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
ian greenwood said,
December 10, 2007 @ 10/12/07
something we may need to think about – a bit of crystal ball gazing if poss !! how much of this will be accessible through a traditional PC/browser combination, and how much thru simplified web browsers as available in most recent phones. not all students will have PCs, but they will have phones – of a rapidly increasing spec and capability. e.g. I already sync google calendar with my mobile each day, and record events and classes on both. i have noticed 6th form students use phones for appts and meetings as well.
KeithB said,
December 11, 2007 @ 11/12/07
Good point Ian – a ‘standards compliant’ web theme on the portal and the more recent Web browsers in phones will handle this automatically, but perhaps some thought to ‘phone friendly’ presentation would help.
What do you think teenagers would want from a Web portal?
ian greenwood said,
December 11, 2007 @ 11/12/07
i think most of what you have written is applicable to sixth form students as well keith. I would add – a link to the UCAS website for application advice & progress of application, a link to Connexions, maybe exam board specifications, a link to college register systems to monitor her own attendance (read only!), course progress tracking via STAR, read own TMGs and analyse progress towards them (needs tutor input), work experience arrangements, college calendar, mentoring personnel links, IOLAP or similar, relevant hyperlinks for her programmes of study, Activ8 student activities in college, “college news” and deadlines/noticeboard.
that’s enough to be going on with I think !!
Seb Schmoller said,
December 14, 2007 @ 14/12/07
On the phones theme, these links may be useful:
More generally, the direction things are taking is that users want to put “stuff” from portal providers into their own environment, e.g. an iGoogle page, rather than have to go to the portal to get it.
Seb
KeithB said,
December 14, 2007 @ 14/12/07
Hi Seb
The idea of students ‘pulling’ stuff into their own home pages using RSS feeds or similar is one I had thought of, but first we need to decide what we are making available!
Clifton Kandler said,
December 28, 2007 @ 28/12/07
Keith,
these links from Leeds and Greenwich who used surveys to identify user requirements might be useful.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/portal-project/portalsurvey.htm
http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/ils/cis/projects/portal
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October 28, 2008 @ 28/10/08
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