It's Not Just About Ideas

When it comes to receiving feedback from my teachers and peers, it is hard for me to have a growth mindset when that is happening. After spending so much time on perfecting my online course and using the feedback I got from the first assignment which was hard for me to take, I finally came out with a product that hopefully the users and able to access easily and effectively. I know I am a great educator but there is always room for improvement from me.

“If we shield ourselves from all feedback, we stop growing.” – Brené Brown

I have spent a specific amount of time researching and developing my blended learning online course. College admissions is a topic that i care deeply about and I am hoping my students learn how valuable pursing the necessary information to successfully apply for colleges. The usability test that I used for my coworkers to try out was an awesome opportunity to share my knowledge and research with my colleagues and eventually my future students. I felt like they both could provide feedback effectively and while they did not consent to be recorded, they did write some detailed summaries that I could use in my post which are listed below. There will definitely be some growing obstacles through this course but once I am finished with it I think it will be very great and helpful for the incoming college students.

Testers:

User Usability Summary 1:

My name is Christian Garcia and I did a usability test for Faith Lopez’s online course. The course itself was very easy to navigate. It had many useful videos and reading. The first module consisted of about 5 items that I had to complete. It was a very easy process and the survey at the very beginning was insightful and helpful. I also started exploring her forum and she had set it up very nicely. She told me that she was struggling to keep it up and running but to me it looked great. I really liked the videos that were added to the course because they really helped me with the quiz at the end of the first module. Overall, the online course was easy to navigate. The only problem I saw was that I needed to make an account on WordPress to sign up for the course which turned me down a little to the course.

User Usability Summary 2:

My name is Jaelen Sherman and I did a usability test for Faith Lopez’s online course. The Applying for Colleges course on Enrollo.org, created with Learn Press, offers a seamless and thoughtfully organized learning experience that stands out in both usability and content depth. Navigation through the course is effortless, thanks to Learn Press’s clean interface and well-structured layout. From the moment I logged in, the course outline gives a clear sense of progression, with each lesson and section marked clearly for easy tracking. One of the most helpful things that I found awesome was the inclusion of the Fink’s 3 Column Table and course goals outline, which grounded the entire learning experience. These tools effectively connected course activities to meaningful learning outcomes, helping students understand not only what they were learning, but why it mattered. This structure added an extra layer of intention and clarity that many online courses lack. The course’s introduction video was especially inviting because it set a warm and encouraging tone that made the learning environment feel personal and supportive right from the start. It gave an overview of what to expect and created a welcoming atmosphere that eased any initial anxiety about the college admissions process. Another standout feature that I liked was the integrated forum, which was not only easy to access but also clearly organized by topic. This allowed for peer interaction and instructor guidance in a way that felt natural and helpful, rather than overwhelming. The combination of thoughtful course design, accessible tools, and motivational content made this course both practical and empowering. One thing that I saw that could be improved is the forum. It is a little anti climatic and kind of boring looking. I know students want the best from a course and I think that they would benefit from a lively design for the forum.

Video

Transcript:

Hi, my name is Faith Lopez, and I conducted this video to evaluate the usability test that I had two of my coworkers do. As you can see right here, I started working on the post, and I put my testers, so my first tester was Christian Garcia, who is one of my coworkers, and then the other one is Jalen Sherman, who is also one of my coworkers. And then they both gave me detailed, well the first one wasn’t as detailed, but the second one gave me really good detailed feedback. I actually asked them and they did not consent to being recorded, so instead they gave the detailed feedback. And as you can see right down here, I have the link to my first one, course design, the implementation post, and also I put my online course right here. So as you can see, I um i added some stuff, and then i i actually fixed the forum from last time, so if you click join forum, right there. Um, I can create a new topic. Um, it looks a little bit plain right now, but i am trying to improve that i gotta figure out how, but at least i got at least i got the um the course fixed from last time. And I fixed the student numbers so it would tell me how many students. Three students currently was me, then my two coworkers that did the testing. So for who conducted the usability testing, were they ideal testers and how could I improve this in the future? So my coworkers conducted usability testing. I feel like they were ideal testers because they also deal with the students. And they understand the content, what kind of content, and how easily students needed to navigate the online course. I could definitely improve testing in the future by finding some students to test the online course themselves so they can test the quality. Because even though my fellow students would have tested it, it might mean a little bit more coming from students who actually want to learn about it. So my platform, I use LearnPress and how to test the results. It affects it in a good and bad way, I think. The good way, it was easy to navigate and it had some great content access. And by the way, they did have to sign in to view the course. And I had to find a way to fix that, which I did. It was a simple settings in the course that I set up. So as you can see, you can press continue and it won’t make you sign in. You can just view all the different courses, stuff like that. And so some lessons that I learned from feedback is that the forum can be more interesting, like I mentioned earlier, because if you look at it, it does look a little bit boring right now. I’ve got to figure out how to make it more lively, more fun to look at. And then I also need to figure out, I did need to figure out a way to let testers in without signing in, which I did. What was that setting I just mentioned? So to address usability issues, I made a couple of changes. I’m going to add more to the survey, but I did add one more question to the survey. Is there anything you’d like to see in this course? And I made it so testers, like I said, don’t have to log in to the online course to view the materials. And of course, I’m definitely going to add more content to this once I finish working on it. I have been a little bit busy, so I haven’t been able to add as much content as I want to, but I will be definitely adding more. So how did this process improve my course and learning experience? So this process definitely really helped me. It really helped to see how my course was accessible to students, and it helped me to adjust things to make it simpler for students to navigate. So how did testing affect the alignment of outcomes, activities, and assessments? So my testing affected that. by combining them together to create an effective testing status in my online course. For activities, I have the surveys, both one at the beginning and one down here at the end. And then for the assessments, I have the forum so that they can go and talk to me and also other students. And then for the outcomes, I have the quizzes so that they will be graded on and then I’ll be able to see the outcomes. So the last question, how will I address infrastructure and support needs for learners? I will address it by having the forum there. So like I said, students will be able to post their questions and answers and get the answers from me. Or like I said, their peers, they will also be able to post in a specific discussion forum some feedback they want to give. so I could further improve the platform. I only have one topic in here right now. It’s, I’m trying to find it, there it is. Questions, I posted a questions topic as you can see here, and then the next topic I’ll post is feedback, so that they can add some feedback if they want to. And that is basically what I have for my course so far, so thank you for listening. And I’m really excited to share this and hopefully get some good student feedback.