to continue learning the language.
Research
Goals
-
Discover what content motivates students to learn
-
Understand through what platforms learning content should be offered
-
Analyze how students usually study English outside of the classroom
Research Components
-
User surveys
-
User persona
Since students were taking online classes from their homes, their life cycles had become more irregular than before and many of them found it difficult to keep their learning motivation up. Some students also claimed that their screen time using social media and the Internet increased and it disturb them to focus on their studies.
Insights from survey and interview
Insights #1
Social Media disturbs their concentrations
Increasing screen time caused a disturbance in their studies according to some students.
Insights #3
Life cycle changed due to online classes
The loss of time commuting to school has changed the cycle of students' lives and eventually, it caused a lack of motivation for learning.
Insights #5
Learning material isn't always entertaining
Most of the learning materials are well-designed for the purpose of their studies, however, in terms of current events, it lacks entertaining value.
Insights #2
Communication difficulties because of the online classes
When it comes to first-year students. it was hard to communicate with their classmates especially when they haven't met in person.
"Online class is somehow convenient but making friends and communicating with classmates was a challenging part".
Student A
Insights #4
Youtube and Influencers help students to learn English better?
Some students use Youtube or social media platforms to learn English in their free time. Some of them claimed that sometimes it is a nice way to learn practical English expressions for daily use.
User Persona
By conducting research and some studies, I could finally create a user persona that defines the user's pain points and goals.
Ideation
Through brainstorming, the team came up with ways to develop better digital materials for students.
*Images have been blurred due to NDA.
Design
Digital Wireframe
After brainstorming and compiling the ideas put forth, it was decided to use Instagram stories as a platform for distribution. It was also decided to include "topicality" and "vocabulary" as learning materials, as well as "ease of use as learning materials" and "training in thinking logically and critically.
First lo-fi wireframes
Improving reading skills
by reading the latest news
Ask a question to express students themselves
Cover some vocabularies that were used in the article
Since it is a learning material, we made sure to keep the key points of "reading" , "vocabulary learning" , and
"training critical and logical thinking" while using the quiz function of Instagram Stories to make the learning process fun.
Usability study and refine the design
Usability study overview
Study type
Unmoderated study
Location
Online (remote) /
in person
Participants
12 people*
5 students and 7 team members
Findings from the usability studies
Findings #1
People just skip and don't see the whole content
Some participants see the first one and swipe left so they couldn't see the whole content.
Findings #2
Too much information discourage useres to complete thier tasks
Since it is provided as an English learning material, it should contain practical and educational content however, if it provides too much information or visuals, it confuses or even discourage users to complete the tasks.
Findings #3
The difficulty level of tasks should be based on English proficiency
In order to accommodate a wide range of students' English proficiency, it would be better to provide difficulty levels from beginner to intermediate, which would improve many students' English skills.
BEFORE
AFTER
Refine the design
In this task, a simple quiz based on the topic of the article, which could be answered only with Yes / No,
was re-designed to encourage even
beginner-level English students to participate.
The design was redesigned to improve student participation by visualizing where tasks are being performed in all three processes, making it easier to see how many tasks remain to be completed.
BEFORE
AFTER
High fidelity prototype
Testing with the Lo-Fi prototype highlighted the fact that the tasks were skipped without being completed and that the visual structure hindered task completion, so I redesigned it to have a simple flow and be enjoyable for students of
all English levels.
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Only Beginner-level English required to complete this task.
Intermediate English level required but it is good training to express themselves in English.
A positive message to encourage students to join again and appreciate their participation.
Mockups
What makes this learning material so unique?
Up to date topics
Maximize student interest by dealing with current popular topics in the world.
Incrusivity
English proficiency is different among students. Therefore, developing materials that are suitable for all students is essential to providing inclusiveness.
Tech Makes Learning Fun
The use of social media as a platform for providing educational materials is easy to manage for the operator and provides a brand-new experience for the user.
Takeaways
Impact
What I learned
The feedback that we received from students said the current topics were practical and useful to talk about them in English among my friends and with international students. It shows that we had achieved one of the goals of this project as a result.
COVID-19 has brought about significant changes in the education industry. It has been a great challenge, but it has allowed us to discover new technologies and the possibilities they offer. It took a long time for the new materials to catch on among students, but they were well received by those who participated.