Project - Streamlined Course Navigation & Sequences (FC-0046)
Status | cOMPLETED |
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Contributing Team | @Marco Morales , @Volodymyr Chekyrta |
Earlier Discovery | N/A |
Linked Initiatives | Funded Contribution FC-0046 |
Roadmap Entry | |
Overview | With this project we hope to transition the Open edX learning experience toward simplified navigation and quicker access to learning content. Similarly, we plan to lay the foundation for future course home and app home experiences that represent learning homes not content listing pages. |
Overview
With this project we hope to transition the Open edX learning experience toward simplified navigation and quicker access to learning content. Similarly, we plan to lay the foundation for future course home and app home experiences that represent learning homes not content listing pages.
Key Use Cases
Provide key mobile experience components and views to support an improved primary launch experience for as many Open edX instances as possible, with a focus on supporting learners taking the next content step in a specific learning product object (ex: course, program, etc).
Consider how components, subviews, etc of this primary launch experience might be refactored for instances that vary in catalog size and product offerings.
Shift away from a product listing focused experience (ex: Coursera, edX) to a single content object focused ‘next step’ experience as demonstrated by learning applications (ex. Duolingo, Codecademy, etc. )
Summarization of key areas that we plan to change as part of this effort:
Account Level Views: Updated account creation, access, and settings views
Dashboard Level Views: Updated application level mobile navigation patterns
Course Home: Updates to course home experience
Sequence Navigation: Streamlined course sequences experience
Deliverables
Stage 1 - Account Level Navigation Changes
Account Settings - Cleaned up account settings tools split out from Learner Profile
Updated App Navigation Bar - Updated core navigation to Learn, Discover, Downloads, and Profile, skipping future proposed Dates / Plan page and Profile → Activity page shift.
Stage 2 - Dashboard Level Navigation Changes
New Learn Page : Configurable Products + Listing / Next Step Modes This shift combines the Courses + Programs tabs to a single Learn tab with a clear product selection toggle at the top of the view. Product pages can be native or web view linked. This increment also introduces modes for the product view (listing - status quo) and (next step - future direction). The default view will shift to being ‘next step’ however it will be easy for applications to configure the listing view instead for courses.
New Downloads Page - Application level downloads view, or at least a simple v1 variant that links to per-course download views to be improved eventually by Project - Offline Mode (Text + Problems) (FC-28c)
Stage 3 - Course Home
Course Image, Heading, and Navigation - This involves a visual shift to the course home experience to present course image, title, organization and main course navigation views up top instead of using the bottom course navigation bar. Fallbacks to support cases where no course image exists, as well as scrolling behavior is part of this.
Basic Visual Progress Summary - An initial high level progress visual that we can improve over time will be added to course home to highlight which fraction of the total course lessons have been completed.
Course Sections / Outline Updates - Focusing the course outline on a quick recap of progress to date and clear hierarchical boundaries for course areas is a key aspect of this refresh. Collapsing completed sections to minimize their visual weight, providing a space for course messages (such as certificate or access expiration), and other updates relating to incorporating visual progress are a planned part of this.
Stage 4 - Sequences Navigation Updates
Echoing Full Unit Page Navigation - For sequences our goal is to remove the need to have a secondary outline page after the course home page which lists units + components / blocks. Instead, our goal is to jump students into learning sequences from the Start Course / Resume Course buttons or Course Outline elements on course home. To achieve this our plan is to build full unit pages as is the case on the desktop web experience, with learners progressing through unit pages via next and previous buttons.
Users
Learners - These updates are focused on learner facing changes to the mobile applications.
