Zhuozhuo Joy Liu

The first goal, which is the foundation of the pyramid, is all about project management. For example, synchronized class involves a lot of detailed work such as onboarding learners, coordinating with teachers on schedule, uploading videos&learning materials, granting certificates, etc. Although most of them could be automized by programming, we still need to make sure everything runs on the right track. After achieving this goal, we will get an MVP.

 

Secondly, based on the MVP, the 2nd thing is to look at the content quality to make sure the class is delivered coherent, logical, and vividly, from a perspective of pedagogy. Usually learning theories which try to explain how learning happens such as Constructivism and Cognitivism helps instructors to design classes.

 

Lastly, the most important thing is to ensure students eventually master certain skills and understand concepts, which is often simply equal to learning assessment such as grading HW and exam. However, learning assessment can simply tell us how good their performance is rather than promote the performance. To promote the performance, a good way is to look at the motivation. Although Behaviorism is traditionally used to motivate learners, there are many psychological factors that have been proved important in enhancing motivation, such as self-regulation, growth mindset, goals, and social belonging.

 

 

2. What is user satisfaction in the context of online learning services?

User satisfaction is a user's response to the above all 3 things in the model. When designing a satisfaction survey or interviewing, I usually refer the model to make sure I mention everything - logistics quality, content quality, and learning supports quality.

 

 

3. How to improve the user experience by providing a mastery-based learning environment?

Mastery is hard, especially when learning happens remotely. Mastery-based learning is different from traditional content-rich learning where teachers provide contents regardless of how much learners can absorb.

Based on the 2nd and 3rd level of the model, we can make efforts on both cognitive and non-cognitive part to achieve the goal. Here is a real example.

• Goal: learners master logistics regression in R programming

• Design:

  • Cognitive part: The key is to repeat. Usually teachers will teach one time and leave learners to understand by themselves. However, in a mastery-based class, we would like to provide a chance as much as possible for learners to practice until they master. For example, in this class teacher provided 2 similar datasets and ask them to code and generate plots for logistic regression in the class. There will be a HW to enhance the coding memory. Although it is easy to do, the challenging part is to keep it short and simple. 

  • Motivational part: Different with eating or playing games, learning is somehow anti-natural that users need to make effort to get a good outcome. The process is always painful. Therefore, we need to carefully help them participating into the class and discussion. For example, we increased the forum participation by awarding students who introduced themselves, who shared books or articles, and who proposed questions and answers. To make sure the discussion is seen by teachers, we require that TA provide answers in 24 hours and teachers reply students as much as they can. By doing these, their participation is enhanced. We also interviewed to every students 3 times in a semester and to know about their goal setting, struggle and how we can help, which strengthened the interpersonal connection between learners and us.