Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1) The opportunity I am going to focus on for the purpose of this course is infographic-style guides/workbooks meant to substitute boring textbooks.

2) The "who" that would use this product are students and professors.

The what: students are not getting the most out of their coursework and learning tools/materials.

The why: textbooks are boring, unrelatable, and underutilized by teachers. 

4) Interviews

In order to get the best results, I attempted to interview a range of people. 

These are the questions I asked:

• How often do you use a textbook for your coursework?
• Why do you use textbooks? Are they read more when it is required or as a learning tool of your own accord?
• What is the primary learning tool you use to study and why?
• What features do you look for when you choose study materials?
• What is the biggest current gap between learning materials and your success as a student?

My responses:

• Maria Espinosa, Chemistry Student
• Maria said that she uses a textbook for her more difficult classes, when the professor's lectures are not enough to supplement the information she needs to understand for an exam. She is very proud of the notes she takes in her classes and from her textbook, which condense information and are pretty: highlighters, underlined words, and colored pens add to making information pop out and develop an aesthetic. 
• Tom Trozzo, Information Systems Student
• Tom said he rarely uses textbooks because his professors often don't assign work from a book. He said his primary learning tool is Study Edge, and he likes the Study Edge culture of "study smart, not hard." He prefers study materials that will help him pass his exams in as easy a process as possible. According to Tom, the biggest dissonance between current learning tools and maximizing success is that textbooks have too much excess information and aren't written well for students. 
• Bob Norbert, Director of Strategy + Training at The Agency
• As the Director of Strategy and Training at The Agency at UF, Bob is responsible for much of connecting The Agency activities to classroom curriculum. When I spoke with him, we discussed the design of classroom curriculum, teaching tools, and the potential for curriculum within The Agency. Bob trains The Agency strategists in different programs they will be using in their work; however, he does not use a textbook or specific curriculum o teach them. Although he said he may be interested in a curriculum, he said that using a textbook would probably be counterintuitive to the experiential learning process created by The Agency program. Bob did agree, however, that design of teaching tools is very important in order to better communicate information and better educate students in a way they will understand. 
• Meagan Buttel: grad student, works with the CEI
• Meagan is experienced within business education, and feels that in order to learn business and entrepreneurship, a textbook won't be of much use. She has used textbooks for more upper level courses in order to gain more information to pass exams. However, she does not feel that she enjoys reading textbooks, and does think there could be a better learning solution to the textbook. When she chooses study materials, Meagan looks for really comprehensive information that will allow her to gain a better understanding of the materials. She also looks for interactive materials, and believes one of the bigger gaps in education is interactive learning opportunities. 
• Michelle Martinez: Business Student
• Michelle had the opinion that although she enjoys learning, she feels that experiential learning outside of the classroom is much more beneficial than reading a textbook. She also feels that professors in the classroom often teach/test on lessons that don't have as much relevance to the real world, and that as a result, textbooks are often boring. She feels the most important and often missing feature of learning tools is the ability to engage with students. 

As a result of these interviews I know that most students don't find value in their textbooks, beyond being forced into reading them in order to pass an exam. Many students believe that experiential, engaging learning tools connect with them more, and that the missing link is the ability of teaching tools to relate more to students' lives and to the work they will be doing in the future.