DSI

Short, 5-minute screencast tours of the sketches for the IB’s new Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community are ready for viewing online!

We are inviting members of the IB community – students, parents, educators, alumni, staff, volunteers, and all other community participants - to review the sketches and to then give us feedback about the proposed features and functionality.

To begin, please watch the screencast(s) of interest to you at the links listed below. Viewing the screencasts will take no longer than 5 minutes.

We then hope you’ll take a 5-10 minute survey to let us know your opinions about the designs. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=avrLKBQ5IbvWNH8vKWQUeA_3d_3d.

Links to the screencasts:

• Screencast of proposed Alumni experience
• Screencast of proposed Diploma Student experience
• Screencast of proposed Educator experience
• Screencast of proposed Middle Years Student experience
• Screencast of proposed  Volunteer experience

Remember to please take our short 5 minute survey after watching the screencast(s):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=avrLKBQ5IbvWNH8vKWQUeA_3d_3d

Thank you for your time and for your feedback. The data being collected from IB community members has a real impact on the direction of development for the Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community!

We want to thank everyone for their continued support of the IB’s Digital Space Initiative (DSI) and its stakeholder research activities!

The input collected from our focus group activities and the general DSI survey in September has helped to inform our initial/proposed design, content and features for the IB’s new stakeholder gateway and virtual community.

As of today, over 3800 IB community members have participated in the survey effort and 29 IB World Schools have offered their classroom time for focus group sessions. We are excited about the positive response, and have put all your feedback to good use!

We are now ready to progress to “phase 2” of our stakeholder research activities. We would be grateful if you could visit the following link to access the DSI Card Sorting Activity (English only):

For Alumni: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/iba/

For Educators: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/ibe/

For Diploma Programme Students: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/ibdp/

For Middle Years Programme Students: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/ibmyp/

For Volunteers: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/ibv/

For IB Staff: http://ibo.optimalsort.com/ibs/

The activity will take about 10 minutes.

This “card sorting” activity will help us to prioritize and organize content and features on the new stakeholder gateway and in the new IB virtual community. It will also help us to identify the most effective ways to group and present online material for IB stakeholders, based on their unique roles (educators, students, alumni, volunteers, etc.).

Once again, we’d like to emphasize that your input will truly make a difference. The data we collect from this activity will further enhance and refine our stakeholder gateway and virtual community designs.

As of today, over 3,800 members of the IB community have taken the time to participate in the DSI general survey effort. We are extremely pleased with (and grateful for) the strong response!

Below is an overview of some of the current survey results. The data has made a real impact on the design work being done on the new IB stakeholder gateway and the new IB virtual community:

• Responses about the design and tone for the site are influencing our graphic and user interface work

• Responses about features, content and functionality have helped us strategically organize gateway and virtual community offerings

• Strong support for group interaction and an online, community-generated magazine have confirmed our design efforts for these components

The responses to the survey are also shaping our next stakeholder feedback activity: an online “card-sorting” exercise, where we’ll be asking you to help us further refine how we categorize, group and present the various elements of the gateway and virtual community. More information about this next step will be coming in a day or two. Stay tuned!

Selected current survey results (as of September 24, 2008):

Top 5 respondent age ranges:

1. 16-19 (51.3%)
2. 20-29 (34.1%)
3. 30-39 (4.8%)
4. 40-49 (4.2%)
5. 50-59 (3.5%)

Regional Representation:

1. 1. North America (44.1%)
2. 2. Africa, Europe, and the Middle East (23.8%)
3. 3. Asia Pacific (22.9%)
4. 4. Latin America (9.2%)

Top 5 respondent IB roles:

1. Students (58.5%)
2. Alumni (43.2%)
3. DP Teachers (4.7%)
4. PYP Teachers (4.1%)
5. Volunteers (3.9%)

Interest in a new IB online community:

Yes (83%)
No (17%)

Top 5 functions and tasks in social networking sites:

1. Finding New/ old friends (84.2%)
2. Sending emails/ messaging (80.7%)
3. Sharing photos (64.7%)
4. Seeing updates from friends (63.8%)
5. Sharing/ discussing topics with others (62.2%)

Top 5 features for the IB’s new online community:

1. Academic tools and applications (67.7%)
2. A place to collaborate on documents or files (61.9%)
3. News and events listings (59.9%)
4. Personal Profile (58.8%)
5. Private messaging (54.4%)

Top 5 content materials respondents would like to see on the IB’s new online community:

1. IB Resources (E.g., Academic/Programme Information and Guidelines, Lists of Exam Preparation Materials and Resources, Effective Writing or Project Creation Tips) (82.4%)
2. IB-specific advice, suggestions or “lessons learned” from others in the community (78.4%)
3. Latest news/feeds/events (64%)
4. Volunteer and service opportunities (58.4%)
5. Community highlights or featured content (E.g., featured student or educator of the week) (46.3%)

Top 5 academic applications respondents would like to see on the IB’s new online community:

1. Ask questions/Post comments (79%)
2. Example tests or quizzes (74.9%)
3. Knowledge test (57.9%)
4. Homework Helper (57.6%)
5. Mentoring options (55.7%)

Interest in joining academic or issue-related groups:

Yes (84.8%)
No (15.2%)

Interest in joining informal groups:

Yes (68.2%)
No (31.8%)

Interest in an online community-generated magazine:

Yes (73.1%)
No (26.9%)

Most appealing design style:

1. 1. A very “clean,” minimal design (49.8%)
2. 2. A “cutting edge” design (46.4%)
3. 3. An “artistic,” fun or more informal design (37.8%)
4. 4. A professional, more “business-like” or corporate design (31.5%)
5. 5. A design with a lot of photos and/or graphics (15.1%)
6. 6. A design that is mostly information or text focused, with fewer images (5.4%)

Most appropriate style of language or “tone”:

1. 1. Moderate tone – between formal and casual (65.9%)
2. 2. Casual tone (24.6%)
3. Formal tone or approach (8.2%)
4. Irreverent tone with heavy use of slang (1.2%)

The Digital Space Initiative (DSI) aims to better coordinate and align the IB’s current online offerings and to generally improve your experience with the IB online. As the IB works to create new web-based features and functionalities, we’d like to hear about your needs and preferences.

We are inviting members of the IB community – students, parents, educators, alumni, staff, volunteers, and all other community participants - to express their needs and interests through a set of surveys and possibly face-to-face or telephone brainstorming sessions over the course of the next two years.

As a starting point, we’re asking you to take our 5-10 minute survey  - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xSlfOFEYTe4ddC5yc21T5Q_3d_3d (English only) that will ask you a range of questions regarding your online preferences related to IB resources, sites and potential features.

The data collected from this and other upcoming stakeholder feedback activities will directly impact and help to shape our designs for the IB’s new virtual community and stakeholder “gateway.”

Take our 5-10 minute survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xSlfOFEYTe4ddC5yc21T5Q_3d_3d