Some University of Phoenix students decide to enroll in a Competency-based education (CBE) program that allows them to graduate sooner. The first two weeks of the program students must post in each class to avoid being dropped from the classes they do not post in. After the first two weeks, they must post in at least one class every two weeks to avoid being dropped from all their courses. We want to help students avoid being dropped from any classes through an improved UI.
UX Design
UI Design
Interaction Design
Discovery
User Research
We currently only provide CBE information during the students orientation. The student does not have the support they need from the University to help them remain on path. Our goal is to improve this experience and provide the information and support the student needs to succeed.
Our primary users are current University of Phoenix students. These students range in age but are on average single, working parents within their 50s. Since most of our users are full-time students, parents and workers – they are busy! Our students may not always remember the last time they posted, when they need to post and how much time they can go without posting.
I was the lead UX/UI designer working on this project. I worked alongside a UX Copywriter, Product Manager, Product Owner and multiple stakeholders. I conducted multiple workshops, discovery sessions and developer collaborations.
I created user stories, an empathy map, a journey map, wireframes, designs for mobile and desktop. I also worked closely with my development team to ensure we have the data and capabilities needed to make the designs come to life.
This project was a rapid design. Since this is highly important for the students success, we wanted to put out an MVP version as quick as possible. I was able to deliver this project within a week from start to completion.
To kick-off this project, I conducted an initial discovery session with our UX copywriter, Product Manager, Product Owner, and Stakeholders. Within this session I learned what CBE is and its importance to our users. We also carved out the timeline, the deliverables, restraints and any existing edge cases.
After learning about CBE and the constraints, I created user stories, an empathy map and journey map to help understand the students' mental model as they complete their CBE courses. I also identified potential opportunities for us to implement this MVP.
As a CBE student, I want reminders for when I need to post so that I do not get dropped from any of my classes.
As a CBE student, I want to know when the last time I posted was so that I know when the next time I need to login to my portal is.
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Using what I learned within my discovery process and research, I created MVP designs that my development team could quickly implement.
Since there are two pieces to the CBE feature (Attendance - the first two weeks, and Engagement - after the first two weeks until course completion.) I created multiple designs for each step within the process. Below is an example of the Attendance portion:
When looking at their course details, the student is shown if they have met their attendance requirement or not. For the first week, the box is without the alert icon. Once they only have 7 days left to meet the attendance requirement, we increase the sense of urgency and introduce an alert icon seen in the image above. After the student posts attendance, the icon changes to a checkmark and we provide them with congratulatory messaging and inform the student of their last post date. All three instances are accompanied by tooltips that help easily provide important information to the user so that they do not have to go hunting for it. See the three use cases below:
Since students struggle more with continuing engagement than attendance, I decided to include a countdown on the homepage as well as within their Academic Plan. The countdowns start at 14 days and go down to a 1 day left to post warning. As the number decreases the color of the countdown goes from green to red to signify getting closer to a warning zone. The homepage countdown has more information while the Academic Plan countdown is simplified. See below:
By introducing a countdown within the student portal, CBE students are able to stay informed about when they need to post. While working on this feature, I discovered many existing pain points within the current Academic Plan design and have made recommendations to improve the experience. We were also able to target data that helps us identify when students post in their classes which can be used to help improve the experience for all University of Phoenix students.
Link to prototype:
https://preview.uxpin.com/a3bd525b375bf9c7b4053c01510dd6a5edfb552e#/pages/138087832/simulate/sitemap?mode=i
