Student Support Hub

Essential Question: How can we create an all encompsing app for students?

Navigate Student is a learning management system develeped by EAB Global. It supports students by creating an all encompassing hub where students can easily monitor different aspects of their day to say experience. Some of the highlights include:

• Class Schedule

• Study Buddies

• To Do Lists

• Checking Homework

• News and Events

• Appointments and Meetings

Contributions: I was chosen along with 15 other colleagues to be brought on as a collaborator and a usability tester before the official launch.

Areas of Interest: Proof of Concept, Usability, Relevance

Guiding Questions:

• Do students actually need an app like this?

• How can we streamline the rollout process?

• What features could make the process more

Research: After speaking with many students it seems like one of the biggest issues they face is organization . There are several different apps, websites, and online portals that they may need to use at different times. This makes it hard to locate the information as you have to switch between many different sources to get what you need. In addition to this, it’s hard to collaborate with other students as well because you do not know who is open to studying together or working through projects as a group.

There needs to be a central location that combines many of the important day-to- day tasks as well as the opportunity to collaborate. Think of a one stop shop for students. It allows you to import existing data and synergizes well with other portals.

My role: Critical feedback on the user interface as well as the usability. Helped carve out suggestions for improvement as well as supervising rollout out.

What would be done differently?

The biggest issue with this application is that it was rolled out at an odd time. Students had already been using existing applications for years prior to the release. In addition to this, many of the organizations and offices on campus were not aware of it so they were still telling students to use other apps. It was hard to break through the pre-existing systems that were already in place. In the future, it would be helpful to start more at the organizational and management level to push the app in a way that would allow it to reach more students quickly, versus “Word of Mouth.”