Crafted Tutor Dashboard for Enhanced Student Analytics
My team and I developed a dashboard that significantly improved tutor efficiency in assessing student performance. This enabled more personalized learning experiences by streamlining information access and reducing the steps needed for assessment.
TEAM
DATE
Dec 2020 - Jan 2021
WHAT
Discovery, Wireframes, Usability Testing, Design System, Prototyping, UI Design
Problem
To address the widening learning gap exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, our design project focuses on creating an intuitive and personalized student dashboard for tutors. By leveraging the expertise of both ASSISTments and Cignition, we aim to improve student math scores and effectively close the educational gap.
Outcome
Designed and implemented a comprehensive dashboard that increased tutors' session preparedness, equipping them with pertinent information. This enhancement led to a more targeted approach in tutoring sessions, boosting the learning impact and effectiveness.
Empowering Tutors with Accessible Student Performance Metrics for Enhanced Learning Outcomes
The key users of this project are tutors, individuals who often lack immediate access to student performance data to address learning deficiencies.
Limited by a preparation window of just 5-10 minutes per student, tutors require a streamlined interface that allows them to swiftly assess classroom performance and focus on targeted areas for improvement.
Additionally, we discovered that tutors come with diverse expertise across various curricula, affecting the learning paths they design.
Goal: A Time-Efficient Dashboard Enabling Tutors to Assess Student Data Within 5-10 Minutes
Our team was under a lot of pressure. We needed to make sure tutors could quickly understand student data and tailor their teaching. We also had a tight deadline: the project had to be up and running in a school district by March 2021.
So, we focused on three things:
How tutors get ready for sessions?
What kind of information they find important?
How to make sure they know how students are doing in class?
My Role in the project
As the Product Designer on the team, I worked closely with our VP of Partnership, VP of Product, Lead UX Engineer, and Software Developers. Our collective goal was to design, refine, test, and launch an interface that equips tutors with the necessary student data for effective sessions.
My initial responsibilities included engaging with tutors to understand their workflows, creating wireframe designs, and conducting usability tests to ensure the interface met the tutors' needs.
Initial Exploration
The journey began by convening with stakeholders who were part of the grant-writing process. The aim was to grasp the objectives set forth by the grant and to gear up for discussions with tutors.
1.
Stakeholder Engagement
The key players in this phase were Cignition's product managers. They helped clarify how information would be transferred from ASSISTments and identified the various points of interaction.
2.
Understanding Grant Guidelines
The grant came with specific data stipulations. For example, it required that tutors be given all pertinent math standards related to a given assignment and also allowed for the grouping of students for tutoring sessions.
3.
Setting Up Evaluation Metrics
The program is designed to last an entire semester. Afterward, its effectiveness will be assessed by comparing students' test scores to the class average over that period.
Wireframing
Informed by internal feedback, our first step was to conceptualize the new tutoring dashboard through wireframes that explored high-level ideas.
Tutor Dashboard
As seen in Image 1, this page serves as the entry point for tutors, offering the flexibility to choose between individual students or groups.
Tutors can easily navigate through recent student work, review overall course progress, or delve into specific areas where a student has mastered or struggled with concepts.
Image 1: Preliminary Wireframe Displaying a Student's Most Recent Assignments
Course Modules View
As illustrated in Image 2, this section is tailored to reflect the coursework, providing tutors with insights into students' performance on past assignments.
It acts as a diagnostic tool for tutors to identify foundational topics that may require additional attention.
Image 2: Wireframe Illustrating Curriculum Modules and Student Performance Metrics
Concept Mastery
In Image 3, the goal of the 'Concept Mastery' feature is to provide tutors with a straightforward way to compare a student's performance against classroom averages across different academic standards
Image 3: Wireframe Illustrating 'Concept Mastery' Feature, Comparing Individual Student Performance to Class Average
Feedback from Tutors
Based on the wireframes we conducted a interview session with tutors, first half focusing on discovery and their workflows and the second half getting quick high level feedback on the wireframes of the designs ensure that we are going in the right direction.
