Problem
Decreased student engagement in online classes is leading to ineffective learning sessions and lower educational performance.
In the midst of COVID, most students are staying at home and relying on Zoom and other online tools for classes. The lack of in person interaction has led to low engagement in online classes, which in turns, results in ineffective learning sessions and lower educational performance.
SOLUTION
Leverage current online collaboration tools and adjust information sharing strategy.
01
Encourage online collaboration tools usage and adjust the number of people in breakout rooms.
02
Update new reaction features in the "Reaction" function and encourage the usage of the "Raise Hand" feature on Zoom.
03
Create sub-channels in Zoom chat for different communication goals and enable Zoom chat to Slack integration.
PROCESS
Define design question
How might we create a more streamlined experience for new online banking members to get contents tailored to their needs?
My design process
Discover
Conducted Field Observations
I decided to use the structured observation approach to understand the current online class practices and challenges through observing the interactions between students and instructors in the Zoom environment.
3 Class Sessions
1 Science lecture with no group activities
2 HCI lectures with multiple group activities
3 Research Questions
#1 What tools/workspaces do students and hosts use during the Zoom meeting? And how often?
#2 How do the meeting hosts share their meeting materials? How long does it take for students to find the materials required for the meeting?
#3 What are the current pain points of online collaborations and information sharing?
Field Research Findings
I used affinity diagramming to group related findings together and gain a deeper understanding of the underlying themes present in the data.
01
Breakout Room Timing
It is hard to time the breakout room so that students can finish the assigned activities within a reasonable time frame.
02
Zoom Communication Uncertainties
The onboarding steps are long and new members feel confused about why some questions are asked and what information are expected from them in order to open an account.
03
Multiple Communication Channels
Constant communication across multiple channels may result in information loss for students and instructors.
Qualitative Research
Conducted user interview to validate user pain points and understand user motivations
To further validate the findings from field research and better understand student's perspectives on their current experience, I conducted three 30 minutes Semi-Structured Interviews with with 3 college students who were using Zoom for online classes.
The main objective for these sessions was to explore how different students interact with their peers and instructors in Zoom classes, what are the motivations behind their behaviors and what challenges do students face in Zoom class collaboration and communication.
Quantitative Research
Leveraged surveys to validate and generalize findings
The interviews helped uncover challenges faced by students through the discussion of their online classes experience. To generalize the findings and recommendations to a larger population, I created a survey to collect more data on a wider range of participants.
18 Survey Response
All responses were from university students at the U.S. who had experience taking online classes.
2 Research Questions
#1 Can we validate the previous findings and recommendations with the quantitative data?
#2 Are there any gaps in the previous research that can be uncovered by the new data?
Analyzed Survey Data using Google Sheets
I used Google Sheets to organize information and generate corresponding graphical representations to better visualize the relationship between data points.
01
Positive correlation between breakout room satisfaction level & collaboration tools usage
Click to zoom in
02
Existing gap between different communication goals and the need to obtain information quickly
03
Lack of communication indicators can lead to a reduced desire to participate in class
solution
Proposed 3 redesign solutions
After conducting the comprehensive analysis across the three research phases, I proposed 3 recommendations to enhance online collaboration and information sharing on Zoom:
Encourage online collaboration tools usage and adjust the number of people in breakout rooms.
Instructors can set clear guidelines and expectations for the use of online collaboration tools and breakout rooms. This can include when and how they should be used, and what is expected of team members when they are in a breakout room. For example, more class activities can be done in a collaborative environment (i.e. Google Docs, Google Drives, Miro, etc.) with a small set of people with a clearly stated goal. The interactivity and the set expectations will encourage students to be more engaged in the class and reach a better learning outcome.
🌟 Update new reaction features in the "Reaction" function and encourage the usage of the "Raise Hand" feature on Zoom
Since most students reported the inefficiency in communication due to a lack of communication cues, it would be beneficial to leverage the virtual communication methods by adding more reaction symbols to better convey messages and make virtual interaction more entertaining. In addition, instructors can recommend students to use the “Raise Hand” function more often so they can facilitate the conversations without having to stop for constant interruptions.
Create sub-channels in Zoom chat for different communication goals
Both students and instructors can consider creating sub-channels under their main class Slack channel. This will help organize information into categories so that people can find what they need much quicker and easier. It will also help alleviate the fear of missing out on information given the easy access to different channels for various topics.
