Study History Reports
Study History Reports allowed district administrators to visualize the work that students in their schools were doing. They gave instructors insights into their students’ study patterns, allowing them to better assist their students.
Providing Visibility into Study Habits
At a Glance
Context: Districts needed a way to demonstrate at-home work by students; teachers needed visibility into what students were studying
My Role: UX/UI Designer
Results: Study History Reports allowed district admins and teachers to see details about student study practices in our platform. This became our third-most-accessed report
On a district level, Study History Reports show time students spend in LabSim courses over a given date range. Filters provide customization options.
Intro
If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, it probably doesn’t matter. If a student struggles and nobody sees it, it does matter.
At TestOut, we created a study history report to provide visibility around time students spent in LabSim courses on district, school, and class levels. It even showed how much time individual students spent on specific lessons and labs. This report fulfilled previously unmet needs, becoming our third-most-accessed report.
The District Problem
Many of TestOut’s sales to K-12 schools took place on a district level, but we had no district-level reporting to demonstrate value to district administrators. Furthermore, in order to receive full funding post-pandemic, districts needed tools to track study time by at-home students. Study history reports addressed both TestOut’s business need and the districts’ reporting need.
The Solution
Study history reports showed time spent per course on district, school, and class levels. Filters allowed customization, so that, depending on their permission level, users could see details for individuals, classes, and schools. They could see both average study time per student and total study time for a given class, school, or district, in intervals of days, weeks or months.
Instructors could also drill down to see results for individual students, including how much time a student spent on specific lessons, labs, videos, and exams.
On a class level, Study History reports include links to drill down into specifics about where individual students are spending their time.
The Deeper Win
This reporting not only met district needs, but also provided valuable insights for teachers, empowering them to connect what their students were doing in our platform with their performance in class.
One teacher I spoke with explained how the study history report clarified a confusing situation. A student was spending a lot of time in the course, but not scoring well on exams. Because this didn’t add up, the instructor spoke with the student and the student’s mother. The mother sheepishly admitted that she was preparing to take a certification exam, and had been logging into her child’s account to study. The student wasn’t spending time in LabSim — the mom was. Mystery solved!
The Study Details Report, linked to from the class Study History Report, shows how much time an individual student has spent in each lesson, video, lab or exam.
Conclusion
The study history report provided visibility that met the reporting needs of school districts, and allowed instructors to better assist their students. Of the reports we provided in LabSim, within a year of release, the study history report became our third-most-accessed report.