Introduction

I designed a microlearning course called “Starship Technology Tutorial”. This

course is designed primarily for students at WSU who have no experience placing a

delivery order, but the course could also be beneficial to anyone else who visits campus

and would like to order food. The main goal of this microlearning course is for students

to learn how to place food delivery orders with the Starship robots at Wayne State. This

will be achieved through the following learning outcomes: After instruction, students will

be able to recall key features of a Starship robot, identify criteria necessary to create

their own Grubhub accounts and describe the steps needed to place a delivery order.

The problem is that students have a lack of knowledge on how to place food delivery

orders with the Starship Technology robots on Wayne State’s campus, resulting in low

usage of this new, innovative technology. The specific gaps in learners’ knowledge can

be categorized by limited knowledge of how the Grubhub app can be utilized as a

student, no knowledge of how to place food delivery orders, and a lack of knowledge

about the different features of the Starship robots. By providing learners with this

knowledge, they will be able to see the effectiveness and value of using the bots to

order food, and they will be more inclined to try out placing an order, leading to an

increase in orders and improving the accessibility and affordability of dining options for

students on campus.

Research Process

To begin my research process, I first decided to conduct a learner audience

analysis poll that would quickly help identify how many WSU students have already

placed an order using the Starship robots. I posted a poll to the Wayne State University
community Snapchat story that consists of 606 Wayne State students. Out of 65

responses, 80% of students said they had not yet placed an order. This poll helped

highlight the gap in learners' knowledge that I aimed to address with the microlearning

course.

From here, I decided to conduct some interviews with members of the learning

audience to gain more insight and empathy into why a majority of students have not

placed Starship orders. Based on my interviews with three on-campus students, I

discovered that they all shared similar concerns about not knowing what the robots can

do, confusion about what app to use, and perceived complexity of the process. These

empathy-based interviews helped identify the specific gaps in knowledge that needed to

be addressed through my microlearning course. I used their specific concerns as a

guide for developing the course content to ensure those areas were addressed.

I also conducted some interviews with SMEs including my boss who works at

Starship Technologies. He was able to provide me with some direct insight into average

daily order numbers. I found that this number was very low compared to other

campuses in the United States. I also talked to my coworkers who validated my

previous research by confirming that the gaps in knowledge existed among their friends

and other students they know. These SME interviews helped me gain a deeper

understanding of learners' knowledge, and they helped me tailor the content of my

microlearning course to address both learners' needs and the operational elements of

the robot delivery system.

During the design process, I followed these 4 steps: ideation, storyboarding,

prototyping, and testing. In the ideation step, I brainstormed ideas and goals that I

wanted to accomplish for my e-Learning course. I also identified my learning audience

and conducted interviews and learner audience analysis with members of the learning

audience to understand their specific needs and knowledge gaps. During this step, I

also talked to my boss and coworkers at Starship Technologies for insight into potential

gaps in the operational end of the robot delivery system. I used information and insight

from all of these areas to create a list of learning objectives that would guide the design

of the course for future phases of my design.

After gaining this insight and ideating a general idea of what should be included

in my e-Learning course, I moved on to the storyboarding phase of the design process,

where I could outline the structure and flow of the course. Storyboarding allowed me to

visualize the content and ensure it was laid out in a clear and effective manner. I used

insight gained from the previous phase of the design process to write down my clear

and measurable learning outcomes. I made sure that these outcomes were

learner-oriented and based on the needs of actual students at WSU. I also made a table

that outlined what content I wanted to include and how I could effectively chunk this

content. I broke it up in a way that allowed each “unit” to align with an individual learning

outcome, so the content was appropriate and suitable for a microlearning course. This

also allowed me to determine what types of video/audio/visuals were most appropriate

for specific information in the course, enabling me to make informed design decisions

that would benefit the course and the learners.

chunked and a clear visual understanding of how I wanted it to look, I moved on to the

prototyping phase of the design process. This part of the design process was fun, as it

required me to play around with 7taps and start designing a draft of my course. I used

my storyboard to draft my previous ideas into real “cards” in the microlearning course. I

was able to try out different features of 7taps and put together the best possible course

design. While prototyping, we also received peer feedback that helped shape my design

before I put it out and tested it on real WSU students. This was beneficial because

receiving feedback from my peers allowed me to identify flaws, areas of improvement,

or areas of confusion that I needed to clear up before moving on. Overall, this step of

the design process was crucial in refining and perfecting the design of my e-Learning

course before I could move on to the testing phase.

Finally, I moved on to the testing phase where I was able to evaluate the

effectiveness of my course and identify whether or not my course achieved its desired

goals. I sent out the link of my course to 4 WSU students, and a parent of a WSU

student, all of whom were interested in learning more about the Starship ordering

process. I also sent them a survey to my validation report that would tell me how well

the course met each learner's needs and if it was effective at helping them achieve their

desired learning outcomes. I found that overall, my course was generally engaging and

the content was easy to complete; however, there were also some setbacks. Many

people mentioned that the course was a bit longer than they expected. This phase of

the design process was critical because it allowed me to identify areas that could

improve. Design is an iterative process and testing my design with learners allowed me
to see what could be refined, optimized, and used as considerations to improve future

designs.

