UX Designer
Bubble Development, Graphic Design, Saas Product Design
Information Asymmetry in Career Planning | Design Solutions and Rationale
by Dongwei Huo, Nakshima Kakkar, Sang Nong, Sophia Lu
In this Alumni Interview module, we present alumni’s personal experience in narrative format through interactive storyline. Narrative format refers to the flow, tone and manner alumni would use to communicate their experiences and thoughts. Instead of stating big concepts with dry and abstract words directly, we promote using specific experience examples and personal opinions/feelings to convey the underlying concept, attitude and mindset. The content will also cover alumni’s thinking process behind the key career decisions, as well as extended material that inspired or supported them in decision making.
Based on the narration, content curators will then cut and organize the sound tracks or video into short clips by subtopics, and visualize the storyline through multimedia, which consists of videos, sound tracks, images, hyperlinks as well as text. Learners can select the content from different parts of the storyline based on what interests them most.
In addition, a brief introduction will be curated as a “hook” to highlight the key topics in the interview. By reading this text-based preview, learners will be able to better connect themselves with the interview content.
Design Rationale
We incorporated several principles from the Multimedia Learning Theory (Mayer, 2009) for the design of this storyline. First, according to the Multimedia principle, people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. A multimedia timeline not only avoid the production concerns (not every alumni agree to record the entire interview), but also effectively combines visuals, audios and texts without redundancy. Second, the Segmentation principle suggests that people learn better when a multimedia message is presented in learner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit. Therefore, we breakdown the interview by topics, and provide the option for learners to view each part separately. Third, based on the Personalization principle that people learn better when the words of a multimedia presentation are in conversational style rather than formal style, we use first person narration for our topic highlights. In addition, as the storyline effectively weaves fragmented information into an holistic narrative, learners will be more likely to make sense of seemingly irrelevant information, which they can further transfer the new perspectives to interpret their own experience.
Related Learning Approach/Theory
The story-based / Narrative learning approach sets the foundation of our decision in content selection for this module. As our goal includes multiple learning domain – knowledge, skill and attitude, personal narratives allow learners to engage with the material not only cognitively but also affectively (Clark and Rossiter, 2009).
Sharing personal story can also be considered as a type of modeling from the Cognitive Apprenticeship perspective (Allan, C. & Kapur, M. 2014). The alumni can frame the condition and problem within a story, and model the process of solving problem by externalizing his/her internal thinking process back then. This can help learners build a conceptual model of big concept like “networking”, which is a prolonged process usually with limited immediate feedback. By condensing the lengthy process into a tight story, the benefit of networking becomes more clear and convincing.
As our research analysis also clearly suggested that learners are much more responsive to story-based content, we decide to use this narrative approach to communicate the industry knowledge, decision making strategy and attitude etc. for this entire module.
Based on the learning goal we identified from previous research, we designed the following modules to address these goals. Our solutions are web-based and community-oriented.
Module 1: Alumni Interview
The module Rendezvous is not only a database for learners to seek information of existing events related to DMDL program, but also a place for learners to interact with peers who share similar interests and to learn collaboratively. Any learners can attend existing events, create a new event, or become a commissioner who turns a public event “private”.
A typical event profile consists of information as follows:
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Description: Highlights of the event provided by the organizers. Purpose of the events, targeted audience, agenda, and background of the speaker are some of the basics. For large conference, any learners can be a commissioner and create a personal agenda to attract peers within the program who share the same interest.
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Squad goal: Event initiators will set a few specific and achievable squad goals, ranging from “talk to one of the alumni and find out what skills are needed for developing a web-based game” to “won’t leave the event before have 3 slices of pizza”.
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Squad members: photo of learners who have decided to join the event. Potential attendees can contact them through nyu email address, as their contacts will appear when mouse hovering over the photos. Event commissioners can set a capacity limit for the squad size, with a maximum of 9 people.
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Q&A section: Event commissioners can provide further information upon requests. All questions are replied in public, so learners with similar questions or concerns can find out the answer efficiently.
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Recap(optional): after the event, participants are invited to share their brief recaps. They can also upload handouts from the events and set follow-up reminders for themselves.
Design Rationale
Our research suggested that learners conduct most of the career planning related activities individually rather than collaboratively. Although learners are open to discuss these topics, there are very few settings that encourages them to work together. Students are more likely to learn from each other if there is a dedicated space available, either online or offline. We have observed multiple situations during both online and offline learning activities that as simple as having a discourse on observed differences, learners can benefit by observing new things or being aware of understanding gaps through articulating their own thinking processes and reflecting on the alternative perspectives or approaches. We designed this module to cultivate such a dedicated space for learners to discuss career related issues.
