The Power of Data in EdTech Applications
Data is one of the most powerful tools that educational systems can utilize. Please pause for a moment and ask yourself, “What is the benefit of utilizing data?” No matter what amazing response you just devised, it will be completely useless if users don’t look at their data, interpret it, and utilize it to make a change. This can be a major issue for educators due to lackluster data systems and limited time. Nowadays, data is easy to track and harness in programs; however, some products fail to optimize and incorporate the data effectively. This can make tasks such as, finding and disaggregating data, a tall order. Puffy once said, “It’s all about the Benjamins” however, in this post I’m here to tell you it’s all about the data.
In K-12 schools around the country, districts approve and choose software to use in their schools. Typically, they select several applications that teach English language arts, math, and science. These can be powerful tools when utilized properly. Students can use these in class and at home to enhance their learning. Also, in the college sector, leaders look for learning management systems with powerful data to track students and staff. Data is the best predictor for their future successes and struggles on skills. Therefore, data is a quintessential part in computer applications.
We’re all aware that time is a precious and finite commodity. I can attest that most teachers have full schedules inside and outside of work. Sadly, it’s not uncommon to work double what you’re paid for during some busy weeks. Yes, you heard me right, Elon Musk isn’t the only one pulling 80 to 100-hour work weeks. It’s easy to skip over or forget about valuable data that is stored from applications that students use to learn. Student learning applications must not hide data several clicks away. It’s a missed opportunity for the software company and purchasers because many teachers will not bother to use it. Typically, a school district will approve several major learning applications. In my experience, some of these applications have weak to average data available for use. Far worse, the data is hidden away deep within the application. Often times, the layouts and skill achievements are a hodgepodge and require tedious attention to glean pertinent data. Simplicity and intuitive design are a must.
Since we’ve already established that teachers are busy, we can infer that sometimes they need a nudge to dig into their student data. Weekly and/or monthly customizable reports with notification settings can help a lot. Even better, let engineers place data that updates on the home page, where it can’t be missed. For example, “Cindy made a 95% on her summary skill test, click here to send a thumbs up” or “Click here to view her ranking on this skill with other students.” Although there are a variety of ways to do this, being as visual as possible is important. I plan to follow up this blog post with images that will go over how good data designs should look like on an application’s landing page. Designers and educational leaders want users to be excited and interested enough to dig into their data.
The key to successful data use is to put the data in users’ hands, or rather, in their faces! Data will help them identify weaknesses to work on, both inside and outside of the program. Automated pathways that can extend and reteach weak skills are very beneficial to time-stricken teachers, however that’s a deeper topic I will address later. Also, that does not eliminate the need to track student data and take action when necessary outside of the program. Another nudge could be the use of visual automated reports that capture snapshots of student data presented in graphs and/or simple lists. It is so powerful when data is visually interpreted because action can be taken immediately within the application or in the classroom. People in leadership roles should have more in-depth and easier to follow views of all of the users. They want to see how individual students, classes, grade levels, and the entire school are progressing on skills. How classes and entire grade levels are progressing on skills.
Additionally, customizable alert systems are beneficial. The program could send an email or ping their preferred device. This could be set up to occur when a student has struggled with skills. On the design and engineering side, we should allow the users to determine when an alert should be sent. For example, the user wants to be notified if their students score a 59% or lower on their math assessments. The user will go into notification settings and set their alert metric to 59% or below. This prevents the users from being bombarded with pestering notifications. As product designers, we don’t want our notifications to become white noise or like those retail emails we mass delete and unsubscribe from. Of course, users also will have the autonomy to turn notifications off. It would also be very beneficial for parents to be able to set up their own notifications, too. When parents and educators are aware of student progress and work together, it will yield incredible results. I’ve used countless educational programs where there were no data alerts and counterintuitive student reports. This was a struggle for some of my colleagues, especially those that weren’t exactly tech savvy. For example, I would call a meeting and ask them to bring in their data from their particular program. Many of them would call me to come over and walk them through pulling their data, so I knew they never checked it and used it to make a difference in their classroom. This wasted everyone’s already limited time and occurred even after trainings. Ultimately, the goal is to have a highly effective program that is user friendly and doesn’t waste users’ time. “Design thinking” is vital and will help to avoid these issues.
Educational systems and businesses that stay on top of data and make changes based upon it are most likely to have increased success and, therefore, achieve goals. From a design and return on investment standpoint, adapting data in the ways that I have described will significantly add value to your product. It will also enhance the likelihood that the customers will love the product and renew it if it’s marketed to be SaaS. Powerful data is appealing to K-12 school districts, colleges, and Boards of Governors who make digital purchasing decisions.
