The LOUISA team completed an initial round of user research as part of the User Experience (UX) plan.  

This is the second post about the User Experience (UX) activities taking place for LOUISA. For an introduction to the UX plan, please see this previous blog post: 

A UX strategy to improve the course assessment experience for staff and students  

The LOUISA team engaged with students to understand their experiences of submitting assessments and receiving feedback using Learn

Previous research with students highlighted frequent problems associated with the in-course assessment process at the University of Edinburgh. The LOUISA project is now returning to these issues to find out more. 

The main goals of this research were therefore: 

• To learn more about the current in-course assessment and feedback processes from a student perspective. 

• To understand how Learn is used by students to complete these processes. 

• To uncover problems that students currently face with assessments and feedback that could be investigated with further research. 

By conducting this research, the LOUISA project can ensure that any proposed solutions are informed by students’ experiences and supported by up-to-date evidence. 

Team members conducted semi-structured interviews with student interns over the summer

 Team members from the UX Service interviewed nine student interns during individual sessions. The students were all Undergraduates and studied a range of subjects across all three Colleges. 

There were several benefits to running semi-structured interviews with students: 

• Students could explain why and how they used Learn during the assessment process. 

• Interviewers could follow up students’ responses with further questions to uncover more detail. 

• Students shared their screens so that interviewers could see how they interacted with Learn and ask more questions if needed. 

• The interviews were recorded so that other colleagues within the LOUISA team could watch the conversations for themselves and learn more about students’ experiences.  

• Notes and comments extracted from the interviews could be grouped into themes for further investigation. 

The LOUISA team worked with University colleagues to identify key themes from the interview data

Following several workshops with colleagues across all three Colleges, five priority themes emerged: 

Course structures in Learn are inconsistent

• Students often struggle to find information about their assessment because it sits in different places across different courses.  

• This particularly impacts students studying across multiple Schools, where information is organised differently.  

• Course organisers will often receive queries from students asking where assessment information is located.  

Students don’t know where to go for feedback

• Students reported that they weren’t shown where to find feedback in Learn, with some using Gradebook and others going back to their original submission link.  

• Students find out from each other when and where feedback is released, with some only looking at their marks.  

• There is sometimes a large amount of information to search through to find the feedback they are looking for.  

Applying for an extension is a stressful experience 

• Students are already under stress when applying for an extension, so the process becomes more difficult for them.  

• Students tend not to know how extension process works until they need it – this is not an issue that is in scope for LOUISA.  

• There are multiple dropboxes available to cover deadline extensions, which can cause confusion for students if they don’t know where to submit.  

Students have different attitudes towards mark schemes and rubrics 

• For students, many use rubrics to check their work and ensure it meets required criteria.  

• Some students do not find mark schemes useful because marking is subjective.  

• Mark schemes are seen as having both advantages and disadvantages by staff – how can they be applied consistently without stifling creativity?  

There is inconsistent vocabulary used for assessment and feedback information 

• Different terms are used to mean the same thing e.g. “due dates” vs. “deadlines”, “guidelines” vs. “brief”.  

• Inconsistent language across courses and Schools contributes to difficulty finding information.  

The prioritised findings have been used to guide the next round of student interviews

The UX Service will conduct more semi-structured interviews with a larger sample of University students to explore these themes in more detail. The sample contains students from more Schools and Colleges, as well as Postgraduate students, so that data comes from a representative sample of the student population. 

The LOUISA team will continue to work with colleagues across the University to review the findings and determine next steps. 

Further links

LOUISA Sharepoint (requires login) 

A service design approach to Learn Foundations – Previous research carried out with students as part of the Learn Foundations project