Hey Teachers,

I’ve been doing a lot of user testing (watching people use eduFire, and asking them questions about why they are doing what) over the last few months, and have drawn quite a few conclusions from these interactions. Lots of really interesting information that can really help you as a teacher attract more students and do better on eduFire.

Here are some definite things that you can do right now that nearly every single usertester talked about, when looking at group classes.

Ratings aren’t the most important thing
I was surprised by this one. Ratings are important to users, sure, but they aren’t number one. What are users looking for in a class? Let me count the ways.

1. Syllabus: Almost every single person I watched would go to a class page, look at the syllabus, and decide whether or not they’d be interested. If the syllabus was poorly filled out, and there wasn’t enough information there to tell the user what they would be getting out of the class (and what they are paying for), they wouldn’t want to sign up for that class and then they’d move on. I can’t stress how important it is to make a great syllabus that tells people exactly what they’re getting. I for one don’t buy something until I learn as much as possible about it, and if there’s no information, there’s no way I’ll end up buying that product.

2. About: The next thing people look at is the “About” section of your class. That’s right, they go from the syllabus to learn what will be covered (and to see if the class is right for them) and then they read the about section right after. Sometimes this order is flip-flopped, but usually this is the order I see it in. That means you have to have a great about section if you want to keep potential students engaged. One or two lines is not enough. You need to give your potential customer as much information as possible to give them the opportunity to make an educated decision. If you don’t give them that opportunity, then they will move on almost every single time.

3. Rating: Then, at this point someone might look at the rating. To be honest, people who have 1 and 2 down really well tend to have great ratings, because people who join their classes know exactly what they are getting, so there is no disappointment.

Your Image
This was another interesting find. Your image is probably the most important thing people look at when scrolling down the list of classes. Yep, that’s right, people don’t look at the titles, they don’t read every single class as they’re going down… they look for some kind of visual cue to stop and read, and that visual something is your image. Here are things that will make someone not notice your class.

1. Repetition: If you teach a lot of classes and you don’t use custom images for classes, you’ll notice that in some cases your classes overtake the class page. If a user sees the same image over and over, one thing that I’ve noticed with almost everyone is that they just skip over all the repeating images, and then the one non-repeating image that’s on the list stops them and they take a look (because it stands out). That’s good for the person who isn’t teaching a lot of classes, no matter how bad their image is, but it’s not so good for the person with all the classes and the same image for all the classes. If you want people to notice your classes, and actually read your description, don’t use the same image over and over (more applicable to people teaching a lot of classes). For those teaching just a few classes, not too close together, it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

2. Faded Colors: People don’t see faded colors. Pick something bright, elegant, and preferably contrasting. Think McDonalds colors :) If you’re looking to learn how to make an icon, or something along those lines, you should see if Ron is teaching any.

Your Title

Having a good title is pretty important, because it’s what people move their eyes to right after they find an image they like. If you don’t sell them on the title, they aren’t going to click through and view your class description and syllabus (two other important things to close the sale). You really have to make sure you pick an interesting title that also describes to the user what they are getting. Generic titles don’t mean much. If you say “beginner’s French” what does that mean? To one person being a beginner is something completely different to another. Try to be specific – your syllabus and about section can help with this as well.

Picking the subject

Make sure you pick a generic subject for your class. If your class is on Beginner’s Spanish, don’t create a subject called “beginner’s spanish” – just add it in the “Spanish” category. I’d say about half of the people search from the homepage, and half browse by clicking on a subject. You don’t want to lose the browsers just because you chose a subject that didn’t fit. Eventually I’m sure we’ll be adding something that lets you tag your classes into something more specific, but I don’t know when that day is so it’s best you choose one of the main subjects if you want to be seen.

Fill out your profile

I’d say 40-50% of users also check on a teacher’s profile before they register (or choose not to register) for a class. Make sure you have a good, professional profile set up with a great “about me” as well. You can really sell yourself here, and if you don’t put enough, or don’t put good things, you’re selling yourself short. High quality content = credibility.

In Conclusion…

Spend time on your content – people want to know exactly what they’re paying for, and what they’re getting. They want to make sure their time is going to be a good investment, and if you don’t tell them exactly what they’re going to be getting, most people will just go join someone else’s class. It makes a huge difference, and this is one of the things I saw consistently happening during every user testing session.

Also, spend some time on the things that catch people’s eyes. Images. Title. etc. If nobody notices your class in the first place, how can they even read about your class to decide whether or not they want to take it?

Cheers everyone, and I hope these findings help you get more students and higher attendance rates.

@ Koichi Valuable feedback! Thank you.

“I for one don’t buy something until I learn as much as possible about it, and if there’s no information, there’s no way I’ll end up buying that product.” ~not applicable to Mac. lol

Koichi, thank you for the information. Very Valuable!!!!

Thanks Koichi for sharing the results!
@Claire “~not applicable to Mac” funny….that’s the power of a brand!

@Claire But I study everything about the new products, and my conclusion is that Mac is the only gal for me :)

@ Koichi Love is blind.:)

Nice one Claire :D

Koichi is an ibook flippa!

Mac or PC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM

Man, he’s got that look in his eyes about 3:17.

Awesome info, Koichi! Thanks! :)

I’ll go back to the drawing board.
Thanks for sharing.

That was very valuable information, thank you so much Koichi :)

Wonderlful! I need more time to go through my profile and classes….. Thanks for this Koichi…

I’m only discovering this now but, thanks a lot, Koichi. I’d heard about a lot of this but… the part about the syllabus seems very important.

I’d like to ask, are people checking out a syllabus even for one shot classes? Not that this is my focus, I generally do one-shots only for free offerings to learn more about my target audience, but I’d like to know if there’s an answer to that question.