DSI

Since we have announced the International Baccalaureate’s collaboration with ePals, Inc, we would like to share the results of our DSI prototype testing, held this past February. The feedback that we received will influence our future online learning community site.

For the first phase of our prototypes, we had volunteer testers from the following stakeholder groups: MYP students, DP students, Alumni, Volunteers and Educators.  With our collaborator, ePals, we built a sight to demonstrate the look and functionality that we will offer in the Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community. Testers each had their own user profile, with the ability to upload a photo and personalize his or her information. The site also offered messaging and search capabilities and various user groups to show testers what the level of community connectivity will be on the site.

We opened the site for three weeks and allowed testers to spend as much time as they liked on the site. After visiting the site, we asked our testers to complete a survey on their experience. Some of the questions we asked what they liked, what they did not like, their thoughts on the ease of usability, and what functions did they want but not yet have. We left many spaces for open comments on the survey, and we received very honest and helpful feedback. Additionally, we conducted phone interviews in order to take our feedback process one step further. It was great to be able to talk to our testers and get a more personalized perspective on their experience.

The feedback from our testers is invaluable to us, and will help us with the functionality and design of the Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community.  Here are some highlights from our tester feedback:

• Users are very excited about the project.
• Users widely agree that they will use the site, and in addition to their other social networking sites.
• Educators and Volunteers look forward to having only one login, with all of their IB information and resources in one place.
• MYP students like the social aspect of the site.
• Many testers like the clean, streamline design of the site.

Suggested resources for the site include:

• Students want to see:
  • More academic resources: examples of essays and sample tests
• Educators want to see:
  • All of their resources in one place
  • Best practices and idea sharing with other educators, globally
• Volunteers want to see:
  • IB news and community information
  • Wikis
• Alumni want to see:
  • Links to publication by IB faculty and alumni
  • Showcase of student projects
  • Ability to order past transcripts, diplomas, and test results
  • Regional event postings like conferences and seminars

The negative feedback we received from the surveys primarily pertains to navigational difficulties. We want everyone to know that we are working on the little kinks within the site and we look forward to building an efficient, user intuitive network. We have taken the results of the prototype testing and have created our next steps and must haves for the upcoming beta site. Here are our thoughts:

Feedback requirements that had already been documented for the Stakeholder Gateway:

• Access to Community Service projects
• Regional event postings
• IB news
• IB Community information
• Customisation of screens
• Notification of recently established groups in the Virtual Community
• Teacher and student subject guides
• Links to publications
• Notification of new IB documents
• Info on CAS
• Specific DP, MYP, PYP pages

Feedback requirements that had already been documented for the Virtual Community:

• Global networking
• Q&A with IB teachers
• Customisation of screens
• Access to potential job/internship opportunities

Feedback requirements that will be documented for the Virtual Community:

• Examples of extended essays
• Link to IB store for practice exams
• Ability to search on profile information such as interests
• Change theme (colour font etc) of page
• Literary tools/assistance

Feedback requirements that will be documented for the Stakeholder Gateway:

• IB world map showing all IB Schools
• World clock showing the time in other countries

Thank you to all of our prototype testers, your feedback is invaluable! We look forward to the next phase: DSI beta testing.

As of 25 June 2009, the International Baccalaureate and ePals, Inc. will collaborate to create a customized online learning community for IB students, educators, alumni, volunteers and other stakeholders. We chose a company with a 21^st century global understanding to align with our mission statement. ePals, Inc. has the reputation, mission, and technical infrastructure to fulfill the IB’s needs for the present and future. One of the most exciting components of this project is that we will now be able to connect IB World Schools regardless of geographic, linguistic, or cultural difference.

Together, we have developed a multi-phase three year plan. This includes the development of a virtual community: a safe and collaborative private online community that will have access to a larger global education based network. There will be one year of development work and pilot trials on the co-branded ePals/ IB hosted site. We plan to have this available to everyone starting in July 2010. The synergy with ePals to form our new online learning community will allow the IB to tell its story—one that is global, visual, and incredibly thought-provoking.

Click here to dowload the press release. To view our screencast on the project, click here.

We are very excited about this oppurtunity, and look forward to hearing your thoughts!