(Group Project)
An online learning platform designed for university students and teachers, optimising the existing VLE platform to support a simpler, faster way of operating.
During this group collaboration, I was mainly responsible for time management and planning, pre-research and creation of presentation slides.
Why this?
The VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) at universities in general is overloaded with features that are cumbersome and complex to use, which affects the efficiency of the learning process, thus we want to optimise it so that it is easy and straightforward to use for both students and teachers. Overall, this has been designed to create a comfortable and confusion-free experience.
How to design a confusion-free VLE?
Requirement Research
To better illustrate user demands and existing problems that occurs on different VLEs, we did a lot background researches.
Comparing the existing VLE to see the pros and cons (Done by Me)
Bar Chart we received by questionare about conversation between Teachers and Students through existing VLEs. (Done by every team member)
Responces we get about using time and theme preferences. (Done by every team member)
User Storyboard (Done by Teammates)
We also asked vonlunteers to rank the features that users use and prefer most. With these bar charts, we can better design our VLE's page layout distribution. (Done by every team member)
Functional and non-functional requirements were listed after communicating and analysing the available information. (Done by every team member)
Example of user persona creation (Mainly done by Me)
Example of user Journey Map creation (Mainly done by Me)
Detailed Design
After organising the resources and information we found, our VLE is then designed. The wireframe has been considered to easily prioritise and decide the locations of each function or item, and to visualise the online teaching tool on the user interface by analysing user requirements.
Wireframes are created by using Balsamiq (Done by Teammates)
Highly Functional Prototype Development (Done by Teammates)
Based on the wireframe, a high-fidelity prototype of Educloud has been developed at the end of the design development process using Adobe XD.
In general, the concept of the prototype design focuses on the efficiency of studying and the convenience of finding what users want such as learning resources. The prototype also features a dark and light mode toggle, as decided by the responses from our user data.
Final Prototype can be experienced through Here (Adobe XD)
Defult Homepage of our VLE
Light Mode of our VLE
Example of each module page
The color palette we choose to connect to the ‘cloud’ theme and create a more calming atmosphere with cooler colours.
Reflection
Critical Reflection
Since it was the first time we worked as a team, I think our team all did a good job. The development from wireframes to prototypes went particularly smoothly, as the high-fidelity prototypes successfully reflected and built upon the ideas established by the wireframes.
We were able to allocate group tasks efficiently and manage our time well by setting deadlines for different tasks and setting goals for each meeting. We can communicate using friendly Instagram groups and store files using shared Google Drive.
Although we encountered some limitations in collecting user-based data and information, Educloud still solved some of the challenges of using existing online teaching tools during the design and development process, because we fully considered the frustration of students when using online teaching tools. In particular, the clear layout of the Educloud prototype may solve students' difficulties in finding modules and learning resources. The challenges faced by educators in encouraging student engagement in modules and building connections between students are also taken into account.
Personal Reflection
In this group work, my main responsibilities were more on the management side. I played the role of outlining the work schedule in each meeting and actively led the group to discuss our project design. In addition, I was mainly responsible for the production and layout of the slides, because we needed to rely on the final presentation as the standard for the quality of the presentation.
Although the work seems to be not complicated, this experience of teamwork has improved my planning ability and, to some extent, my ability to manage and communicate the progress of the team project.