.png)
%20(1).png)
My Role 🧠🎨
As the team’s UX Designer, Project Manager, and Prompt Engineer, I translated research insights into actionable design solutions by embedding learning science principles into product decisions. I also coordinated cross-functional collaboration and developed AI prompt strategies grounded in the Socratic Tutor model.
Tingyue Cui,
Tracy Ciou,
Lily Lee,
Sherry Li
Overview
This 7-month project was a collaboration with the Open Learning Initiative (OLI), an open-source platform that applies learning science and technology to improve outcomes and expand access to high-quality digital courses.
Our goal was to enhance engagement and learning by improving how students interact with the platform’s AI assistant—DOT (Digital Online Tutor)—and by reimagining the student homepage to surface actionable insights and integrate AI more seamlessly into review and practice workflows.
DOT is trained on the REAL CHEM courseware and functions as a contextual, Socratic tutor. It engages students after difficult topics, offers feedback on selected-response questions, and supports metacognitive reflection.
We approached this goal from three directions:
- Redesigning the student homepage to support data-driven study planning with real-time proficiency insights and AI-generated personalized practice
- Reworking paragraph-level DOT activation through two rounds of UI redesign and usability testing
- Implmenting 79 contextual AI prompts in Summer 2025 REALCHEM 1 Course, along with an interactive onboarding for students in the course using DOT.
.png)
Problem
DOT appeared as a clickable icon across OLI course pages, offering AI-generated summaries, hints, and answers to student questions. However, early research showed that students often overlooked DOT or found its responses too long or poorly timed, limiting its usefulness during learning.
At the same time, students struggled to plan effectively without clear, actionable insights. While OLI collects rich behavioral and assessment data, the homepage surfaced little of it in a way students could understand or use. Learners lacked visibility into their progress, weak areas, and what to study next—making the experience feel static, fragmented, and disconnected from their actual learning needs.
Outcome
The project involves
AI Prompts Launched
Contextual prompts implemented in the Summer 2025 RealChem1 course
DOT AI Awareness
Increased through onboarding and contextual prompt strategies (based on user interviews)
User Testing Sessions
One-on-one, 1-hour usability sessions to gather actionable design feedback
Homepage Usefulness
Based on 3 rounds of testing with Summer RealChem students
%20(1)%20(1).png)
%2520(1).png)
-compressed.jpg)
-compressed.jpg)
Design Process
Student Homepage
.png)
.png)
DOT Paragraph Level Activation
Paragraph Level Dot triggered when students manually click on an icon next to specific paragraphs
User Insights
Insight 1
When we interviewed with previous Real Chem Students, most of students don’t notice the paragraph level DOT icon when they read through the page context.
After we pointed to them, they don’t know the purpose of the icon
- “too small” and it’s easy to overlook
- Half of the participants wasn't sure if it was clickable, indicating uncertainty about its interactivity.
“I thought it used to separate different sections”
Insight 2
Based on interview, all Students found the summary activation message to be useful. However, they would not interact with DOT when it’s probing students to explain a concept.
What we learned from the current design
- Students prefer summaries when reading heavy text.
- Preferences vary: some want summaries before reading, others after.
- There's no one-size-fits-all activation point at the paragraph level.
Based on students insights,
Solution
Student Home Page
.png)
My Proficiency
My Score
Review Previous Module
My Prorgess
Paragraph Level Activation
%20(1).png)
