SP
FEEDBACK FIRST
Empowering students to take ownership of learning by prioritizing feedback over grade.
Imagine you are a student in the 9th grade and you get a notification on your phone that your English teacher has posted feedback on the essay you dreaded writing. How motivated are you to go see it? Or do you just want to see the grade and move on? That depends on the structure and norms created around giving and receiving feedback. As an educator, I firmly believe in the power of qualitative feedback in learning.
The timing and use of feedback and grades are often a subject of debate and disagreement among educators. The student often experience distress, frustration, and confusion directly following grades. Feedback posted with grades almost always becomes invisible if not delivered thoughtfully and strategically. Following extensive research, the design solution was an LMS feature that eases the sensitivity and anxiety caused by feedback and grades. With the improved Canvas LMS app redesign, students can quickly access feedback, review and respond to it, before discovering their grade. As a result, students are able to act on the feedback and see a possibility for improvement and growth without feeling discouraged.
OVERVIEW
Canvas is a Learning Management System (LMS) used for delivering course material, assignments, grades, and feedback to students. The app allows students to submit assignments, stay informed about deadlines, and view grades and feedback from teachers. In my role as a teacher, I was able to explore ways to help improve student communication with teachers in regard to receiving and responding to feedback using the LMS platform.
CHALLENGE
Design the existing assessment LMS feature that prioritizes feedback over grades by streamlining access to feedback, providing clear options to respond to feedback, and requiring students to review and respond to feedback before unlocking their grade.
SOLUTION
The redesigned feature allows students to quickly access feedback, review and respond to it, and then see the grade. This hierarchy of information will diffuse anxiety and emotions associated with anticipating grades, empowering students to take ownership over learning and progress in the course.
"Feedback improves learning by changing students’ knowledge, understanding or behavior, but only if students act on it."
- Harry Fletcher-Wood (The author Responsive Teaching)
My Role: User Experience Researcher and Designer
Concept Creation: Concept, User Research, Wireframing, and Prototyping
Product: Canvas, LearningManagement System
Year: 2022
Platform: IOS, Android
Tools: Figma, Miro, Google Slides, Google Forms
GOALS
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Make feedback one click away
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Allow easy access to assignment, feedback and options to respond to feedback all on one screen.
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Provide confirmation for responding to feedback then unlock the grade.
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Recommend user interface(UI) improvements to suit the behaviors and needs of target users.
TARGET USER
A student in K-12 a school who uses LMS app to:
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stay informed, organized, and up to date on their schoolwork
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receive feedback and grades
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maintain effective communication with teachers
Students come from diverse backgrounds with varying life experiences, levels/styles of learning, and personalities consisting of but not limited to students who:
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are tech-savvy and will utilize the LMS system to complete their work
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are easily overwhelmed and confused, can feel discouraged to do the work
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prefer to work through things at their own pace independently
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often rely on the teacher or others by asking questions in person
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have learning disabilities that hinder their ability to perform certain tasks
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lack access, exposure, and experience with such tools in general
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are not so excited about school and lack the motivation to learn
“Teens are (over)confident in their web abilities, but they perform worse than adults. Lower reading levels, impatience, and undeveloped research skills reduce teens’ task success and require simple, relatable sites.”
(Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens By Alita Joyce and Jakob Nielsen)
THE PROBLEM
The teachers and students confirmed that accessing feedback is not a straightforward process. While students often feel overwhelmed and confused trying to navigate teacher feedback, teachers struggle to manage students’ emotions and unwillingness to respond to feedback in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the current system and culture of teaching and learning places a greater emphasis on grades than feedback, leaving feedback to be an ongoing challenge and conversation of contention in the world of education.
USER RESEARCH PLAN
Phase 1: User Research
a. Analyzed the features of the existing Canvas app to identify the problems.
b. Conducted a comparative and competitive analysis to find out what other LMS are out there and how they
perform this task in relation to Canvas.
c. Previewed and analyzed user reviews from the eLearning Industry and gartner.com websites
Phase 2: Defining the Problem
a. Conducted 1st round of user research using a survey.
b. Research Summary after analyzing and synthesizing the research
c. Identified the Pain Points and Opportunities for improvements
d. Translated the findings into User Personas and User Journey Maps to empathize with the users.
Phase 3: Design Process
a. Developed User Flows and paper sketches
b. Compared Existing app design with the Proposed design.
b. Designed the Low to Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Phase 4: Usability Testing & Insight
a. Used the low-fidelity wireframes to conduct the 1st round of user testing with 6 students over zoom and in person
b. Analyzed and synthesized data from usability tests using Affinity Mapping method
b. Used affinity mapping method to identify patterns and trends to gather insights that led to the 2nd round of user testing
which resulted in refining the design and producing high-fidelity prototype.
Phase 5: Takeaways/ Reflection
PHASE 1: USER RESEARCH
To existing app was analyzed to identify the key pain points related to the process of receiving and responding to feedback.
