Designing a Learning Experience for EXSM 3924 - User Experience/User Interface Capstone Project

EXSM 3924 is a project-based UX/UI course emphasizing real-world design projects, teamwork, and agile project management, with a focus on student independence and leadership.

Introduction

EXSM 3924 is a unique UX/UI certificate program that allows students to work on real-world design projects for clients. This project-based course, which includes a prerequisite, facilitates effective teamwork and communication skills within an agile project management framework.

Apply UX/UI knowledge and skills to a real-world project, develop effective teamwork and communication skills, operate within an Agile project management framework, evaluate the features of the Agile approach, research, plan, execute, present, and review a UX/UI project.

Course Cohorts

Course Design

The core intent of this course is to allow students to navigate through a UX/UI design project independently, with the instructor in a supportive role rather than a leading one. In addition, this approach allows students to exercise leadership within their project teams.

Content delivery is responsive, shaped by students’ weekly questions and comments, and utilizes various formats such as group discussions, case studies, interactive activities, and presentations.

Student grading heavily relies on submitting Work Report templates, accounting for approximately 50% of the total grade. These reports aim to:

• Encourage strategic project planning
• Foster reflection on the design process
• Stimulate questions and comments
• Ensure consistent effort throughout the course

The final projects are evaluated based on the team’s ability to communicate their work through a live presentation and a static document.

Instructional Approach

In this course, the instructor facilitates an environment where students can independently navigate their projects. To achieve this, the instructor monitors students’ progress through weekly communications and submissions, using these inputs to shape custom lectures.

However, several areas require further development; based on observations, students often need more clarity on key aspects such as prerequisite course takeaways, teamwork experience, technical communication skills, project lifecycle awareness, and understanding of design processes and artifacts.

Conclusion

EXSM 3924 offers a rich platform for students to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios, making it one of my favorite courses to instruct. The course design is challenging, and students frequently get out what they put in.

Despite the inherent challenges and room for improvement in course design, students consistently report substantial learning from this course. Supporting students’ efforts and helping them transition beyond the UX/UI program is rewarding. I am grateful for the opportunity to shape the certificate core experience.

Upon course completion, students gain an industry-relevant UX/UI project for their portfolio, an improved understanding of project management, experience working in team settings, and enhanced leadership skills. The course is designed to prepare students for real-world scenarios, and I am committed to refining it to maximize its impact on student learning and success.

Updates

• Winter 2024 (upcoming)
  • add more tasks to week one
    • presentation
    • research
    • team building
  • present metrics from previous cohorts
• Winter 2023
  • created a survey designed to split the course cohort into teams using KMeans clustering
  • added weekly FigJam files for presentations
  • removed weekly slide presentation
  • added “choose your project” opportunity after planning with a client on student project options
  • added submit report draft option
  • added two exercises to the project retrospective
  • added AI, Freelancing, and Portfolios as topics for project wrap-up
  • remove most in-class presentations to make more space for student group work
  • added heuristic analysis as a “get started” exercise