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User stories: adult student

“Tell me the stories of what the system will do. Write down the name of the story and a paragraph or two.” Kent Beck (Ward’s wiki)

Other user stories added so far: Teacher

I’m trying to scope out what a College Web portal might do for students, teachers and managers. Each of the bullet points below is a kind of ‘user story’ or perhaps ‘user theme’ in the sense of Kent Beck. The idea is to describe in English – or something close to the language that students and teachers use – what affordances a portal might yield. I’m trying to avoid vocabulary that assumes a given technology so we can get away from assumptions about existing systems. The stories may lead to something as formal as a task analysis grid, or we may map existing technologies to the user stories and see where the gaps lie.

Most unusually for bodmas.org I have allowed comments on these stories (there are another 4 or 5 on the way. Anything to add (or subtract) from this one?

An adult student has enrolled on a couple of courses, or perhaps a full time package. She wants to…

• Obtain a user account on the portal at the same time as she receives her ID badge
• Log in to the portal from the home PC as soon as she returns from the enrollment session
• Be able to check that she is enrolled on the occurrence of the course that is the one she wanted (e.g. Marketing on Tuesday evening, and European Business on Friday mornings)
• Find room numbers for chosen classes
• Find links to basic details about course content for each of her courses, including the scheme of work, a link to the syllabus/standards, the course calendar, and a reading list or some learning materials that are used early in the course
• Search for resources (including books) in the Learning Centre including online resources, and find which online resources are available outside firewall and which can only be accessed from inside firewall
• Find information about College services such as Student Advice, Nursery if relevant, Access fund, and the various college procedures and help for students with support needs (even if she has no support needs) and browse learning materials of general interest (e.g. study skills information, numeracy)

Later in the course, she wants to find a link on her portal page to the ‘online classroom’ for each of her classes in which she can

• Download learning materials (MS PowerPoints and handouts) that her class teacher has provided as they become appropriate
• Contact her class teacher privately about concerns or to ask questions
• Work with her fellow students online to swap information and discuss the material in the lessons
• Check progress through quizzes and tests with instant feedback (if appropriate to course design)
• Submit assessed work by uploading files and receiving tutor feedback (if appropriate to course design)
• Find grades for previous work
• Contact and be contacted by her personal tutor privately about progress and to set targets
• Track targets and record progress against them
• Store her own files online in case of loss of her USB stick and to be able to access work from anywhere

Towards the end of the course, she may want to

• Find out about other courses that she can progress onto
• Check the dates for final submission of portfolios and the arrangements for obtaining certificates &c

Keith Burnett 2004 - 2010