MY ROLE
Product Designer
Ux Research
Wireframing
YEAR
2024
INDUSTRY
Ed-tech
My Role
For this project, I worked as the sole designer designing the Teacher's portal and CBT exam interface. Additionally, I was responsible for enhancing all copies and content on the website.
Why SparkEd?
SparkEd was conceived as a response to the need for an infrastructure needed to enhance teaching effectiveness, improve student learning outcomes, and manage educational activities more efficiently.
In this regard, Schools need a platform that can ease their way of doing things.
Research O'clock
To kick things off, I conducted primary research to gain a general understanding of the way teaching works in Nigeria. This encompassed examining a wide range of teachers, schools, and students. The main aim was to understand and connect user goals and business goals.
I tried to understand what the teachers do daily from their school gate to the staffroom, what they have to attend to on their desk and to the classrooms.
The goal of the research process was to gain deep insights into the specific needs, pain points, and preferences of the different user groups. This understanding was crucial to inform the design decisions and ensure the final product met user expectations.
Findings
Form the research phase, I was able to gather some insights on the daily routine of teachers that need to be digitized to ease the process of teaching.
Notification on classes
Writing of lesson notes
Managing a class as a class teacher
Assessment creation & grading (Assignments, tests and exams)
Live classes
Marking student attendance
For the CBT interface,
Accessibility issues
Challenges navigating the platform which often lead to users taking action they do not intend to take
Students taking exams find it difficult to know the questions they've answered and those they're yet to answer.
After synthesizing data from surveys, interviews, and market research; I proceeded to define a solution hypothesis for each identified problem area.
Getting ideas
After studying existing solutions, I felt confident that I had a good understanding of what I needed to design for the platform. I picked up my pen and paper and started sketching out some of the major screens.
After some iterations, I moved on to the high fidelity wireframes that captured the essence of the SparkEd platform
A robust dashboard
In designing the dashboard section, the idea was to include the essential things that ends up on a teacher's desk daily.
From the dashboard section which serves as the homepage, our users should be able to see the classes they have for the day, assessment to review and class attendance.
A calendar that works
To address the issue of teachers missing classes, I designed the calendar section. Here, teachers can view their schedule for the day, week and month.
Lesson note creation and organization
Schools in Nigeria make use of the NERDC and British curriculum. So the content we provide are tailored to the curriculum.
I employed the folder system in organizing lesson notes. First off, a main folder is created for the subjects taken by a teacher then a subfolder for the classes taking that subject and then another subfolder for the contents for each weeks of learning.
Teachers can either use the already existing contents on the platform or create their own contents from scratch.
Class management
Classroom management on SparkEd is based on managing attendance and the student's broadsheet.
Attendance are marked with the students biometrics which is then automatically recorded on the teacher's dashboard.
Assessment
The create assessment flow starts with adding questions from the question pool. I designed the platform to carter for four question type (comprehension, multiple choice, fill in the blank and open ended questions).
In the process of adding question to the question pool, users can also create group question. This feature can be used for some set of questions that require instructions before they can be answered.
Users can sectionalize their assessment which is a common practice in Nigeria schools where assessment are into sections (objective and theory).
CBT Interface Design
The goal while designing the CBT interface was to clearly display the countdown timer, assessment name, student information, and provide an easy way for students to identify which questions they have answered and which ones are yet to be answered.
While working on the CBT interface for SparkEd, catering for different question type and addressing the pain points raised from the research phase was also at the back of my mind.
Here is a view for the "essay" section of the CBT interface which is mostly filled with open ended and fill in the blank questions.
The outcome
The design of the SparkEd Teacher's portal and CBT interface led to significant revenue growth and a reduction in student complaints about technical difficulties during assessments.
Learnings and takeaway
Working on this project was an invaluable learning experience for me. As a designer, I encountered numerous challenges that pushed me to leverage my skills and experiences to develop creative solutions.
I gained a great deal from this project, and I am confident that it will contribute to my continued growth and improvement as a designer.