1. clickED Lab Usability Study
26 January 2016

2. Prototype Changes Connected Devices - Initial Hack
Enabled backend with Parse
Conflict of languages (Swift/Obj-C) prevented functional Lookback integration
In preparation for testing, we realized that it would not work for a student to “ask” a question if that was just going to be stored on its device locally. After all, then nobody else in the room would see the question that the student asked. So we connected the apps together with a backend using a framework called “Parse”. This way, if a single student asked a question, it would then appear on the teacher’s device. You can say this was good, because we were able to have actual communication between students and teachers in our simulation. For downsides, you can say that we did not have time to implement caching. This meant that even though we could communicate between student and teacher, the interaction was sub-optimal, because the teacher’s device would take a long time to load. Additional downsides: we only had one account for teacher and student. This led to multiple downsides: ​*anybody*​ with the app could view everything from the teacher’s perspective. Additionally, all of the students could see the questions that the other students were asking, which is exactly what our app is supposed to prevent. Finally, we did not have Lookback implemented, so we could not track user’s interactions in real time.

3. Participants
Christina Foust - 8th Grade teacher at Summit K2 in El Cerrito
Diverse classroom of around 25 students
Gordon was friend’s with Ms. Foust
We spoke as part of a college mentor program during Community Group

5. Tasks Students ask questions Teacher reads the room
Teacher reviews unresolved questions after class

6. Apparatus Students and teacher downloaded app through Testflight
Test took place in classroom during Community Group period

7. Procedure Q & A with the class Students used app in groups of five
Teacher acted as a moderator using the app to pick the questions
Teacher reviewed the questions asked after class

8. Test Measures Viability in a classroom setting Time to complete task
Distraction level for both students and teachers

9. Results - Student
Students understood usage of class code to enroll in class
Under 15 seconds from opening the app to asking their questions
UI to resolve questions was not intuitive

10. Results - Teacher Confused about how to start receiving questions
Questions loaded slowly
Expected to be able to mark questions as answered

11. Feedback - Student ~75% class wanted to see other student’s questions
~90% of class wanted to attach pictures to questions
~90% of class said they wanted the app for their class

12. Feedback - Teacher Color of question could be based on urgency
Ability to organize list of questions

13. Discussion - UI Remove “Questions I’ve Asked”
Allow students to see other students’ questions

14. Discussion - UI
Remove resolve button and add it as a top right option or a swipe right to resolve
better test if students find the swipe to resolve question obvious

15. Discussion - UI Better way for teacher to organize questions
Alert teacher that questions are incoming
Remove or move “Refresh” button

16. Discussion - Study Improvements
Have observers sit with students
Have students ask questions based on curriculum
Individual student log-ins

17. Summary Tested app in 8th grade classroom
Students and teacher suggested good ideas we had not considered
Confired classroom viability