How to Codesign with Teachers to Create Better EdTech Products

Learning how to codesign with teachers throughout the product design process will make your learning products more effective.

And it all hinges on your ability to translate user feedback into meaningful design decisions.

After spending years as both an educator and a UX researcher, I've developed a knack for understanding what teachers really mean when they provide feedback to product designers.

And I'm here to tell you: we're not always speaking the same language!

Even if you’ve held incredible feedback sessions, simple misunderstandings lead to lost time, design decisions that don't work, and other frustrations.

Below, I'm breaking down three conversations that I see regularly in codesign sessions and user interviews.

I'll explain what educators typically mean, so you can translate their feedback and get the most out of your codesign sessions.

But first: let's talk about how different user testing is post-pandemic—and how these changes are affecting the expectations of our users.

Navigating a new landscape for user testing with educators

Over the past five years, educators have come to expect more than ever from EdTech products.

Our users now understand how EdTech products can “differentiate” student content in real time or perform other high-level tasks.

They’ll even express these needs in user interviews. They just might not use the same terms as EdTech designers.

Educators also regularly express ideas for a design solution that sounds complicated on the surface—but that points to a challenge that can be solved simply.

So don't be discouraged after your codesign session!

There's usually a way to reconcile educator feedback and product design requirements—even if it takes time, consideration, and translation.

Key differences between educator vocabulary and product design vocabulary

When you work in a specialized industry like EdTech, you get comfortable with the lingo.

Product owners and UX designers use terms like “adaptive” or “responsive” all the time, for example—and we know what we mean.

Typically, we're thinking about products that use responsive design to adjust to a variety of screen sizes and devices.

Or AI-powered tools that respond directly to student inputs.

But when educators use the term “adaptive” or “personalized” to describe EdTech product features, they often mean something quite different.

In education, "adaptive" and "personalized" content more frequently refers to content that is differentiated based on a student's individualized needs or abilities.

As UX designers and researchers, it's our job to set up enough user feedback loops, so we understand and apply these vocabulary differences effectively throughout product design.

Let's look at a few examples of conversations that occur in codesign sessions—and how you can successfully interpret what educators really mean.

Conversation #1: When lack of automation causes user frustration

What an educator says

“It’s really frustrating to have to update my virtual class list or create groups manually.”

What a product owner or designer might hear

“In order to do this, I’d have to re-evaluate the entire permissions system within our product, or re-consider how our rostering system is structured within the app.”

What the educator most likely means

“Automated grouping or classroom management features help me save time. If I can save the group I used last week, I don’t have to spend as much time on tech set-up.”

How to address the concern

If you’re hearing these kinds of comments, take a step back.

Boil the comment down to the specific problem, so you can work a solution out with your development team.

This might even mean setting aside a proposed solution from a user, like, “I want grouping to happen automatically.”

Your user might actually be requesting something happen “automatically” because they want to save time.

Once you understand the nature of your users’ problems, you’ll likely be able to come up with a time-saving solution that works.

(And that won’t require a massive overhaul on the back end.)

Conversation #2: When educators ask for differentiation

What an educator says

“I want something that differentiates for me.”

What a product owner or designer might hear

“We should work on accessibility in our learning tool. Maybe in the next phase, we could roll out audio features or voice recognition.”

What the educator most likely means

“I wish this product could address content sequencing by finding the appropriate level of difficulty for each of my students.”

How to address the concern

Ensuring that your product uses voice recognition and other inclusive technology whenever possible is important.

In fact, we always recommend building digital tools with accessibility in mind.

In a pedagogical context, however, to “differentiate” means to tailor instruction to meet individual needs.

Educators already do this in the classroom all the time by:

grouping students
providing additional individual support
giving visual guides
revisiting topics
or trying different teaching modalities

Differentiation is certainly related to student accessibility and personalized learning.

But educators who make comments about differentiation are most likely thinking about digital tools that use AI to adapt to a learners’ needs.

That could look like a content sequence that changes based on students’ in-app performance or an additional content review based on student progress.

When a digital tool “differentiates” content for individual learners, educators have more time to focus on classroom instruction.

Your digital tool has an opportunity to help busy educators work more efficiently and effectively.

Conversation #3: When EdTech products accidentally add more administrative burden

What an educator says

“I hate having to sort through all my students to find out who finished an assignment and who hasn’t.”

What a product owner or designer might hear

“That sounds frustrating, but fixing this issue could mean re-designing our existing platform to provide up-to-date notifications. There will be major implications for the entire site!”

What the educator most likely means

“I want to eliminate extra administrative work, like emailing students or checking in with parents when assignments are missing.”

How to address the concern

For educators, reporting features are often not just about student performance but in-app usage.

Are students using the tool at home?

Have they completed all their assignments?

When you understand what educators really want from reporting features, it’s easier to set up the back end in order to prioritize real-time updates.

Teacher-facing products can easily integrate code or AI to make educators' lives easier.

In order to automatically send reminders to students with missing assignments, for example, first work with your developers to create an analytics feature that updates in real time.

User research can also help your team determine when educators would find notifications most useful, or when they might be overwhelming.

Once you’ve come up with a solution, rapid prototype testing ensures that your new feature aligns with what educators need.

How we used the Teacher Council to improve user flows for Starwriter

At Backpack Interactive, we regularly host codesign sessions and conduct user interviews with our Teacher Council.

Our dedicated panel of educators includes teachers with many different areas of expertise, from Pre-K to higher ed.

When we worked on the Starwriter app, a handwriting tool for pre-readers, we knew how important educator feedback would be in order to get our user flows just right.

Feedback from members of our Teacher Council with expertise in early education helped us understand that pre-readers need more support as they practice handwriting and letter formation.

Rather than have students jump right into creating letters, we designed an approach that first helped learners practice the shapes they would need to be successful later in the program.

Video content helps students learn how to create new shapes, while audio and haptic feedback provide real-time guidance for students as they draw with a stylus.

Through many phases of testing and iteration, we created a successful, Webby-nominated learning tool that's now been introduced to learners throughout the country.

But this was only possible due to input from members of our Teacher Council, who helped us understand the approaches to letter formation that help their own students.

Final thoughts

Codesigning with educators throughout the product development process is invaluable for improving learning tools.

But it also takes time, planning, and a deep familiarity with the world of education to successfully translate educator feedback into real product wins.

The more we all work to understand the needs of educators and students, the better our product teams will become at translating the generous comments, suggestions, and feedback from educators into the features that will help them most.