Rakan Tutor

By: Kye Li Chia




Background


Design Statement:
In response to the educational challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, the 'Rakan Tutor' online tutoring program emerged to support students. However, it faces challenges such as inefficient use of tutoring time due to focusing on completing tasks rather than teaching, as well as difficulties in scheduling sessions promptly.

Research Statement:
Design a way to offer academic opportunities and improve the quality of education for all students.

Research Methods:

Field Research, User Persona, Competitor Analysis, Mood Board, Information Architecture
 


Field Research

Experience:
I volunteered as a Mathematics tutor in the 'Rakan Tutor' program, with the objective of assisting a Form 5 (Year 11) student in achieving an A grade in her SPM (GCSE equivalent) examination. Our tutoring sessions, held once or twice a week, lasted for approximately two hours each. To maximise our time together, I curated practice questions for the student to complete between sessions, allowing us to focus on areas where she needed additional support during our face-to-face sessions.

Programme timeline, student details and learning resources. 

Curated Mathematics questions.

Learnings:
From this experience, I encountered challenges with scheduling and optimising tutoring sessions efficiently. Often, our time together was consumed by completing assigned tasks, resulting in less focused and productive sessions. Additionally, we faced difficulties in establishing consistent session times, limiting our ability to connect more frequently, especially leading up to her examinations.



User Personas


A study was conducted to understand the needs, experiences, behaviours, and goals of the targeted users within the 'Rakan Tutor' program. Data were gathered from both tutors and tutees and used to create user personas, providing insights into the individuals involved in the learning process.




Competitor Analysis


A short analysis on the various educational platforms to gain insights on their respective strengths and weaknesses.

  1. Brilliant (Launched in 2012, has 4 million users in 2017)


2. Khan Academy (Launched in 2008, has 137 million users in 2022)


3. BBC BiteSize (Launched in 1998, has 3.8 million visitors per week on average in 2019)


4. Study Smarter (Launched in 2018, has  1.5 million users in 2021)




Mood Board


Exploration of different concepts and styles for the final product.




Information Architecture


A simple organisation and division of content is the done to provide the users with a well structure interface.

  1. First Time Users (Students)


2. Students


3. Teachers




Wireframe


Sketches of a few key screens to help determine the structure and information hierarchy of the content displayed.

Quick ideation sketches.

Low fidelity wireframes. 



Final Designs