Overview

LEANLAB partnered with 7 teachers at University Academy and 5 teachers at Kansas City Virtual Academy to explore the usability and feasibility of Pango for lesson planning.  Each school was matched with Pango, because teachers there had expressed a need and desire for streamlining and standardizing lesson planning across their school systems, especially during a time of constant uncertainty and inconsistency in teaching and learning environments (i.e. virtual, hybrid, and in-person classrooms).

Pilot Schools

Kansas City Virtual Academy &

University Academy

Company

Pango is a K-12 tool designed for faster lesson planning where teachers can find resources, create lesson plans, teach, and share with colleagues.

Download

• Full Feasibility Report

• PANGO Action Plan

Research Question

Feasibility

The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and utility of Pango for lesson-planning. The central research question was:

• Are teachers able to use Pango for lesson planning or for other ways they want to?

Previously, LEANLAB Education conducted a usability study with the same group of teachers to explore the usability and utility of Pango for first-time users. The results of that study can be found here.

Methodology  

• All teachers were given the following tasks to complete on their own time during a 4-week trial period:

  • create at least one lesson plan that meets the requirements of the school

  • create one presentation that comes from your lesson plan and that you would use in your classroom

  • share your lesson plan and/or PowerPoint with a colleague

• A survey was given to all teachers to capture high-level opinions on the usefulness, utility, and ease of Pango as well as their overall levels of satisfaction with Pango.

• 1:1 interviews were then conducted with all 12 teachers after the trial period to discover specific strengths and challenges of using Pango for lesson-planning with emphasis on teacher reaction to the content available to them.

Findings

Overall Navigation of Pango

In the post survey, five out of the eleven teachers (45.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that “Pango was easy to navigate.”  From the post-interviews, it was discovered that teachers who described themselves as “tech savvy,” found Pango easier to navigate than those who did not.  While teachers believed Pango had an inviting interface and it was easy to navigate the Resource Library, navigating Pango’s other features and figuring out how to use all of them was more challenging.  More pop-up instructions/tips at each key feature are needed to direct teachers or suggest “starting points.”

Use of the Lesson Plan template

The layout of the lesson plan template was appealing to teachers, because they saw an opportunity to have everything for their lesson plan embedded in one place and a great way to standardize lesson planning across their school. It was, however, time consuming for teachers to create their first lesson plan because some features were not as user-friendly as expected. Teachers wanted more control over the section titles, content, and what they could attach in each section. Additionally, some teachers preferred a weekly lesson plan template or a clearer way of creating small group/mini lessons within the larger lesson plan.

Use of the Standards feature

Based on the post-survey, most teachers stated that Standards by Curriculum was a useful feature with only one teacher not finding it useful. While teachers saw the value in the Standards feature, the usability and scope of it was limited. The standards available were limited for non-traditional subject areas (i.e. Physical Education), so not all teachers were able to utilize them as intended. Additionally, many teachers requested the ability to add standards from more than one subject into a lesson plan since they often plan integrated lessons that span more than one subject (i.e. a lesson using language arts, math, and science standards).

Creation of a PowerPoint

Many teachers reported difficulty in getting the Powerpoint feature to function properly, particularly when they wanted to add creative features such as visuals and designs or utilize a different template style. Teachers were also confused on how to view it, since it downloaded a file immediately rather than prompting them for how they’d like to open it or store it. From an overall design perspective, teachers want more editing capability and to add images to make it more visually appealing for their students.

Sharing a Lesson Plan

The survey of 11 teachers indicated that four found it easy to share their lesson with a colleague while others struggled with sharing it. Most teachers simply wanted to share it with one teacher, and so they were frustrated that they first had to create a team and that they could only share it with other Pango users (which the majority are not yet given the awareness of the product).

Using the TimeTable

Most teachers neither agreed nor disagreed that the Time Table feature was useful, as expressed in the post-survey with a few believing the feature to be useful. Teachers liked that the format of the Time Table allowed them to adjust the timeline easily. In interviews, teachers discussed how they appreciated how easy it was to design schedules with varied time blocks, since it helped in pacing out their lessons, but they wished for more customization of the periods and time blocks.

Resource Library

Was the content that you would usually use available in Pango?

Teachers who taught math were the most satisfied with the Resources provided, whereas teachers who taught subjects outside of literacy and math (i.e. high school science, business, physical education) recommend adding additional resources across various subjects. The most relevant content provided in Pango from the teachers’ perspectives were the concise videos. Teachers appreciated that they were short and included some from TED-Ed. Since the BBC videos were not accessible in the United States at the time of this study, it would be beneficial to eliminate them from the options until they are fully viewable.

The table in the “barriers” pop-out below provides survey results for questions relevant to Resource content and the Library.

Discussion

While 73% of the teachers did not feel they could do everything they needed to do for lesson planning while in Pango at this time, some did speak of the potential once Pango includes more resources for non-traditional subject areas and improves functionality with the lesson plan template and PowerPoint. Other ways in which teachers see value in Pango and its continued use are shown in the table below.

In terms of feasibility and utility of Pango for lesson planning, the teachers were most successful in creating a lesson plan as compared to creating a presentation and sharing with a colleague. While there were challenges getting started, many teachers found it useful to add the Standards by Curriculum and Resources into the lesson plan, although it was not easy to add the Standards. When it came to making the presentation, most teachers in the study were used to using a different platform (Google Slides rather than PowerPoint) which led to expectations for Pango’s format, design, and editing options. Teachers saw value in being able to share their Pango lessons with their colleagues and offered recommendations on making the process more clear and easy for teachers. 

Finally, many ideas were shared by the teachers on specific areas for iterative design within Pango that would help them meet their lesson planning goals of saving time, accessing relevant resources, and creating engaging learning experiences for their students. Those ideas have been shared throughout the report as Action Steps and include key insights into the needs, priorities, and expectations of teachers when designing lesson plans. 

One key takeaway is how virtual schools plan lessons differently from traditional schools in buildings. In particular, virtual schools may not have fixed time periods of instruction and would benefit from a highly flexible and adaptable format. With the growing number of hybrid approaches to learning, especially at the high school level, further research could involve a deeper exploration of how Pango can best support varied learning environments.