Overview
A major research university deployed AI to help millions of learners worldwide navigate the institution’s robust digital learning ecosystem. Building the AI tool required a deep understanding of learner needs, aligning those needs to the institution’s brand, and unifying the underlying technology to create a single, learner-centric platform. Learners can now easily find the right-for-them learning resource from among 10k+ options, and the institution can better serve their learners.
Organization
A prestigious research university with multiple non-degree digital learning programs serving a wide range of learners globally. Multiple stakeholders across departments, institutes, and programs came together to reimagine the learning experience navigation.
Challenge
As a pioneer of digital learning, our client’s many digital learning programs had spread across more than a dozen platforms over the course of two decades. Essentially, our client had an overabundance of excellent digital learning experiences–a good challenge to have. Yet the plethora of options caused confusion–for learners, for faculty, and for the brand itself.
“Even we are confused! How can we expect learners to figure out what they want to study?”
Furthermore, the fragmented ecosystem and platforms consumed much of the university’s in-house learning technology team’s time and energy, limiting innovation. The fragmentation made implementing institution-wide solutions nearly impossible.
The project’s mandate was to create a coherent navigation and framework for over ten thousand learning resources across non-degree offerings and sub-brands, all while maintaining the unique value of each sub-brand and aligning the digital experience with the university’s larger mission.
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The Solution
The final result is an on-brand interface that begins with learner needs, then matches learners to one of the many learning options. Learners can use traditional search, AI chat, featured content, and filter tools to surface a huge range of learning content–from philosophy podcasts to cybersecurity certificate programs. The AI-powered search allows learners to hyper-personalize their search experience. Instead of merely “statistics,” learners can ask questions about linear regression or hypothesis testing.
Simplifying such a complex digital ecosystem required a large team effort. Dozens of leaders from across the institution joined forces to create a digital learning strategy that centered learners. Studion helped guide the digital learning strategy, starting with learner personas. Together with our partners, we interviewed learners and faculty, tested different product concepts, and conducted competitive analyses.
We designed the Signature Moments that encapsulated learner needs, the institution’s brand, and organizational goals, then translated these Signature Moments into features. The Signature Moments centered around:
- Brand navigation to visually unify the main institution with its digital sub-brands
- Search and discovery that accepts multiple search criteria like professor name, topic, popularity, recency, and price
- Personalized results so that learners can start with their goals, interests, schedule, or other preferences to receive personalized recommendations
- The ability to explore various learning pathways before enrolling in a program
- A comparison tool to easily understand the differences among programs and courses.
This product vision was critical to the success of the initiative, as it provided a product roadmap and vision aligned to learner needs and institutional goals. This proved particularly critical as generative AI exploded onto the scene in the midst of this project! With these Signature Moments as a guide, the university was able to quickly pivot to incorporate AI into the navigation. This is a prime example of AI that’s integrated into an overarching digital learning strategy, rather than bolted on as an after-the-fact addition.
The Impact
Traffic to the landing page is exploding, with 200% month-over-month growth since launch. Learner testimonials are stellar. And our client has furthered their mission to connect people across the globe with lifelong learning opportunities.