In Scope / Out of Scope
Based on the above use cases, we are breaking down on high-level scope as follows:
In Scope | Out of Scope |
New Learn Page (clear toggle between Courses and Programs) | New Plan Page - While includes for the sake of directional visibility, this page can be build after completion of Project - Mobile Dates & Calendar Personalization |
New Downloads Page -v1 App Level page for downloads (to be incorporated into plans but built into the Offline Mode project) | New Activity Page - May keep this as profile page for now, with future changes planned after core navigation is updated. This page is of secondary / tertiary importance compared to other updates in this scope. |
Updated Course Home - A new course home experience with new navigational elements instead of the bottom navigation bar, improved visual styling for the content outline, addition of a simplified top level progress bar, and other small adjustments. |
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Updated Learning Sequences Navigation - This includes the removal of the secondary Unit + Component page after the Course Home page, streamlining content access flows. |
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MVP Specs
Features & Requirements
In order to realize this MVP, we believe the following features will be required. Refer to the following flow chart for more details:
Feature | Requirements |
Account Level Views | |
Profile & Account Settings Updates | The goal of this effort is to split the profile page (who I am as a learner, what I’ve done, and eventually what I’m doing) from account settings ( controls, options, etc.) The profile age should represent who I am as a learner and what I’ve done so far. Under consideration for scope in this effort is to see whether it is possible to retrieve and visualize platform certificates in a single view. All account settings details, including account deletion workflow should move into account settings area and be removed from profile. Account settings should be accessible from the main 4 application tabs as an icon in the top right of the page. |
App Level Navigation | As demonstrated by the requirement sections above, the new application navigation will see some updates. The new app level navigation bar
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Dashboard Level Views | |
New Learn Page: Configurable Products + Listing / Next Step Modes |
Design mocks added further down this page. |
New Downloads Page |
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New Dates / Plan Page |
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Course Home | |
Resume Course CTA Updates | Visual updates / cleanup to the resume learning call to action |
Course Listing Item Blocks |
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Full Bleed Course Imagery | Visual updates / cleanup to course home imagery / color background for a course |
Course Title & Progress Summary | Exploring the use of a simplified assignment level progress summary under the course title: Example statements:
Potential addition of a simplified progress visual underneath this title + statement as well |
Sequence Navigation | |
Headers and Naming | We plan to use the name of a sequence in the header, with Unit page titles within the content area. Unit Page header names will have a subtitle with page points available (if applicable) and possibly a label for whether the content is graded or ungraded. |
Sequence Icons | We plan to have selectable icons for each unit, echoing current platform behavior and surfacing opportunities for progress visualization on the content mobile views.
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Bulk Downloading | We will be reviewing how we convey partial or complete download status, along with a possible bulk download action at the Sequence level shown in the header. |
Video Blocks | We need a visual shift to these blocks, highlighting (if available) 3 lines or so of the interactive transcript with a way to expand this so that scrolling past the transcript is easier for unit pages with content blocks underneath a video block. |
Next / Previous Buttons | We plan to show next and previous buttons at the end of the content frame, making the need for scrolling more obvious. |
Finish Step / Modal | We are exploring this modal progress shifting to an in-page conditional message shown when you navigate to a future section, instead of being an interruptive message / modal. |
Design Collateral / Cases
Primary Card State Considerations
Learn Page | ||
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Feature | Details | Notes |
Primary Course Card - Learner has only 1 course | When a learner is enrolled in only 1 course, display the primary course card |
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Primary Course Card - Learner has only 1 course | If learner has not started the course, show a “Start Course” CTA, and no progress bar |
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Primary Course Card - Learner has only 1 course | If learner has started the course, show a “Continue Course” CTA, and progress bar |
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Progress Bar | Progress bar is present on all courses that have been started, meaning they have gotten through at least one unit |
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Progress Bar | Progress is shown as # of lessons completed out of the total # of lessons in the course. If a lesson is partially complete, it is not included as part of the progress made in the progress bar |
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Secondary Course Card on Learn Page | Primary card is displayed and secondary cards fall below -- Secondary course cards are displayed below the Primary Course Card for learners that have multiple courses they are enrolled in. These cards fall within 2 sections: In Progress or Completed. | Secondary cards on the learn page DO NOT have a progress indicator. |
Secondary Course Card on Learn Page | Secondary courses scroll left/right within their respective section |
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Learn Page Sections | Next / In Progress / Completed |
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View All: Secondary Course Card on Detail Page | When a learner taps on the In Progress or Completed section header, they land on the ‘View All’ page for that category. This reveals a 2 column grid of all courses within that section. These cards expand slightly from the Learn page to reveal a progress bar. Courses are ordered from most complete at the top of the list to least complete at the bottom.
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Programs | TBD |
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Feature behavior
X
Technical Open Questions
We anticipate the following to some of the key questions that we will need answered during technical discovery.
X
Successful Rollout: UI Considerations
We believe there is some risk in … We believe that organizations will need time to …. Therefore, we want to be conscious about how ….
We are proposing the following to help drive adoption:
New User Product Tour: X
Product & UX/UI FAQ
The following represent our Product view of key questions. However, we look to the UX/UI and technical teams to validate these as needed.
Q: How ..
A:
Q: Can a ..
Future Direction
The following features are not part of the MVP but may be added during future development of this product. They are offered here only for consideration as MVP platform decisions are made that may impact future opportunities.
New Plan Page:
X
New Activity Page:
X
YYYY:
X