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EDU Research: Definitions, Roles & Workflows

Panopto

An in-depth look at our EDU customers roles and workflows

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As a Tech Org, we have very little insight into the world of EDU, and as a result, we do not truly understand our customers' use cases, needs, and priorities

An in-depth research study to enable everyone at our org to see the world through our customers' eyes

PROBLEM:

SOLUTION:

This is Part 2 of Panopto EDU Research initiative:

What does the world of an EDU org look like? Who are our customers?

My role:

SVP of Kindle asked me to explore ways to "X-Ray" a text and display the "bones" of the book - key concepts and ideas visually

I defined the requirements, created and iterated on UX until we reached executive sign-off and alignment with other Kindle teams

Collaborated with PM and Dev to get the feature built and shipped to customers. 

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FIRMOGRAPHICS

How can we classify our EDU customers? 

Kindle X-Ray is a visual summary of a book. It displays definitions of characters, locations, and terms. It provides readers with a deeper understanding of the content by offering contextual information about characters, terms, and concepts within a book. It is also shows locations where characters, locations, and terms are mentioned. It is especially 
Kindle X-Ray is a visual summary of a book. It displays definitions of characters, locations, and terms. It provides readers with a deeper understanding of the content by 

Location

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How do org structures, use cases,  and preferences vary by location?

EDU STRUCTURE

How can we classify our customers? 

Kindle X-Ray is a visual summary of a book. It displays definitions of characters, locations, and terms. It provides readers with a deeper understanding of the content by offering contextual information about characters, terms, and concepts within a book. It is also shows locations where characters, locations, and terms are mentioned. It is especially useful for referencing concepts and ideas within non-fiction books, or for looking up character details in long multi-volume fiction books such as Game of Thrones.
Kindle X-Ray is a visual summary of a book. It displays definitions of characters, locations, and terms. It provides readers with a deeper understanding of the content by offering contextual information about

Org Structure

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What is the structure of an EDU org? What entities/components are there?

TERMINOLOGY

What do we need to learn to speak the same language as our customers?

As I started talking with customers, I realized how little we know about them. All interviews were recorded, and at first, I had to listen to each conversation multiple times, to make sure I did not miss key details, because I was completely unfamiliar with topics they were bringing up. 
The first step was to make sure we speak the same language. So I created a list of terms and definittions needed to understand the world of EDU

1. Terminology Overview

Which EDU terms do we need to know in order to understand our customers?

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ROLES & ACTIVITIES

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How can we classify our customers? 

Kindle X-Ray is a visual summary of a book. It displays definitions of characters, locations, and terms. It provides readers with a deeper understanding of the content by offering contextual information about characters, terms, and concepts within a book. It is also shows locations where characters, locations, and terms are mentioned. It is especially useful for referencing concepts and ideas within non-fiction books, or for looking up character details in long multi-volume fiction books such as Game of Thrones.

1. All activities

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How is knowledge transferred from person to person?

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WORKFLOWS

What happens during a semester? What does each role do?

As I started talking with customers, I realized how little we know about them. All interviews were recorded, and at first, I had to listen to each conversation multiple times, to make sure I did not miss key details, because I was completely unfamiliar with topics they were bringing up. 
The first step was to make sure we speak the same language. So I created a list of terms and definittions needed to understand the world of EDU

Jobs to be Done Framework

NOTE: This is an overview of all the research process. For details on each area, please see Part 2: Definitions, Roles and Workflows

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Semester Workflow Phases:

Create teaching materials     âžœ      Semester set up      âžœ     Supporting workflows     âžœ     Teaching     âžœ    Learning    âžœ    Clean-up

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What types of content is created at an EDU?

CASE STUDY: HYBRID MASTERS PROGRAM

Program overview

I also included a detailed customer use case walk-through to illustrate exactly how one of our EDU customers uses Panopto to run an a hybrid Masters program

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"Behind the scenes" set -up

Even though half of our customers were using an LMS, not everyone in our org knew exactly how it worked (including me, at the start of the research process). To address this, I created a mini crush-course on LMS. The org needed this basic shared knowledge to have a meaningful conversation about use cases

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LEARNINGS & OBSERVATIONS

Before this formative research effort, we did not have a clear understanding of how EDU orgs use our product. More importantly, we did not have clarity on how EDU orgs operated to begin with - who did what, how courses were scheduled, who did what. Before this formative research effort, we did not have a clear understandi

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1. Each org is its own universe 

Each university does things differently. Even Individual schools and departments at the same university can have different processes

2. Academic freedom is important

Each instructor wants to be free to teach their class how they prefer, without being told what to do

3. Roles & responsibilities vary by org size and structure

It is more helpful to think in terms of hats rather than roles - in smaller orgs, a smaller number of people wear a greater number of hats

4. Different roles work together towards a shared goal

Workflows span multiple roles and departments everyone working together to enable learning

5. Instructors are subject matter experts, but are not always comfortable with technology

At larger schools, Instructors want to just walk in and teach. They know the subject, but are not instructional designers, and may also need training on HOW to teach

6. Instructional design goals

Courses are designed with specific learning outcomes in mind

7. Multistep workflows repeat each semester

Course set up and support can be complex and time-intensive. Universities spend a lot of resources to manage technology supporting learning

8. Time is "wasted" moving files and adjusting settings

One of the frequent complaints we heard is connected to scheduling and updating remote recorders, which cannot be done in bulk and causes problems when classes are rescheduled

9. "Hidden" functionality

We have features that our customers are looking for, but do not know  that they exist

10. Live and Async recordings workflows

Live Recordings and Async Recordings have very different workflows and life cycles. We need to treat them as two separate use cases

IMPACT

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  • Gained clarity on how EDU orgs are structured

  • Gained understanding of EDU roles and activities

  • Provided context to better understand, prioritize  and resolve usability issues

  • Created a framework to facilitate meaningful discussions with the team and stakeholders

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