Breakout Groups in Collaborate
My Role
User Experience / Product Designer
Deliverables
Figma mockup, Miro with testing synthesis
Tools
Figma, Miro
Use case
Breakout Groups are one of the main features and worflows instructor use during their online teaching. They use Breakout Groups as a way to keep track os stundents performance, increase participation, and ensure engagement during sessions.
Challenges
How can we provide a better experiences when in come to working in groups in virtual environments?
Instructor expressed the need of having a better workflow during prior research so we prioritize the feature to start building a better experience.
Identify common terminology to implement within the UI.
Understanding the problem
Since it’s a current feature available within the product, we plan to start with a Proof of Concept to evaluate not only the product technical capabilities but also the initial flow version based on users feedback.
We built a plant alongside with content team, to test with users to analyze the most useful and accurate flow that they expect to use during virtual sessions.
We get feedback not only on what flow makes sense to them but also on common visual patterns they're used to. In addition, we detected an ambiguity related to the wording on the screen.
During the initial testing sessions, we found that some of the wording could be confusing for online learning environments, so we did a second validation of the wording they used in their virtual classes, specifically to validate it and reduce the ambiguity of the actions in the interface.
Exploring and creating
Finally, we build the final PoC version which will be delivered to end-users soon. We'll be tracking during the first release, getting data and feedback again so that we can continue to improve the feature.
Takeaways
In summary, our project focused on improving the Breakout Groups feature for virtual classrooms. By prioritizing user feedback and conducting thorough testing, we identified common terminology, clarified interface wording, and developed a more intuitive workflow. The final proof of concept version was built in collaboration with the content team.
We will continue to gather data and feedback to refine and enhance the feature to ensure it meets the needs of instructors and improves the online learning experience.
Learn more at https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Moderator/Moderate_Sessions/Breakout_groups