Please see the illustrations below: it takes 5 taps to get to the assignment feedback.
1. Click on the course title
2. Click on the assignments
3. Click on the assignment
4. Click on Submission & Rubric
5. View Feedback
The third tap leads students to view the grade and then feedback on the fourth click. This screen shows a general teacher comment on the assignment and if you want to see detailed feedback you must click on the rubric.
Beyond that, the user might find tiny unlabeled icons like this on the desktop version to see feedback, which is not consistent with the mobile app.
“I don’t know how to describe it specifically but there are many aspects of the app that feel old and outdated or that are just scraping the barrel. It definitely needs a revamp.”
“Getting grades back definitely stresses me, but when I do well I feel really good!”
“It depends on the feedback, but if it is bad I get disappointed and I try to understand what I can do differently."
- Quotes from Users
COMPARATIVE & COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
from eLearning Industry and gartner.com
According to Gartner, Canvas is rated as one of the top LMS for K- 12 schools. It has many communication features and hold lots of course content for students compared to its competitors. It has also proved to be the most useful tool for distance learning during the pandemic.
Having said that, for students less is more. In both the eLearning industry and Gartner, there is a general consensus that Canvas is overwhelming and confusing to use. The gradebook is complex and the feedback comments from teachers are not easily apparent. The chatting feature may be something students might use, but it is not ideal for a school setting. Most importantly, the student mobile app format is not consistent with the laptop format, making it difficult to navigate between the platforms. There are many opportunities for improvements with students’ tech behaviors and needs in mind.
Reviews from the eLearning industry
PHASE 2: DEFINING THE PROBLEM
To begin to define the problem, a survey was administered and completed by 24 students who were split into 2 different classes ranging from 9 - 12 grade. All these students currently use the Canvas app. The pie charts below show the results from 14 students. Click here to preview the full survey.
Here are some emotions and feelings students connect with anticipating or receiving feedback and grades.
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Assumptions that have been confirmed:
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Feedback is 5 clicks away
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Grade appearing before the feedback in the flow takes away the attention from feedback
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Students feel a series of negative emotions anticipating feedback/grade
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Not all students know what to do after they get the feedback
Two things that surprised me is that most students:
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Choose to revise and resubmit work as a response to feedback
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Prefer receiving feedback through a rubric (an assessment tool)
To make the app more engaging and fun, the users suggested the
following recommendations:
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Ability to personalize the app
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Use GIFs (moving image)
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Offer a question of the day
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Revamp to make it easier to navigate and less confusing
After thoroughly reviewing and analyzing the research, these four PAIN POINTS and their impact was defined.
1
Feedback is many
clicks away.
The navigation path is complex and unintuitive for users.
2
Grades appear before feedback placing a greater emphasis on the grade.
Grades trigger an emotional response from the users leaving them unwilling and unmotivated to respond to feedback.
3
There are no options to
respond to feedback.
A lack of response options leaves students unsettled and unsure of what to do next creating confusion between teachers and students.
4
The current flow and design creates confusion in navigation and call to action.
Overall the LMS is not inclusive of all types of learners.
The 4 Pain Points informed the creation of 3 different USER PERSONAS and a USER JOURNEY MAP. Imagining the personas and their journey allowed me to understand the challenges and frustrations the users face when receiving teacher feedback. There can be a range of different problems based on the type of learner the student is.
USER JOURNEY MAP
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PHASE 3: DESIGN PROCESS
USER FLOW - Employing new information and pain points, the proposed user flow depicts a shorter, more efficient path to feedback, where the user will find not only the feedback but will also find the assignment and 4 different options for responding to it.
Once the student receives a confirmation for responding to the feedback, the grade will be unlocked and viewable to the user.
PAPER WIREFRAMES
Using the user flow as a guide, I began sketching out some ideas for redesigning the LMS app. After going through many iterations, the wireframes below shows the most efficient path to the feedback screen which also hosts the 4 options for response. Each chosen response ends with a pop-up confirmation of the task completed. NOTE: While in this process, I was still unsure about how to layout the four responses and confirmation pop-ups. Also, was unsure about how to unlock the grade after the user reads and responds to the feedback.
Instead of the three additional buttons in the confirmation pop - up screen, I inserted the "see grade now" button in the next iteration.
The improved design emerged from a very first usability test and conversation with a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old who have been using the Canvas app for three years. The digital wireframes below show the proposed design in relation to the existing design on the top. The biggest improvements consist of the 4 options for responses and the grade unlocking button which pops-up on the confirmation screen. Also, the proposed design prioritizes feedback vs grade.
Existing Design
In the existing design, the grade screen appears before the feedback screen, and it requires the user to click on the rubric button to open the feedback and there is no way to respond to the feedback other than chat comments.
The proposed design shows the assignment, rubric feedback, and four options for immediate response all on one screen split into three sections. The following confirmation pop-up unlocks the grade for the user.
