User evaluation of MyStudentScope: A web portal for parental management of their children’s educational information

Abstract

Parents and caregivers often struggle to successfully manage data from a variety of sources in a myriad of formats regarding their children’s education. To address challenges that have been identified by previous research, a MyStudentScope (MSS) was designed with the integration of proposed solutions and recommendations from subject matter experts in education. In order to ensure that the system can fully meet users’ needs, a user study was conducted investigating participants’ perceptions of MSS. Because parents tend to use paper-based methods to archive and retrieve information regarding their children’s education, the task performance through the use of the MSS web portal was compared to the paper-based methods. Situations parents/caregivers may encounter related to their children’s education and extracurricular activities were simulated during the study. We present findings based on analysis of user responses and provide recommendations for improvement of the MSS design.