A design-focused look at the experiences of educators, students, & parents during emergency remote learning
Michigan Virtual
Between March and June 2020, statewide school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions in both learning and daily life for students, parents, teachers, and school leaders alike. Desiring to learn from this moment in educational history, Michigan Virtual collaborated with Sundberg-Ferar to conduct qualitative research focused on capturing authentic stories and experiences from administrators, teachers, parents, and students.
Market
Consumer Products
The ultimate goal was to influence actionable plans to make the future of education – whether face-to-face, blended, or virtual – more impactful for students.
The team conducted 17 small-group video interviews with a total of approximately 65 participants representing students, parents, teachers, and administrators from across the state. Across all interviews, the health, well-being and safety of students and educators in Michigan emerged as a dominant theme. By far the greatest emphasis was on the immediate need for administrators and instructional support teams to communicate with teachers and assist in their efforts to stay connected with their students and parents. There was little hope to continue delivering quality education if students were left hungry and alone without a plan for their well-being.
Michigan Virtual: What Can We Learn From Emergency Remote Learning?
“These last two months proved we don’t need to keep doing things the same old way, there are other ways to learn and we’ll be doing a disservice to our students and ourselves if we look to just go back to things exactly as they were.”
Educator
Human Impact
Throughout the research, participants often came to tears, thanking the research team for simply listening to them and giving them a much-desired voice. Teachers and parents felt isolated and frustrated that their ideas and experiences would fall to the wayside. Knowing that an organization like Michigan Virtual wanted to learn from them and use their humble insights to better the future of education meant so much to the participants who appreciated any moment of hope during the early days of the pandemic.
Business Impact
SF and Michigan Virtual used these new stakeholder insights to hypothesize future remote and hybrid learning challenges, identify education models in need of innovation, and create Next Step recommendations. This full report was made available to the public on the Michigan Virtual website and used to help educators learn from each other and gain perspective on remote learning challenges statewide. SF and Michigan Virtual continue to work together to design better learning experiences regardless of whether students are learning in a face-to-face, remote, or blended learning environment.
Other Consumer Products Projects
StoryPoint : Senior Living Research
Diving deep into the wants & needs of retirement-age users as they evaluate living in a Senior CommunityStoryPoint Senior LivingWith the size of the U.S. senior population expanding, and competitive pressures increasing, StoryPoint, one of the top 25 largest...
Electrolux: The Marriage of Physical and Digital Branding
The Marriage of Physical and Digital BrandingElectroluxElectrolux collaborated with Sundberg-Ferar to explore the transition of their brand into the digital space of the embedded control screens on their products. This represented an opportunity for the company to...
OBI: Robotic Feeding Device
Empowerment Through DesignDESῙN LLC / ObiEating is one of the most essential human experiences and one that many of us take for granted. The act of feeding oneself in the presence of others ties together families and is a fundamental means of participating in culture...