From Assignment to Insight: Enhancing Content Discovery, Reporting, and Engagement
I led the design effort to answer the need of educators who want to assign lessons and measure progress.
Sector
Educator Platform with Classroom Resources, Assignments and Reporting
Results
Better usability and new features drove a 44% increase in returning users vs. PY
My Role
• UX Director (30%) / Lead Designer (70%) • Research Support • Design System Contributor
Transforming Teacher Tools: How We Made Lesson Planning Personal
The Challenge: "I Need More Time to Teach"
"I spend hours trying to find and assign the right content for each student..."
"Our state standards changed, but our resources haven't kept up..."
"I wish I could just carry over what worked last year..."
These were the voices of frustrated teachers using Amira Learning (formerly Istation). While our platform offered valuable educational content, teachers were spending precious time wrestling with outdated resources and rigid assignment systems instead of doing what they do best – teaching.
Why This Project Mattered
In education, time is everything. Every minute a teacher spends on administrative tasks is a minute they can't spend with students. Our platform needed to evolve from being just a content repository to becoming an intelligent teaching assistant that could:
- Align with current state standards
- Enable personalized learning at scale
- Save teachers time through smart automation
- Provide meaningful insights into student progress
Discovery: Understanding Teachers' Daily Reality
Deep in the Classroom
Instead of just conducting standard interviews, we:
- Shadowed teachers during their lesson planning sessions
- Observed how they managed student groups and assignments
- Documented their workarounds for our platform limitations
- Identified where they were losing valuable teaching time
Key Insights
Through our research, three critical themes emerged:
1. Flexibility is Freedom
- Teachers needed to quickly adapt lessons for different learning levels
- Group creation and management was a daily necessity
- The ability to customize content was essential for student engagement
2. Standards Matter
- Outdated content was forcing teachers to create workarounds
- Alignment with state standards was non-negotiable
- Teachers needed confidence in content relevance
3. Time is Teaching
- Assignment templates could save hours of repeat work
- Year-to-year continuity was crucial for planning
- Progress tracking needed to be intuitive and actionable
The Solution: Making Content Work for Teachers
Working closely with our product and engineering teams, we created a system that put teachers back in control of their classroom resources.
1. Smart Assignment System
- One-click assignment to individuals or groups
- Flexible templates for recurring lessons
- Intelligent recommendations based on student progress
2. Standards-Aligned Content
- Updated resources matching current state standards
- Clear standards mapping for each lesson
- Easy filtering by standard or learning objective
3. Time-Saving Features
- Year-to-year template migration
- Bulk assignment capabilities
- Automated progress tracking and reporting
The Design Process: Collaboration for Impact
As Lead Designer, I:
- Facilitated workshops with educators to validate solutions
- Created and tested prototypes with real teachers
- Collaborated with engineering to ensure feasibility
- Partnered with content teams on standards alignment
- Led cross-functional design sprints for feature innovation
The Results: Numbers That Tell a Story
The impact exceeded our expectations:
- 44% increase in educator return visits
- Significant reduction in lesson planning time (reported by 87% of teachers)
- High adoption rate of template features (76% of users)
- Improved student engagement through personalized assignments
Key Learnings & Future Opportunities
What Worked Well
1. Deep classroom observation revealed crucial pain points
2. Regular teacher feedback loops caught issues early
3. Cross-functional collaboration ensured feasible solutions
What I Could Improve
1. Earlier integration with content teams
2. More extensive beta testing with diverse school districts
3. Better analytics framework for measuring impact
Looking Forward
This project taught me that great educational technology isn't just about features – it's about giving teachers back the time and tools they need to do what they do best: inspire and educate. By making our platform more flexible, standards-aligned, and time-efficient, we helped teachers focus on what matters most – their students.
Today, Amira Learning isn't just a resource library – it's a trusted partner in the classroom, helping teachers deliver personalized learning experiences that drive real progress.
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