Proposed Design
PHASE 4: USABILITY TESTING
After some iterations, I finally created the High Fidelity Wireframes you see below. I kept the design simple and accessible creating three sections that clearly communicate the information they need to look at and respond to in their quest to complete this task in school. I also worked through the look and feel of the app. Before this version I was using a lot of lighter shades of pink, yellow, green and gray, while they looked great they did not pass the accessibility and contrast test contrast.
"The new feature makes me feel calm and clear about what I need to do after I get feedback from a teacher. It takes away a lot of pressure from me to make a decision or go see the teacher. "
- The User
With this high fidelity, I conducted Usability Tests with 5 students who are familiar with using the original Canvas app so they can compare their experience with this flow. I used the affinity mapping method to break down information and analyze the feedback from the tests.
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5/5 students clicked on the notification intuitively to view their feedback immediately.
5/5 students liked that they can easily scroll through assignments, feedback, and response options all on one page vs. clicking through different pages.
While 5/5 students liked the four clear actionable responses to feedback, 2/5 wondered if those are the best four options for all students.
While 5/5 students felt accomplished after they received a confirmation for responding to feedback, 1/5 felt good that their teacher now knows that they care about their progress in class.
While 5/5 students felt less threatened and more confident that their grade will improve after responding to feedback, 1/5 still likes the 3 clear actionable next steps as feedback.
Usability Test Insight
PHASE 5: TAKEAWAY
IMPACT
Overall, students have enjoyed the quick and easy process of getting to the teacher feedback and
respond to it in a timely manner feeling confident about the improvement of their performance.
These improvements are proving to build a stronger communication and trust between
students and teachers since the process has proven to be clear and intuitive for the users.
NEXT STEPS
1. Conduct usability tests often over a span of two years to learn more about the app's impact and usability issues/improvements, specifically in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness for all learning styles.
2. As a former teacher, I see a real need for conducting a similar UX challenge with the target users being the teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the student behaviors and feedback needs. Teachers are on the receiving end of the emotional reactions students have after feedback and grades are posted and it has proven to impact teachers negatively over time as well.
3. Given its popularity Canvas has a real opportunity to improve and refine their product by using UX methodologies for Web and mobile versions for teachers and students.
CREATIVE INSIGHT/ INSIPIRATION
Future ideas and insights consist of completely rethinking the user interface of the Canvas LMS app with consideration to teen behaviors and the usability of tech tools they use to engage and communicate with the world.
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How might we gain inspiration from some of the popular apps teens use on day to day basis, such as BeReal, Snapchat, TikTok, VSCO, and Instagram?
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How might we think about adding more motion graphics, game-based learning, and AI/GPChat elements to the Learning Management Systems to motivate learning on a grander scale, making connections to the global world and cultures an integrated part of learning?
STYLE TILE
REFLECTION
Wow! This was my first project as a UX researcher and designer. As a former teacher, playing the role of a student in this process of research, iteration, and design was a good learning experience for me. While the idea/challenge for the LMS app felt so familiar and motivating, the process of getting to the solution felt long and overwhelming at times given the breakdown of all its essential UX steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Going back and forth, revising my thoughts and products was a big part of the process. It truly is an iterative process that is never-ending as I was constantly flooded with new ideas and discoveries.
Overall, it was an enlightening moment of increased empathy for my students who struggle to navigate these LMS systems and try to do their best in school. I also align with the teachers, who are willing to think on their toes and do what it takes to keep students engaged and learning. They are constantly responding to their users, being agile in their process. I have also developed a greater respect for UX researchers and designers whose step-by-step process encourages human-centered thinking and empathy toward people making a positive impact on the world at large.
If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me at sejpatel@gmail.com. Thank you for reading.
PHASE 5: TAKEAWAY
IMPACT
Overall, students have enjoyed the quick and easy process of getting to the teacher feedback and a choice of 4 simple responses to the feedback to complete the task and move forward feeling accomplished. The overall improvements in the app are proving to build a stronger communication and trust between students and teachers.
NEXT STEPS
1. Conduct usability tests often over a span of two years to learn more about the app's impact and usability issues/improvements, specifically in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness for all learning styles.
2. As a former teacher, I see a real need for conducting a similar UX challenge with the target users being the teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the student behaviors and feedback needs. Teachers are on the receiving end of the emotional reactions students have after feedback and grades are posted and it has proven to impact teachers negatively over time as well.
3. Given its popularity Canvas has a real opportunity to improve and refine their product by using UX methodologies for Web and mobile versions for teachers and students.
CREATIVE INSIGHT/ IMPROVEMENTS
Future ideas and insights consist of completely rethinking the user interface of the Canvas LMS app with consideration to teen behaviors and the usability of tech tools to engage and communicate with the world.
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Why not research what sticks with teens about some of the popular apps such as BeReal, Snapchat, TikTok, VSCO, and Instagram?
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Why not think about adding more motion graphics, game-based learning, and AI/GPChat elements to the Learning Management Systems to motivate learning on a grander scale, making connections to the global world and cultures an integrated part of learning?
