Understanding First-Time User Experiences in an Educational Crowdsourcing Platform
Abstract
User onboarding for Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications usually involve walkthrough tutorials explaining various UI elements, functions, and navigation screens. These First-time User Experiences (FTUEs) are crucial in determining any subsequent user interaction. The purpose of this study has been explored by eliciting answers to two research questions in specific. The study primarily investigates a user's perception of a tailored onboarding experience. Following this, the impact of these tutorials on the user's performance has also been used as a way to verify their effectiveness. The emergence of educational crowdsourcing platforms has revolutionized traditional models of teaching and learning by engaging students in collaborative, real-world problem-solving activities. However, the success of crowdsourcing platforms in education largely depends on their ability to provide a positive and engaging user experience, particularly for first-time users. As a part of another ongoing study, the need for an engaging onboarding tutorial to educate users on the concept of worked-out examples and peer evaluations was evident. Thus, the interventions developed in this study are built upon a crowdsourcing platform designed to collect worked-out examples from university students. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study seeks to provide insights into the design of effective onboarding tutorials in the context of crowdsourcing educational resources. There have been numerous attempts to devise effective onboarding strategies. For instance, the interplay of narration and animation has been utilized as a way to gamify and design engaging FTUEs. The design choices for tailoring the experience were hence determined through Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) methods. Analysis of the experimental data shows that there is a statistically significant improvement in the FTUE when users are presented with a tailored onboarding tutorial. Their usage patterns also tend to improve post their interactions with the tutorials. These results hope to contribute to a better understanding of user engagement in FTUEs, thus paving the way for furthering product adoption and value metrics on a broad scale.
Degree
M.S.
Advisors
Kao, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Information Technology|Educational technology|Instructional Design
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