What is 1Cademy
1Cademy is an online learning platform that presents each piece of knowledge in a node form. The nodes are connected in a tree map, allowing learners to gain knowledge starting from basic concepts to more advanced ones.
During the learning process, users create nodes that summarize the main ideas of pieces of knowledge and link them to the current node tree. Users also evaluate (vote on) the nodes written by others in the tree. The nodes are then further updated when users return to edit the nodes for more precise summaries.
New Feature: Instructor Dashboard
As the user base began to grow, 1Cademy decided to apply the idea to course-based learning context. Professors and students of the same course are invited to the same space to develop the node map, enhancing learning outside of class time. While students engage in learning similarly to regular 1Cademy users, we decided design an instructor dashboard feature for this new context. This would allow instructors to better track student performance through a point evaluation system based on the students' activities in creating, editing, and voting on nodes.
Jobs-To-Be-Done
To better understand what professors need to accomplish their goals, I conducted several one-on-one interviews with some professors who are already familiar with 1Cademy and developed Jobs-To-Be-Done for the instructors based on their responses.
- Monitor Overall Learning Progress: Instructors want to track the learning progress of all students to ensure they are on the right path.
- Track Individual Student Progress: Instructors want to follow the progress of individual students to provide personalized support.
- Set Learning Goals: Instructors want to set learning goals for students and monitor their achievement to enhance learning efficiency.
- Identify Learning Gaps: Instructors want to determine which learning materials (nodes) students understand and where they need further clarification to improve learning outcomes.
Information Architecture
With the Jobs-To-Be-Done clearly identified, we were able to specify the pages to develop for the instructor dashboard, which could be integrated into the 1Cademy site with the reorganized information architecture.
From JTBDs to Design
The HOME page is where instructors can view statistics on students' learning progress from various dimensions through clear data visualizations.
Material Design Visualization Guide
To ensure the visualizations effectively serve the instructors' goals, we followed the Material Design Visualization Guide to determine which visualizations to include on the home page. We then sent different layout options to the professors we interviewed earlier to gather their quick feedback.
Example Layout Choices
Enhancing Clarity and Actionability
After the first prototype was built, we invited the professors to review it and provide feedback on the design. While they were satisfied with the overall functionalities of the dashboard, they raised concerns about information clarity and actionability. Therefore we iterated on these aspects to achieve a better design outcome.
Updated user flow with increased actionability across pages
Reflection
Make Data Actionable.
Dashboard design is not just about displaying data. Designing 1Cademy's instructor dashboard and hearing the users' feedback taught me that it should be both informational and actionable so that the users could effectively use the resources to achieve their goals.
