Enhancing Remote Learning Experience

Problem

During the design hackathon, amidst the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19, remote learning had emerged as a crucial tool for education. However, the experience of remote learning at that time fell short of providing an ideal environment for both students and teachers. Challenges like limited engagement, communication difficulties, and distractions had significantly impacted the learning process.

Looking ahead to the future of education, it was evident that a more comprehensive approach was needed—one that fostered not only academic knowledge but also prioritized students' social, emotional, and cognitive growth. My mission in the hackathon was to create an innovative solution that not only enriched the remote learning experience for students and teachers but also promoted the holistic development of learners.

The aim was to nurture their social, emotional, and cognitive skills in the digital learning environment, ensuring a more well-rounded and fulfilling educational journey for all involved.

Empathize with users

During the workshop, we were asked to focus our efforts on one specific persona, either the student or the teacher, to design our solutions more effectively. This allowed us to dive deep into understanding the needs and challenges faced by that particular group, ensuring a more targeted and impactful approach to enhancing the remote learning experience.

Using the data gathered, our next steps involved defining the main problems faced by our target persona. To gain a deeper understanding, we supplemented our findings with secondary research data. This approach allowed us to identify the challenges more comprehensively, enabling us to generate better and more feasible ideas to enhance the remote learning experience.

Define problems

After analyzing the persona and gathering additional data, we were able to define the main problems. In 2020, a staggering 1.5 billion students were restricted to remote learning. Among the challenges observed, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and, most notably, social engagement were prevalent issues. The global prevalence of anxiety increased by 25%, while levels of social engagement showed significant differences. Social Anxiety prevalence rose from the average 4.7% to 7.0%.

One prominent issue we identified was that high school students often hesitated to ask questions, particularly in online learning settings, due to fear or feelings of shame. This lack of interaction was affecting their learning experience negatively.

In response to these findings, we formulated a "how might we" statement: How might we foster a safe and supportive environment for students to ask questions and receive immediate feedback from instructors? Our goal with this statement was to increase engagement and interaction among students and educators, ultimately enhancing the remote learning experience.

Ideate solutions

During the Ideation phase, my team members and I engaged in a productive brainstorming session to explore various ideas and identify practical solutions for improving the system. We posed numerous questions and organized our thoughts using an affinity diagram to better understand the ideation process. Gathering these questions and ideas, we documented them on sticky notes, enabling us to delve deeply into the data and uncover valuable insights.

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Upon receiving diverse ideas, we promptly categorized the data into different subjects. This method enriched our perspective on the proposed platform, providing a more comprehensive and illuminating understanding. By meticulously identifying and eliminating redundant ideas, we streamlined our approach and refined our concepts, ensuring the development of the most impactful and efficient solutions.

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In addition to these ideas, we conducted an analysis of two competitors to gain better insights into how we could address the main problems and gather even more valuable data. This competitive analysis allowed us to learn from existing solutions and identify potential areas for improvement in our own platform.

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Design ideas

After gathering and revising the data, we concluded that our goal is to design a video platform plugin that breaks the barrier between teachers and students in online environments. This plugin will be compatible with various applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The platform aims to fulfill the following needs:

1. Allow students to ask live questions anonymously.
2. Enable students to request quick one-on-one sessions with teachers.
3. Ensure compatibility with multiple online platforms.

To bring our ideas to life, we picked up our pens and created low-fidelity sketches on paper. These sketches represent our raw final prototype, addressing the given problem statement effectively.

After finalizing the sketches, we proceeded to create a mid-fidelity prototype using Figma. For our design, we opted for a calming and relieving atmosphere, choosing blue as the primary color. This choice aims to provide students with a sense of tranquility and ease while they interact with the plugin during their work.

Test solutions

During the bootcamp, teams had mentors available to provide assistance and guidance with our questions. In the testing phase, we presented our prototype and design solutions to them, seeking valuable feedback. With the insights gained from these mentors, we refined our prototype and prepared a presentation to showcase it to the jury panel.

Drawing from the feedback received from both the jury and mentors, we proudly declare the impact of our design solution:

Our approach acknowledges the ongoing cognitive, social, and emotional changes that characterize early adulthood. By offering personalized support and interactive learning experiences, we strive to provide individualized attention to each learner. As a result, the more enriched the learning environments is, the greater and more widespread are the benefits for academic performance.

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The good news was that out of the 12 participating teams, we were honored to be placed among the top five teams.

Working with great teammates and mentors was a fantastic experience. Their support and expertise made the hackathon journey rewarding. We developed an innovative solution to improve remote learning for students, teachers, and learners everywhere. Proud to be part of such an inspiring team.