During the whole design process, I faced a handful of constraints and limitations

that affected the development of my course. First, as a student, I had limited time and

resources, as I worked under the constraints of the free version of 7taps. I had limited

access to certain features, like the number of videos I could include and the inability to

upload my own images. To address these constraints, I had to be creative and

resourceful with the features I did have access to. I spent time playing around with

7taps and determining how I could use it to its full potential and deciding which features

would be most beneficial to my learners. In regard to lack of time, there was a due date

for this project, which forced me to cut off designing at a certain point and turn in what I

had. This limited time meant I was unable to iterate through multiple rounds of

prototyping, testing, and refining. Ideally, I would have wanted to refine and update

aspects of my course after testing it with a sample of the learning audience, but due to

time constraints, I was only able to go through one round of prototyping and testing,

which limited my ability to shape the course around direct learner feedback. In order to

best address this limitation, I made sure to gather as much feedback as possible from

my small group of learners. I took note of all their ideas, suggestions, and the

limitations I faced in order to keep those things in mind in my future designs.

Design Solution:

My final solution was this microlearning course on 7taps that used a variety of features

including text, images, audio files, and videos to describe the ordering process with

Starship delivery robots. According to user feedback, my course did prove to be

the fact that I chunked the content into 3 smaller topics that addressed each phase of

the delivery process in a clear and concise manner. One of my major concerns was that

my course would be too long since I had a lot of information to cover, and I do think my

overall course ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated, but the fact that I divided

the content in this way allowed the learners to process the information in different steps

that seemed more manageable, and it prevented cognitive overload.

Another effective feature of my design is the multiple-choice questions at the end

of each topic to assess learners’ understanding of the content before they move on.

This is an optimal solution because I made sure that each question aligned directly with

a learning outcome. This means if a learner gets all of the questions right, they should

be in line to successfully achieve the corresponding learning outcomes. Additionally, the

multiple choice questions ensure that learners are getting immediate feedback on their

progress toward the learning outcomes. If they get a question wrong, they will be able to

identify which areas of instruction they need to review before they are able to

successfully transfer their knowledge and order from the Starship delivery robots.

Another feature that is effective for my design is the different types of multimedia

I incorporated. At the start of the instruction, there are some GIFs of the robots. These

grab the learners’ attention while also giving them an idea about how the robots look

when they travel around campus. Later in the e-Learning, there is an audio file that

explains a step of the ordering process. This is effective because it follows the modality

principle of design mentioned in our textbook which says how audio narration can help

prevent cognitive overload when teaching fast-paced information if it is used in place of

screen recordings that show someone ordering from the Starship robots. This is

effective because the videos are an engaging way to present the information, so

learners are more inclined to remember what they learned from the videos, compared to

text. It also mirrors what learners will see on their own phones, so it gives them the most

realistic and clearest understanding of what to expect during the ordering process.

Overall the strategies and features I incorporated in my design were well

thought-out and effective at addressing the problem statement. The course includes

features like multiple choice questions aligned with the learning outcomes, audio

explanations, and videos. The incorporation of these features was done with the

learners in mind to present them with an effective and optimal solution that provides

users with a clear understanding of the ordering process.

Results:

Overall, the microlearning course was successful and effective in achieving its desired

learning outcomes. Learners responded by saying that they felt the course was easy to

navigate and understand. They liked the screen recording videos and felt those were

most effective in getting them to understand the ordering process. After completing the

validation report, most learners said they felt in the range of “confident to very confident”

in placing a delivery order after, which tells me that the course was effective. I do think

there are certain changes that could be made to get all learners in the “very confident”

range. Some of the learners felt that the course was too long, so it might be beneficial to

go through and eliminate any information that doesn’t directly correlate to a learning
outcome. Overall, my course was effective, but design is an iterative process, and the

insights I gained from this project will be used to improve future designs.

Reflection:

Overall, this project was a helpful and insightful way to gain experience with the design

process. Some things that went well for me were the ideation and storyboarding phases

of my design. In my previous classes, we talked a lot about empathy maps and

conducting interviews with SMEs and members of the learning audience, so I felt

comfortable gaining insight into my audience and getting to know gaps in their

knowledge to help shape the design of my project. From here, as I moved on to

storyboarding, I found this to be the most beneficial phase of design. It allowed me to

figure out how I wanted my content to be structured and allowed for a smooth transition

into actually designing the course. I think one of the areas I struggled with was the

actual prototyping. While creating the course, I became very focused on adding content

and features, so I had to keep reminding myself to design for the learners rather than

myself. I had to step back and make sure my content actually aligned with my learning

outcomes, and still, I felt that I added more content than necessary. My course ended

up being longer than I anticipated and looking back, I do think there is some information

in the course I could remove or refine. This phase was hard for me for many reasons;

first off, I was using a brand new program that I had never used before. I had to

effectively design information from my course while simultaneously learning how to

navigate 7taps. Having this experience will allow me to design more effectively in the

future if I decide to use 7taps again, but even beyond 7taps, I feel like completing this

project has set me up for success in all future design projects. I was able to experience
skills in problem-solving and creativity that enhanced my ability to design content in all

forms. I was also able to see the impact of learner feedback and how this can be used

to refine a design. In future projects, I will leave more time to conduct formative

evaluations before I turn in or submit my project, so I am able to make it through a few

rounds of prototyping, testing, and refining, before submitting my design. Overall, this

project allowed me to grow as a designer by gaining experience in what the design

process consists of and by giving me valuable information and strategies on how to

work against any constraints to optimize design; this is all information and experience

that I can apply to future projects.