VCTL
Syllabus
Complex Design Challenges
In today's digital age, the design of educational materials plays a crucial role in engaging and motivating students. This case study delves into the journey of redesigning an online syllabus to address the challenges faced by both students and educators.
Enhance User Experience
My primary goal with this project was to design an innovative platform that could redefine the way students engage with technology. I wanted to create a product that was intuitive, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing while offering innovative features that would enhance the user experience.
We began by conducting thorough research to understand the pain points of both educators and students. This included surveys, interviews on-site, and studying existing syllabi.
Conducting a survey with undergraduate students on the preference for an ASL-English bilingual course syllabus revealed overwhelming agreement in favor of this format. The results unequivocally affirm the need for implementing ASL-English bilingual syllabi, providing clear direction for our course design efforts.
The biggest reason students skip reading syllabi: they are unreadable. They are often text-based, filled with administration jargon. It’s like reading the terms and conditions when you’re installing software. Everyone clicks that they’ve read it when no one ever does. They often serve the interests of the administration and viewed as beauaurtic documents rather than valuable guides to their academic journey.
We delved into the process of designing a site map and a flowchart for an ASL-English bilingual syllabus. Our objective is to streamline the learning experience and provide students with an accessible and inclusive educational resource. This flowchart serves as a blueprint for the creation of a dynamic syllabus that seamlessly integrates American Sign Language (ASL) and English.
I created a customizable syllabus template for educators, providing a starting point from which they can personalize fonts, colors, and other design elements to suit their preferences using a drag and drop platform without the need for technical expertise. Developers then created user-friendly components within the platform, making it easy for educators to set up their syllabus to their liking.Aesthetics played a crucial role. We opted for a clean, visually appealing design with a color palette using Gallaudet’s brand colors.
Animated Menu Items
By clicking on an icon, it would enlarge at the center, indicating the current page. Additionally, a sliding transition would introduce a new page. This approach enhances the overall user experience, combining aesthetics with usability, and ensuring that navigation is both engaging and accessible to a wide range of users.
Interactive Video Transcript
Each video would have an interactive transcript meaning it is a time-synchronized transcript that shows the words with a scrolling animation as the words are being signed. The transcript is hooked up to the video player, and they work in tandem to delver an interactive experience for the viewer. It grants viewers the ability to search within a video using the transcript or the video player. Clicking on a word in the transcript will jump viewers directly to that point in the video.
(VCTL Symposium 2023)