We recruited five tutors with the help of our Partnerships team, and had hour long sessions with tutors over the week. These are the findings from the session.
1.
Limited Prep Time for Tutors
Tutors typically have only 5-10 minutes to prepare, which restricts the amount of information they can digest to create an impactful lesson.
2.
Focus on Student Work
Tutors showed greater interest in examining the students' actual work rather than just their scores or course details. This approach helps them initiate meaningful conversations with students and identify areas of struggle.
3.
Simpler is Better
The current wireframes presented too much information without a clear workflow, causing frustration for tutors who found it overwhelming.
Second Round of Wireframing
In light of the feedback received from tutors, we revisited our initial designs.To ensure better alignment.
Updated Tutor Dashboard
We shifted the landing page's focus to display the student's work from the past week, aligning with the weekly tutoring sessions.
As seen in Image 4, a bar graph was introduced at the top of the page to enable quick data comprehension, eliminating the need to sift through a detailed table.
Image 4: Wireframe Showcasing the Revamped Dashboard, Complete with Graphs and Quick-View Recent Assignments
Introduction of Standards Page
A new 'Standards' page [Image 5] was added, accessible by clicking on the bar graph's standards. This page presents an organized list of problems, helping tutors zero in on areas where students are struggling.
Image 5: Wireframe Highlighting the Standards Page, Featuring No Credit, Partial Credit, and Full Credit Metrics
In-Depth Problem Overview
Clicking on a standard reveals further details about the student's work, aiding tutors in initiating meaningful conversations about specific challenges, as seen in Image 6.
Image 6: Wireframe Illustrating Student Answer Details, Time Spent, and Class Average Time
Assignment Details
An 'Assignment' page was also incorporated to display all associated lesson information, fulfilling the grant's stipulations. [Image 6]
Image 7: Wireframe Displaying Assignment-Related Lesson Details
Usability Testing
We conducted usability tests with a group of five tutors—three newcomers and two who participated in earlier rounds—to ensure a diverse and unbiased evaluation. The moderation guide aimed to test whether users could locate student work and formulate lesson plans based on available data.
My responsibilities included scriptwriting, task creation for the tests, session moderation, and subsequent analysis to provide insights and recommendations. Below are the key findings:
1.
Need for High-Level Overview of Standards
Tutors wanted a high-level overview that indicates which standards are covered in each assignment, allowing them to focus on relevant assignments.
2.
Confusion Over Credit Categories
Tutors found the 'No Credit,' 'Partial Credit,' and 'Full Credit' categories confusing, particularly when multiple students were involved, due to overlapping data.
3.
Difficulty in Understanding Individual Scores
Tutors had trouble discerning the specific scores achieved by each student on individual problems.
Transition to High-Fidelity Mockups
In light of the insights gained from our usability tests, we moved on to crafting high-fidelity mockups. Given the project's tight timeline and the necessity for a pilot test, these mockups were developed with urgency.
Dashboard Enhancements
We incorporated standards into the assignment list and capped the student display at a maximum of two to declutter the interface.
Refinements to the Standards Page
The 'No Credit,' 'Partial Credit,' and 'Full Credit' categories were replaced with actual student scores for each standard.
Clarifications in Problem Details
We minimized visual distractions by eliminating extra score indicators for individual students.
Lesson Information Updates
Each lesson now features a 'focus standard,' helping tutors understand the primary educational objective of the assignment.
Final thoughts & takeaways
1.
Pilots are difficult
While the pilot program faced challenges due to limited assignment data from teachers, it successfully demonstrated the dashboard's effectiveness in providing tutors with valuable student context when data was available.
2.
More than UX
This experience offered us a valuable opportunity to refine our operational approach and enhance teacher training for future grant participation.
3.
Future Grants
Encouragingly, the program director leveraged the interface's potential to secure a new grant from the Louisiana Department of Education, further supporting our tutoring initiatives.