This is my Google Classroom for the final usability testing reflection. I had a co-worker from my dyslexia training course do my usability because she is familiar with the Take Flight curriculum and I felt like she would be a good tester because she was able to conduct the testing not knowing the assignment but she also knows the curriculum and knows how this would fit in. She was a great tester. I felt like she was an ideal tester.

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I also feel like in the future I would like to have a student do it. It just wasn't feasible since it's summer and right now I don't have any students. The platform of Google Classroom actually worked really well because it was easy to add her since Google is such a flexible platform. I think had we been on another platform that wouldn't have maybe allowed me to add someone that was outside of my district or that wasn't a student to the platform like as a student it may have not worked as well.

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Lessons that I learned from the feedback:

 

 

I learned that even if you think you've got something really great there's always something you can change.

 

That really was also the point of the video in our discussion was user testing on a really good site is important because that's where you really want the feedback.

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So things that I changed and I'll go ahead and show you:

 

 

I changed the order of things because she felt like having that welcome and these program goals up front would be the most like what you want to see first and then added the things pertaining to homework.

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I changed that order and then she had a suggestion for the homework calendar to add some shading here so that the months were each a different color and I really like that. I thought that was a great idea. So I went ahead and did that.

 

On this assignment she was unsure of like she goes I'm assuming this goes in the homework folder and so I added some more like emojis and bolding to kind of draw to that. Now kids will have already come home with the homework folder at this point so it may have not been as important. However I just wanted to kind of reiterate that point.

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I clarified their login information here. Again we'll have gone over this in class but again I wanted just to clarify.

 

I clarified also how they can find Learning Ally because it's not one of those that is automatically on their portal but again I will have shown them how to do it in class and start it on their portal so it does come up.

 

I give them an alternative if it's not coming up on their portal they can go in through the Clever app which is one of their bookmark ones automatically on their portal. I did that for Typing Club as well.

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Another thing that I noticed that needed some clarification was on this ABC arc. When you go into it there's a couple things that I asked the students to do to make it to simulate more like what we do in class.

 

I like the kids to do it without the hint letters. They have to go to options and then turn this off and then apply the changes.

 

She didn't catch those directions so I tried to make them stand out more for the kiddos. Right here and again this is all things that we will have gone over in class. But it's good to have reminders that draw their attention. So I kind of reformatted that a little bit.

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The last thing that I noticed and she noticed was that which I wouldn't have noticed because I was already logged in. While you can do this as a public link these flashcard decks if you're not logged in it wants you to create a free account and it does have the login with Google option.

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I just added that they need to log in with Google.This site is all good for you know the age limits and all of those things. So I added that to both of these decks. Those are the changes that I made. She had some really great feedback. She loved that the assignments involved choice and gave the kiddos ownership and that even within what audience they were going to choose on, especially on this assignment, they get to choose what audience are they going to do. Is it going to be with their family, their classmates, or a dance class, a scout troop? That was something that she really pointed out that she liked.

 

So I've addressed the changes, the lessons that I learned. How did this process improve the course? I think it just made things more clearer, put them in a better order, especially for dyslexics who already have such a high cognitive load, it helped to lower that load. And then the testing, I don't know that it necessarily affected the alignment of the outcomes, activities, and assessment other than that it may have lowered the frustration level, which then just allows them, if you're less frustrated, you're going to have a better outcome and better assessment. But again, our curriculum isn't to mastery, and so we're just looking for growth. So anytime a kid can grow, so if you're removing that cognitive load or lowering the cognitive load, they may have more opportunity to grow.

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And then how will you address infrastructure and support the needs of learners? There's a couple times I've given them videos, like down here, to support learning and what to do on the boom deck. She liked this video that gave them explicit directions on how to use it. And then also I think just being available and walking through this with them and then noticing like, okay, they all really had trouble getting from here to here or whatever, and just addressing those things as they come up because the kids will see things that my tester and I didn't, and just being flexible.

And yeah, I think that's really it. I've enjoyed this process. I think it's going to make me a better teacher this year for these dyslexic kiddos, and using something like this will really enhance the DT classroom.