This evolution of the traditional classroom offers great freedom and flexibility for both instructors and students. But it also presents new problems for teaching and learning.
Effective UX design can help defray pain points and create products that are valuable for all users — whether they’re in-person or remote. For your EdTech product to have a lasting impact, it must accommodate the realities of the hybrid classroom.
While the stresses of learning in lockdown are in the rearview mirror now, hybrid classrooms are still in flux — and causing tension for instructors and students. Whether you’re building a new EdTech product or iterating on an existing one, current user stresses should inform and inspire your product design.
In order to keep classrooms running during the early days of the pandemic, instructors had to improvise quickly. Figuring things out on the fly is still necessary, especially when some institutions are still operating without a good hybrid plan.
Managing in-person and remote students can feel like double the workload. Because course expectations are different for in-person students than for remote students, instructors are essentially teaching the same course twice. And that is a recipe for burnout.
In addition, instructors are often disconnected from remote students. Instructors may record lectures and send them to students who watch them later. Even when there is an opportunity for instructors to directly observe them, students often opt to keep their cameras off. Connection that was once a given in the classroom now has to be deliberately recreated.
Remote students experience their own version of classroom disconnection. They may not feel supported by instructors, who are doing their best with the resources available. A rift can develop between in-person and isolated remote students. Group work, a foundation of classroom learning, is especially difficult in hybrid environments.
Remote students have to manage frequent technical issues and may be subject to digital inequity. Not all students have reliable internet access; some may be stuck with older personal computers that simply aren’t up to the task of remote learning.
And without a controlled in-person environment, boredom and distraction run rampant. For learning to occur, the right educational tools are mandatory.
Given the host of challenges instructors and students face with hybrid learning models, your EdTech product must have the ability to adapt and connect — more than ever before. Without these qualities, your product simply won’t be relevant in today’s hybrid classrooms.
Product flexibility, in the case of hybrid learning, implies serving all user types while keeping learning outcomes in mind and giving instructors a product that fits in seamlessly with their existing suite of tools.
You can’t anticipate all of the different types of users, environments, and content your product will be used for. Now a single student or an entire course can shift modes over a semester, remote one day and in person the next. It’s imperative to map out and solve for as many situations as possible.
Your product also must prove flexible in its ability to play well with others. Instructors are using a wide variety of EdTech products, and you should be sure your product fits into that ecosystem. The products that succeed in hybrid classrooms will work harmoniously with other classroom tools, digital or not.
EdTech products need to prioritize connection and collaboration between instructors and students. In order to be truly valuable in hybrid settings, your product should help:
Understanding your product users via UX research is even more important when their needs are so varied. Inclusive research can sample hybrid and on-site learners to help you better understand their pain points; observation of a live hybrid class can also lead to actionable insights.
Effective UX design can ease onboarding for new users in a hybrid setting. Simplicity is key. Any extraneous features bring the risk of bloating your product and creating an experience that doesn’t make the instructor or student’s life easier. Your product should also be meeting or exceeding accessibility guidelines, so no student is without the basic support they deserve. With the proliferation of EdTech products to choose from, your product must be easy to use — or it will be discarded.
The hybrid classroom offers massive opportunity for EdTech companies. The diverse needs of users require innovative, timely solutions in easy-to-use products. And the products that rise to the occasion will be the ones that will thrive.