Khan Academy State Standards Mapping
Who & What?
Our goal was to help educators in non-Common Core states quickly see how our content aligns with their standards and access resources easily. To support this, we built a responsive web experience that allowed educators to select their state and standard, and see which Khan Academy content aligned with it.
Before diving in, here is a…
Logistical overview:
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Project type:
Paid Contract
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Duration:
6 Months (February-July 2023)
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Role:
Product Designer
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The Team:
Me, 1 PM, 8 Engineers & 2 Visual Designers
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Platform:
Responsive Web
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Contraints:
Time, no new components, WCAG AA, SEO, & i18n
I collected information about the…
Project:
How far along was the research?
I received documentation with the preliminary UX research, as well as a six-pager outlining the business rationale, & a list of existing features requiring updates in order to support the project.
Who were our known competitors?
IXL and Zearn were our known primary competitors - they provided state standards mappings to their users.
What are the missing brain gaps?
After reading all available documentation regarding the project, I created a list of outstanding questions/thoughts, which I raised with relevant stakeholders, and got answers for.
After reading the documents, I continued with the following in mind…
User research findings:
1. In general, teachers first search by topic not standard.
Experienced teachers seem to operate from the mindset that "standard numbers come and go, but math concepts are forever". They often rely on their years of experience first, and on pacing guides and official resources second.
2. On Khan Academy, teachers frequently use the search bar & the course menu.
We were surprised by the number of teachers who used the search bar and course menu to find standards-aligned content. We had previously underestimated the popularity of these tools.
3. Teachers care deeply about foundational skills and alignment from grade to grade.
Teachers must constantly fill learning gaps from previous years, while addressing state testing requirements. In order to do so, they rely on resources like Achieve the Core's Coherence Map and pacing guides that sort standards into "boulders, rocks, and butterflies" or "essential TEKS". Khan Academy's "Getting Ready" courses are valued as well, although they are more aligned to concepts and topics than to standards.
Now, to ask the big question…
How might we…:
Provide the state standards mappings to districts, teachers, and independent learners to help teachers fill student learning gaps more easily while addressing state testing requirements?
I started to get more granular with research…
Additional round of Q & A:
What is the content hierarchy from state to state?
This question was big on my mind, understanding the content hierarchy of each state curriculum was crucial in coming up with a solution that would work across states and be programatically efficient for the engineering team to implement. How did I get answers? I did so by:
Talking to district specialists.
Scouring the web for information about the hierarchy of the various states.
Using ChatGPT as a final sounding board.
Next, to confirm internal stakeholder alignment, I created and collaborated on multiple versions of an…
Information Architecture Map:
After aligning on an Information architecture map, I did UI research and gathered insperation before creating…
Multiple Design Iterations:
Sidebar V1:
Sidebar V2:
I also worked closely with visual designers on…
Marketing Pages:
The following are the responsive designs for the State Selection Page:
The following are the responsive designs for the State Specific Page:
In order to ensure the designs were built with accessibility in mind, I added…
Accessibility Annotations:
Finally, I worked with engineers and QA to ensure the finished product served our users as we intended—the following are…
