Learning Commons:Student Orientation/Archive/Learning & Memory Redesign

Goals

• establish a learner centered mindset for navigation to this content.
• re-frame the content with a "learning challenges lens"
• help learners understand why problem may be happening and then what strategies and resources they might use to address their challenge(s).
• re-assemble and re-work learning and memory/learning myths content to be integrated with challenges.

Process

Design process activities.

Brain Dump

• after reviewing existing content, our notes/ thoughts about things we wanted to keep in mind for the redesign

Design session brainstorm

Design session brainstorm

POV Madlib

• we developed 4 student POVs (points of view) to help us build empathy.

Considering learners' points of view

• high achiever who got a low grade and needs a way to get back on track.
• first time away from home student - enjoying freedom and social life - failed a course and contemplating dropping out - needs a perspective on failure and someone to talk to.
• arrogant student - gets by but strategies not effective anymore - needs to re-think value placed on learning.
• overwhelmed student - suffers from lack of planning - needs to learn how to plan, prioritize and manage time more effectively.

Empathy Map

• from the POVs we just created, we mapped what we would expect students to be doing, saying, thinking and feeling. Tapping into motivation.

Mapping from profiles

Top 5 Challenges

• from the POVs and empathy map, we distilled the top 5 challenges faced by learners. Need to ground truth these at a later date but will work with them for now.

list of 5 top challenges for learners (to be vetted)

1. I got a low grade.
2. I failed a course.
3. I can't keep up.
4. I'm studying hard and it's not working.
5. I forget the important stuff.

Workplan

• Template for resource design: [Learning_Commons:Content/Learning_Challenges/Grades]
• Allocate: Cindy 1 & 2; Morgan 3, 4 &5
• Review in early August
• Cindy to prepare page on the new LC site.

Design Decisions

• accordian based wiki design
• embed myths to help provide context for problem.
• use video as the main strategy for "strategies" - choosing the Stephen Chew series: Learners who come to the site with the challenges we've identified may be more suited to "teacher" type explanatory video content (they are looking for guidance): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL85708E6EA236E3DB
• links to relevant toolkits (which we think will be complementary)
• links to wellness - as well as academic resources (given the liklihood of stress and other health concerns related to some of the challenges presented.

Further Work

• need to ensure that students can navigate directly and easily from the homepage - should this content be linked to need help (as a curated pathway with an urgent undertone?)

Current Iteration

• Top 5 Learning Challenges

• Embedded Myths About Learning
• Linked From Tutoring and Studying landing page.