Assignment Nightmare (cont.)

So here comes an assignment which deals with a very realistic and familiar issue of students: user experience in lectures, and we would need to find a way to improve it technically and culturally.

For this assignment, we adopted two research methods: Ethnographic study, Cultural probes and Laddering. These are quite popular methodologies. This is because those methodologies are not too time consuming like others. For ethnographic, we only need to observe people in their own comfort zone, whereas Cultural probes gives us some insight about users' thoughts and needs.
To gain more information, we also employ the methodology by using a diary.

I Ethnographic Study:

We observe 3 following different lectures:

- LT32, 4 -6 pm, 120 - 140 students

- LT 8, 12-2pm, 70-100 students

- LT 11, 2-4pm, 120-140 students.

Ethnographic research:
We try to observe the environment, focusing on following key points:

• Lecture hall's design
• Students' behavior
• Lecturers' behavior

Cultural Probes: let users to write diary about their feelings.

Laddering: gain more information about users' need

Following are the findings that we have noticed:

1)Issues with the design of the lecture theater:

Tight space between the rows make it difficult for movement
The tables are too small for laptops, leaving alone other things like pens and notes... They are also not user friendly for left handers.
Lecture halls are too big to make students feel involved
Even so, the class size is too big and lecture halls sometime don't have enough seats for students
not enough power points for laptops
Sometimes screen is not clear
Noisy doors
Media controls are not user friendly and make lecturers spend more time figuring out how to use
Accessibility of some lecture halls
Early lectures (8 AM)
Lecture halls are too cold

2) Cultural problems:
+ Student's side:
Since sometimes there are not enough seats, students often have their friends to reserve the seats. They also refuse the seats in the middle since those seats are not very accessible.
Students talk noisily
Students come late for class, interrupting the lectures and distract other students when they move inside.
Students do not interact with the lesson, don't ask questions and don't answer questions.
+Lecturer's side:
Some lecturers do not make an attempt to engage students.
Lecturers' voices are monotonous. Some lecturers' voices are clear and difficult to listen to.
When lecture notes are too general and difficult to follow, the students would solely focus on taking notes as much as possible and cannot listen to the lecture thoughtfully. When the lecture notes are too specific and details, students will skip class since everything the lecturer teach is inside the notes.

(to be continued)