“But what school will look like is still a mystery...many educators remain hesitant to return to in-person classes without adequate safety measures in place.”

Teacher’s Pet- A Classroom Scanner DIY Kit

Design strategy, UX research, system design, and user-experience design

My Role: UX Researcher & Strategist

Collaborators: Tracy Mextorf and Elizabeth Richards

Mentors: Em Bronson and Jordan Raabe

Tracy Mextorf, Elizabeth Richards, and Avni Surana met through SCADpro Futureproof in a virtual 48-hour Design Sprint on the topic of ‘No-Touch UX Design’, in August 2020.

How Might We

Safely reopen schools without risking the health of students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders.

Process

Contextual Research, Online Survey, Virtual Interviews, Brainstorming, Expert Interviews, Ideation, Low Fidelity Prototype, Feedback Loops, and Final Prototype.

Challenges

Majority of schools do not have funding for high-tech devices that can eliminate the need for physical transfer of in-classroom materials.
Young kids won’t be motivated to perform another chore to submit their work unless it engages them.

Solution

A game-ified, in-classroom, tabletop scanning station with a free phone app which reduces the exchange of daily work materials between students and teachers.

Result

A user-focused experience that is easy to set up, fun to use, and safe for the kids and the teachers.

Brief

Design an intervention for any industry/sector that minimizes contact or touch between users. Criteria for winning:

How feasible is its implementation with little to no additional resources?
How immediate is the problem need?
How clear and compelling is the presentation?

Introduction

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, disrupting businesses, overcrowding hospitals, and shutting down schools, it has presented a number of challenges particularly for students and teachers. Schools mean a lot more than just academia, specially for young developing minds. Thus, one of the biggest dilemmas of 2020 is how to reopen schools everywhere without risking the health of students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders.

The basic CDC recommendations are: staying 6 feet apart from one-another, washing hands often, and disinfecting surfaces regularly. But these are not enough to ensure a safe return to schools.

During a routine school day, one of the highest touch points is the exchange of materials- assignments and learning materials that are passed back and forth between students and teachers for grading or review. Perceiving this as an opportunity, this project focused on implementing a solution that minimizes this transmission of materials for K-3 grades, therefore reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 and allowing schools to reopen safely.

Research Approach

We conducted an online survey and interviewed 3-5 parents and teachers of kids in K-3 grades. We found that students of this age range need particular attention with enforcing hygiene and sanitation practices.

Primary Research Subject #1 - Parent

What is your highest concern about sending your children back to school this year?

Highest concern:

Having to sanitize their bags, books, and notebooks everyday.
Keeping them from coming in close proximity to other kids and teachers without confining them to a table and chair all day.

Primary Research Subject #2 - Teacher

What are some of the most high-touch activities and/or situations for your students? What are some situations you feel might be the most difficult to keep students socially distant?

“When we were planning for a hybrid model earlier this summer, we were very concerned about playground equipment and structures. The class pencil sharpener, Kleenex box, and math manipulatives are also hard to figure out. With my little kids (I teach 1st and 2nd grades) you have to assume that even with masks, their hands go in and on their faces all day. Also- laptops. I have 6 in my room for 24 kids and getting them to wipe them down between users is really hard. They are happy to use a Clorox wipe, but they smash all the keys and cause problems. The cleaner on the wipes also leaves a smeary residue on the touch screens.”

Takeaways:

Any situation where multiple children come in contact with or share equipment or supplies will be a potential site of contagion especially the equipment that require the teachers to handle the same materials as the students.

Ideation

An in situ scanning solution for students to easily send assignments to the teacher electronically for grading and record-keeping.

Possible directions

One scanner per room with a laid out process for students to systematically send assignments.
Pedal trigger or hand motion trigger for contactless scanning for all students to use.

Assumption & Challenges

Although distance learning is one solution for reducing the threat of COVID-19, some schools will be asked to return for in-classroom learning regardless of the risk involved. For this reason, schools have imminent need for in-classroom solutions for every aspect of learning.
The majority of schools will not have funding for high-tech devices (such as iPads for each student) which would eliminate the need for physical transfer of in-classroom materials.
We need a minimum-viable solution which would be accessible to all.
Young students would want to use this device several times a day to transfer their work.

Prototype

Teacher’s Pet is an in-classroom tabletop scanning station with a free phone app which reduces the exchange of daily work materials between students and teachers. Students simply walk up to the Teacher’s Pet, place their work under it, clap twice, wait for a visual or auditory cue to signal that the scan is complete, and then remove their work. Alternatively, a verbal command can be used to initiate the scan. It is completely no touch, user-friendly, and the images are immediately transferred to the teacher’s cloud service. The 6 unique character designs are fun and whimsical, inviting the students to participate with a line of exciting pets that could not otherwise be kept in a classroom.

The Teacher’s Pet kit is cost-effective and available to all. As a DIY printable kit, it includes templates and instructions for your station animal of choice. It also includes safety signage including standing dots for social distancing, the scanning app, and a class adoption kit with a certificate, name tag, and fun worksheets to encourage classroom connection with the new pet.

Simple cardboard boxes can be reused to make any one of the 6 Teacher’s Pet characters. The completed model measures approximately 20” high by 28” long and 10” wide. It includes a customizable platform to position a phone which scans the document to a PDF using the Teacher’s Pet app.

And for those less DIY inclined, a pre-cut, easy-clean acrylic kit will be available, with a bluetooth foot pedal trigger as an additional accessibility option.

Result