Khan Academy State Standards Mapping
Who & What?
There was a risk of losing current and future teachers, districts, and independent learners in non-Common Core states if we didn’t:
(a) create and collate more content aligned to individual state standards and
(b) make clear to district admins and teachers how our content aligns to their standards and make it easy for them to access standards-aligned content.
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:
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.
1. In general, teachers first search by topic not standard.
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.
2. On Khan Academy, teachers frequently use the search bar & the course menu.
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.
3. Teachers care deeply about foundational skills and alignment from grade to grade.
Now, to ask the big question…
How might we…:
…provide the state standards mappings to districts, teachers, and independent learners in order to help teachers more easily fill student learning gaps while addressing state testing requirements?
I started to get more granular with research…
Additional round of Q & A:
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.
What is the content hierarchy from state to states?
Next, to confirm internal stakeholder alignment, I created and collaborated on an…