A UX first approach to online learning

November 2020 - Matt Edwards

A UX (User Experience) approach to online learning is a new and challenging task. It’s one that Educational Enterprise has introduced and is now pioneering.

Firstly, you may ask ‘what is UX design’? UX design is putting the end-user at the forefront of your design and decision-making process, and therefore designing to and alongside their requirements and behaviours. A key element of this is removing the friction between our user and their end goals.

When first approaching learning design from a UX perspective we quickly noticed that there are two main users and users groups that we need to target and address to be successful.

Firstly, we need a design system and process for the teacher and secondly a designed learner journey for the student. A successful online learning experience can only exist if both of these are addressed and working in synergy together.

• User 1) Teacher and the design system

  

  The first user in creating a successful online learning experience is the teacher or academic. These have to be engaged and onboard. A design system with a UX approach creates a process that is easy to understand and flows naturally. The process is also easy to move in and out of when required giving flexibility and confidence to the academic. We broke our process down into six separate stages. These include an initial design outline through to personas, storyboarding and journey mapping, all allowing the academic to bring the student through to their required learning outcomes. Each stage effortlessly flowing into the next.

• User 2) Student and the learner journey

  

  The ultimate end user. This is the person who pays the tuition fee, the opinion former, influencer and NSS score provider. Everything designed in the UX approach has ultimately had this end-user in mind.

  The UX first approach involves taking a clean piece of paper and designing the journey and then the templates and pages within the Virtual Learning Environment. We used design psychology, combining usability best practices and design principles, to create a brand new University of Birmingham template and a learner journey that the end-user could fully engage with, helping them to reach their learning goals in the most efficient and rewarding way possible. The overarching experience is that of a natural and free-flowing learning experience.

The feedback and adoption from our industry partners, academics and students have been hugely positive for our UX first approach. Others within the online learning sector  have also positively commented upon our approach and designs and are now looking forward to adopting and work alongside us going forward with future projects.

If you would like to find out more about a UX first approach or further information towards our digital online learning service please feel free to contact us at Educational Enterprise.