Meeting User Expectations: Key Features of Effective Edtech Solutions

Explore the must-have features and instructional elements that educators expect of high-quality edtech products.

With the myriad of educational technology products on the market, educators and schools have come to expect certain features when implementing digital solutions. Providers must go beyond basic technical support to ensure educators and students will make their product part of their regular instructional practice. In this blog, we explore a few of the fundamental user expectations for effective, high-quality solutions.

Dashboard

Dashboards are the entry point for an educator’s experience with your product. Make it count. It must be easy to navigate, user-friendly, and personalized to the user. If your product is also student-facing, then the design, language, and navigation used will likely vary from that seen by educators. Effective dashboards avoid clutter, focus on three-to-five key functions, and allow users to customize it to better meet their instructional needs.

Newsela

One example of a dashboard for students that I like is Newsela. They offer an intuitive, clutter free dashboard. Students can view and start their assignments immediately after logging in. By limiting the options available, students get access to just what they need without having to navigate through unrelated content. Students can also quickly transition to check on their progress and practice vocabulary activities after assignment completion.

Teams for Education

Teams for Education has a user-friendly and customizable dashboard that helps meet the instructional needs of both students and staff. The tiles on the left hand navigation panel can be rearranged to prioritize features that users utilize most. Additional third party applications and Microsoft features can be added to the panel as well to make transitioning between platforms safe and seamless. Users can also rearrange their Teams tiles, or classes, in any way that makes sense to them.