Parents are in the middle of a forced, nationwide experiment for virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While no one wrote a playbook for the scenario, parents, schools and administrators can learn from the experience. But, what can everyone do now to ensure we do not rush so quickly back to the norms and miss the opportunities for growth and change?

The team at MMR LIVE is leading the eLearning UX Project to collect feedback and catalog the challenges and learnings and develop plans and processes to build the Future Normal. MMR LIVE is partnering with Eyas, Alpha, VoxPopMe and Research Results on the project.

“The pandemic has been a nationwide User Testing event for online learning,” said Patricia Houston, Founder and COO of MMR LIVE, an Atlanta-based experience design group. “I, for one, am having a hard time keeping up with the number of logins, free codes, and submissions we need to make for our first grader. Everything is an independent system, and nothing works well together.

“Even Google Classroom, with arguably the best UI of all the platforms we have to use, doesn’t play well with a Google Chromebook locked-down with parental controls,” Houston added. “It’s as if online learning was viewed as a snow-day fill in... no one actually prepared to have to do it long term. I’m guessing there’s a lot to be learned from colleges and potentially private schools with more mature systems.”

After gathering feedback, MMR LIVE will provide geographic and software agnostic resources for parents, teachers and administrators.

MMR LIVE will distribute Research Kits for experience design teams interested in leading research in their area and Take-Action Kits to empower individuals at the local level to drive change.

To learn more or to participate, visit eLearnUX.live. To sign up for updates or to receive a research kit, visit eepurl.com/dPuutL.