For our user-research, we conducted interviews with WGU students. The interviews were a mixture of both in-person and online. We interviewed 25 participants ranging 26 to 61 years in age. The degree programs of these participants included accounting, business management, mathematics, educational leadership and IT. The number of years in the program ranges from 1 to 5 years. These participants came from various industries like software, medicine, education, milk processing, e-commerce, etc.
We began by conducting a series of in-person interviews, as we wanted a more personal experience with the WGU student. After conducting 5 in-person interviews, we revised our script to incorporate new findings, and proceeded with a series of online interviews. We conducted 20 online interviews, where we revised the script as needed to focus on interesting insights that emerged.
The interview questions mainly collected information on questions related to motivation behind joining the program or studying, study habits of individuals, how tech savvy is the user and their experience with the WGU technology and WGU mentors. Each of the categories was finalized after debating and pilot testing the script.