When considering classroom usability, there are two primary groups to focus on:
Educators
Students
When developing a product, designers need to identify the main users because the functionality must cater to different purposes. Many educational technology companies are also designing products that allow educators to customize the platform perfect for the students in their classroom.
Additionally, although it will not be mentioned in this website, it should be noted that when educators create their platform, it should also be designed in a way that parents and guardians can utilize the same educational technology from home. For example, parents may want to check if all assignments are submitted, so they should be able to access materials on platforms like D2L, Google Classroom, or other alternatives.
When creating a class, it is important to consider both the student and teacher perspectives. Educators use the website to add content, create announcements, manage and grade assignments, create lists, and more. Students need to be able to access and download materials, check announcements, submit assignments, check grades, and access external websites through the page.
While the uses of D2L differ between educators and students, the website still needs to be user-friendly for both groups. As you can see from the screenshots below, the student version of D2L is on the left/top, and the teacher version is on the right/bottom. Although the overall design is quite similar, the grades and assignment tabs offer different experiences. Students need to see their grades and feedback, while teachers need to view all grades across a scale to determine individual student performance and overall class progress.
When designing websites and their functionalities, it is crucial to consider both student and teacher needs while ensuring that teachers' access to privatized data remains secure. Additionally, the day-to-day operations should be easy enough for novice users yet not trivial for experienced users. Most websites allow users to make necessary changes and enhance their experience. For example, experienced educators can use HTML to add customized elements such as personalized home pages, integration of PowerPoints, Word documents, and more.
This is what teachers see on D2L.
Notice the key differences between the assessments and grades pages from the student pages below.
This is what students see on D2L.
Teachers can sign into their account and choose student view to ensure that the overal student experience is what is desired.
Magic School AI is an application that uses generative AI in education. In addition to its teacher resources, it recently added a student page called Magic Student, which can be monitored and controlled by teachers. While the website design differs slightly between educator and student accounts, the user experience design components primarily stem from the services offered to each user.
For teachers, the application is usable for both novice and experienced users. It provides a variety of tools needed by educators, including teacher-to-parent email writing, choice boards, worksheets, report card comments, text leveling, and more. What makes the overall UX design so effective is that each option is presented as a button with a picture, title, and description. Additionally, while there is a tab for students to join, teachers can create their own page specifically designed for their students, thereby acting as designers curating the experience for their students. Teachers can create a 'room' for their class and select which generative AI programs students can access. Once created, students can join through a link or QR code, allowing teachers to track how students use the program and the outputs generated by the AI. Like D2L, there are several monitoring elements that teachers can use to ensure students are not simply copy-pasting generated content.
From a student experience perspective, they can use tools without feeling like they are cheating while learning digital literacy skills. Additionally, it is important that the application accommodates different levels of understanding and comfort for students of all ages. It should be easy enough for novice and young users to navigate while still being interesting and challenging enough for experts.
To read more about Magic School AI and Magic Student AI here: Artificial Intelligence
In these photos you can see some of the applications available and an example on how to create your own worksheet. It is all a simple click and type without fuss.
In these photos you can see what the teacher sees and how they are able to create their student rooms.
In these photos you can see how students enter their name and how they can use the applications selected for them by their teacher.
In these photos you can see how teachers view the content that the students are developing within the Magic School website. However, the website is not optimal for viewing student work on a mobile device such as a mobile phone, as such, photos are not posted here.