In addition, Self-Determination Theory argues that conditions supporting the individual’s experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness foster the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation and engagement for activities (Ryan, 2000). By empowering learners to set their own goals for the events they are interested in and to find peers share similar interests in Rendezvous, they will be more likely to take ownership when attending those events, hence be more engaging in the learning activities. It would also promote the organic growth of the community size and the commitment to the community (Kraut, R. & Resnick, P, 2012).
Moreover, by making the events attending status available to public, it provides social proof to encourage learners who are less social or proactive to network more with their peers. As a result, networking is no longer an intimidating task, but easily achieved by simply participating at Rendezvous.
Last but not the least, part-time students have the disadvantage of mingling with their peers. They have the desire to socialize with others, but don’t have a proper means. They also compliant that their schedule usually won’t allow them to attend any speaker sessions or networking events organized by the program. However, with the design of Rendezvous, they would be able to access to the recaps of the public events and organize weekend study sessions with their peers.
Related Learning Approach/Theory
Rendezvous mainly applies ARCS model as it would constantly motivate learners to network. ARCS model of motivational design suggests that learners are more motivated when they realize learning can fulfill their own expectation, or correlate to their expectation of success. As our survey data suggested that most of our target learners feel anxious towards career development and networking, we leverage the ARCS model to improve their confidence level. When learners exert themselves and achieve their personal goals, the satisfaction will power them keep making further efforts.
Module 2: Rendezvous
Module 3: Coursetail
The Coursetale module is an information portal which aims at providing various perspectives and consideration in curriculum planning under the goal of career development. This module includes two interrelated sections, Curriculum Gallery and Strategy Handbook. Curriculum Gallery is a portal where learner can view the details of every available course under DMDL and G4L program, with popular relevant courses offered by other departments. Every course page will include course outline, professor profile, sample course material, learning goal and exemplary course project produced by students from previous class. The Strategy Handbook section, on the other hand, is a narrative-based portal. Content curators will interview second year students or alumni and invite them to share their previous experience on curriculum planning. Interviewees will talk about their learning experience on particular classes, advice over curriculum planning and how the class relates to what their current jobs or projects. Curators will further include a list of “suggested questions” for learners, which will help them connecting their prior knowledge and personal experiences with the advices offered by others.
Similar to the Alumni Interview section, Strategy Handbook will adopt multimedia presentation strategy and combine two or more types of media content in every planning strategy entry. Students can add comments and raise questions under both of sections.
Design Rationale
One primary reason for us to design a course-oriented module is that our survey shows learners perceive a significant disconnection between their academic studies and their future careers, as less than 40% of the responses rated 4 or above on a 1 to 5 scale for relevancy. When learners don’t find what they are learning relevant to what they aspire to do, the learning outcome is expected to be suboptimal. This disconnection might also cause spillover effect on learner’s confidence in career readiness and their attitude towards other courses that are actually highly relevant to their future career.
Our research also suggested course selection is a topic frequently discussed among peers within the same cohort. While when learners getting advices from senior students, the focus tends to be more on the professor style rather than the course selection strategy. Very few learners talk to professors who offer related classes and ask for more personal advices. Misunderstanding and unawareness of the goals and approaches of each course are very common. Therefore, we decide to have a separate module dedicated to course related information. Professors will also be invited to participate in the open asynchronous Q&A for course related questions. Students who ignored certain factors will be able to recognize different rationales from other’s comments and reply, which can also help students to reflect.
In addition, course selection will also serve as a recurring touch point between the learners and our design solution. Having a module that brings a steady flow of visitors will also create more views and participation in our other modules.
Related Learning Approach
Along the same line of Alumni Interview Module, we adopted the Narrative Learning approach and Cognitive Apprenticeship to help learners identifying their misconceptions and make personal connections. By providing working examples of how other people personalize their own curriculum, learners are more likely to be able to relate and reflect.
We also applied the Elaboration Strategy to facilitate learners be more aware of their decision making processes. The Elaboration Strategy emphasizes on the connection between existing knowledge structure and new knowledge. By providing the “suggested questions”, learners will be articulate their current assumptions and decision making logic, and therefore make better sense of the new information.