Lincoln University
Who’s ready for online learning? A survey to help you find out.
Ready, steady, go
Lincoln University is taking education into the future by offering online courses people can fit around their own schedules and do from almost anywhere (even during a pandemic). A full university offering with connected services, but online.
One challenge with offering online learning is that students might consider it to be an easy option, or jump in headfirst without having the right tools or expectations. Prospective students can use this survey to self-assess their readiness, and it guides them on the next steps to apply for online learning or ask for support, without putting pressure on them.
More than a survey
Lincoln University want people to really engage with the online self-assessment, and so they wanted to offer something better than a lengthy list of multi-choice questions to click mindlessly.
The assessment is intuitive, visually interesting, and interactive, with images and a multi-stage journey that guides users through a survey where they rate themselves on different attributes. The survey is also quick – users can complete it in just a few minutes – and it displays a progress bar at the top. When the survey is finished, it gives users relevant feedback, information and next steps with calls to action, based on their answers
Pathways to success
The design includes created pathways through the self-assessment, customised based on the answers given. For example, a user whose first few answers indicated they may not be ready for online learning doesn’t need to complete the entire survey – instead the tool gently tells them they might have some challenges with online study, and encourages them to contact the student liaison team for more information or support.
The journey asks users to self-assess whether they have the right expectations, access to technology, skills, learning preferences, and appropriate learning environment. At the end, it tells well-suited prospective students about the advantages of online study and encourages them to apply now with a link. The survey provides specific feedback based on the answers given, with helpful information and links to relevant resources such as technology requirements.
Articulate Storyline for no-limits survey building
Articulate Storyline is an authoring tool we usually use for creating content in learning management systems, and it’s one of the most fun and most powerful tools at our disposal. Here, the flexibility of Articulate Storyline is on display as we used it to create a self-assessment survey that’s open for anyone to use. The beauty of using Articulate Storyline is that it gives us unlimited power to customise – it lets us include images and graphics wherever we want, it lets us create pathways, and direct users with customised feedback and buttons, and it’s powerful enough that we know we can adapt it to include new functionality that may come up in the future. Using Articulate Storyline, the team at Lincoln University can easily update the survey whenever required.
New tricks
This was an opportunity to use one of our favourite authoring tools for a completely new purpose. Articulate Storyline is great for bringing graphics into play in any project, and it turns out it was perfect for this particular job – we particularly liked customising it to give users personalised feedback at the end of the survey.