How we doubled student engagement at Microverse

I led the end-to-end design of a data-driven solution that nearly doubled student engagement in peer meetings at Microverse, an online coding school. Through user research, collaborative ideation, UI design, and iterative improvements, we created an Engagement Dashboard that nudged students to participate actively, transforming their learning experience and outcomes.

Client

Microverse

Year

2023 [Feb-June]

Here's how we did it...

Problem Discovery

I analyzed baseline engagement data and conducted user research through surveys and interviews to uncover reasons for low engagement in peer meetings, These included: low confidence, poor internet or background, mirroring other's behaviour and not valuing "soft skills" compared to "hard" coding skills.

Solution Ideation

We then ideated solutions with stakeholders; we picked two main solutions:

developing a clear engagement policy to set clear expectations
creating an Engagement Dashboard feature on the learning platform to provide visibility into engagement behavior to nudge students to engage more.

Design & Development

I drafted the engagement policy, designed low and high-fidelity wireframes for the Engagement Dashboard, collaborated with engineers to build and test the feature, and developed documentation and communication plans for the rollout.

Initial Rollout & Experimentation

We rolled out the feature to all students without enforcing consequences, monitored initial challenges like data accuracy concerns and system gaming attempts, and gathered insights for subsequent iterations.

Iterative Improvements

In the next iterations, we refined the engagement definition, introduced a peer-rating system to validate automatically collected API data, and experimented with AI-powered engagement analysis using meeting transcripts to improve the feature's effectiveness.

Outcomes

Here are some of the outcomes

Boosting student engagement: Three weeks post-release, student engagement in meetings rose by 18%, hitting 80% in the first month and our three-month OKR.
Even more engagement in the second iteration: The second iteration with peer ratings and Zoom data showed: 90% weekly engagement in the first month and 90% alignment between Zoom data and peer ratings.
Sustained high engagement: Three months after we launched the solution, the percentage of all engaged peer meetings had almost doubled across the program.

Key Learnings

Here's what we learned

Collaborating with cross-functional teams: I actively collaborated with Operations and Product Development teams, building new bonds and aligning through data-driven co-creation and inter-disciplinary feedback. I made stakeholders' lives easier by providing clear requirements and documentation.
Sharpening my UI design skills: Coming from a non-UI background, I bolstered my UI chops through self-study and feedback. While my first drafts make me cringe, I'm proud of the growth mindset that led to intuitive designs.
Impact of data visibility on behavior: We learned that measuring and displaying behavioral data can be more effective than strict policies. Subtler nudges—setting expectations and providing a simple way to track performance socially—made a bigger impact on behavior.

Muturi brings a strong care and passion for the users to all of their work while also being thoughtful about what industry standards are and how we're delivering value with each thing we do.

Riley Spicer

Head of Product, Microverse (2023)