Problem Statement

‍

In Spring 2025, student interviews showed that over half (56%) of REAL CHEM students had never heard of DOT, and 78% had never used it. Low icon visibility, lack of onboarding, and unclear value meant many mistook DOT for a decorative element—“just thought it was part of the website, just a symbol”—while others preferred external tools like Google, YouTube, or ChatGPT for quick answers, citing DOT’s verbosity, occasional inaccuracies, and limited step-by-step guidance. 7 out of 9 reported that these AI Tools changed how they studied, leveraging them for exam preparation, practice problems, study guides, rapid responses, and answer-checking.

‍

At the same time, OLI’s Student Homepage—the first tab students see when enter the course—also presented challenges, failing to make use of its most valuable resource: the detailed information it collects about student activity and performance. While the platform tracks how students interact with the course and how well they’re meeting learning objectives, little of this is shared back with learners in a clear, actionable way. As a result, students lack the real-time insights they need to understand their progress, identify weaknesses, and plan effective review.

Project Process

Dot Paragraph Level Redeign

‍

‍

Research

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Design Process

‍

Design System

‍

‍

DOT AI Data Analysis

‍

Onboarding Page

‍

To help students and instructors better understand and interact with DOT AI, we designed an onboarding page within the REAL CHEM I Summer AI course. This page introduces learners to the different types of DOT activations (Page-Level, Paragraph-Level, and Activity-Level) and guides them on how to interact with DOT throughout the course.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Onboarding Activation Rate

Results

Activation significantly increased awareness of DOT AND effectively encouraged students to engage with it proactively.