Designing a Social Learning Breakout Experience for Live Online Classrooms
Increasing participation, collaboration, and learning outcomes in remote education The Breakout Question Experience is a core interaction feature designed for Noon Academy, aimed at transforming passive online classes into collaborative, high-engagement learning sessions. The feature introduces peer-to-peer breakout groups during live classes, allowing students to discuss, answer, and reflect on questions together—bringing social learning theory into real-time digital education.
Remote learning significantly reduced student participation and social interaction. Students mostly listened without engaging, leading to lower retention, reduced session time, and weaker learning outcomes. Existing chat-based interactions were limited and failed to replicate classroom collaboration.
My Role | Lead UX Designer
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The Challenge
Design a feature that:
Increases student participation during live sessions
Reduces isolation in remote learning
Encourages peer-to-peer collaboration
Improves retention, comprehension, and time spent
Works seamlessly within fast-paced live classes
The Solution
We redesigned question interaction around social learning instead of individual response.
Students are grouped into small breakout teams, where they discuss questions via chat or voice before answering. Timed discussions, team identities, live feedback, and leaderboards create a collaborative and motivating experience.
The flow balances discussion, decision-making, and feedback—turning each question into a shared learning moment rather than a passive task.
Testing
Created interactive prototypes for usability testing
Conducted user interviews and usability testing with specific tasks
Outcome
+55% increase in participation rate
+70% mic activation during sessions
+75% increase in correct answers
Strong increase in session duration and active users
Became one of the most impactful social features in the product
