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Classic examples of this are the MyMahi app, Education Perfect, or even -gasp- the robotics and coding introduced by OMGTech. All of these things sound cool and valuable when they’re presented to us - I’ll open it up and sign up when instructed at a one-off staff meeting or professional development - but after a few weeks these things just seem to disappear from my school’s radar and I forget about them too. As a teacher I want to know why this one is different so I know whether to invest my time in giving it a go.
User Needs:
As a teacher, I want to understand the benefits of Voluntarily so I can decide whether to use it or not.
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As a teacher, I want to have a say over who comes into my classroom and how they interact with my students so we’re all safe.
User Needs | Functional Specifications |
Understand the benefits of Voluntarily | (Marketing) Visits to school staff meetings, short clips on first pages and before login, testimonials, etc. Onboarding for teachers on sign up to be clear. |
Check whether my first idea is actually possible | Display examples of requests, the ability to search for examples, ability to ask a question. |
Have an idea of the time commitment | Show how long the sign-up will take, making a request will take, the follow-up conversation (is it via email, text, phone?) |
Know my school endorses me to use this | Have teachers select from schools who have signed up to the app, throughout the sign-up use templates the school has established.. |
Choose volunteers and set expectations | Ability to choose volunteers and explore volunteer background/profile, see they have passed a police check, set expectations (from a suggested list - tick sheet?) or from a base set their school has decided, ability to add to that? |
Before sign up:
School board endorses the use of Voluntarily in the school?
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Getting the benefits across to individual teachers (see above for functional ideas).
Sign up:
User Needs | Functional Specifications |
Shows that my school is happy for me to be doing this | Schools are already entered (eg a dropdown or autocomplete once starting to be typed in) and teacher selects their school - then, the end of their email address could also automatically be completed: e.g. select Tamaki College then your email will definitely finish with @tamaki.ac.nz |
Process to be quick and easy, prefer not to input mobile phone number | Uses school email address. Verification? |
To be shown how to explore examples of Volunteer requests | Examples of good onboarding: InVision? |
To be shown how to set up a request | |
To see what to expect or do once a Volunteer.. volunteers. | How will I be notified? What if no-one replies? What is the next step? What if I don’t like them? |
After sign up (days)
Is anyone looking at my request for a Volunteer if I made one?
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As a teacher, I often forget about products or companies that my school originally promoted to us even if I’ve signed up.
User Needs | Functional Specifications |
To be reminded about the value of the product | Email - could show active volunteer requests nearby, in the school, or featured requests of the week, or hours volunteered in your area, or an article about Voluntarily being used in schools. |
To see how easy it is to request help and have a volunteer show up | Would it be possible to have a ‘starter’ volunteer opportunity set up and ready to run within a 20 min time period? Such as during a tutor class.. Come in with full gear, programme something, leave. Or even a motivational speaker for 15 mins. Have a request set up and the teacher just has to enter the date and time they want (school already entered) and press start or whatever button there is. Science magic trick.. |
When completing a request for a Volunteer:
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Who could this information come from?
| Both teacher and volunteer - teacher if the volunteer is just ‘helping’ or both if the volunteer is an ‘expert’ coming in to run a session. |
| As above. |
| Teacher has to supply. |
| As above. |
| As above. |
| The school / board will have safety procedures. |
| Found in the teachers code, though not very specific. School should supply. |
| School board will have a policy |
| The volunteer lets the teacher know. |
| This would be consistent across all teachers in the school, so can be supplied by the school. |
| School board Contact is likely reception. Each school will have a sign-in procedure. |
| School board |
| Teacher |
| Teacher |
| Teacher and volunteer |
| School board / policy. |
| School board / policy. |
Information the school or board of trustees should supply for any Volunteering at their school:
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Teachers and volunteers connect...
Teacher User Needs | Functional Specifications |
To be notified that a volunteer has expressed interest | Receive an email with a link to view the volunteer? |
To be able to see a little about the volunteer | Short profile - why they want to volunteer, what their areas of interest are, any qualifications, confirmed police check. |
To confirm that they are both available for the given day and time | Teacher send invitation, have it confirmed |
After connecting with a volunteer:
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- An introductory message including:
- If it’s their first time volunteering
- Why they’ve volunteered
- A contact phone number?
User Needs | Functional Specifications |
To supply the required information as simply as possible. | Have some sort of template / outline of information the volunteer will require from them. |
To know if the volunteer is brand new and would like extra guidance on the day. |
Before event (day)
User Needs | Functional Specification |
To be able to confirm the volunteer will be there on the day. | Perhaps a ‘check in’ function the morning-of, like for a flight. |
After event
Possible User Needs | Functional Specification |
To share student reflections or work with the volunteer | |
To thank the volunteer for their time | |
To invite the volunteer back again quickly for another time | |
To rate the volunteer on their participation and help or engagement and expertise | |
To report that the volunteer was unsafe or didn’t show up | |
To cancel further volunteering in the future, even if a repeat volunteering time was established.. | |
To be able to access their usage data for later reporting or teaching standards | A personal stats or usage page |