Students would use one place that gathers course materials and campus activities, because the real pain is that these are scattered across Moodle, OneDrive, email and social media.
We observed
1 supporting · 1 contradicting
We learned
Interest is real (five of five) but it came from a spoken pitch to five friends. And students want fewer places to check, not a new one.
Therefore we will
Before building anything, run a 'concierge' pilot with 8–10 students in one or two courses: we gather and share the materials, send a weekly activity digest and pass anonymous feedback on by email, all by hand, and record what people come back for.
Because
Five friends reacting to a description cannot carry a build decision. Playing the platform ourselves for a term shows which function is actually used, before we spend anything on a website.
A team member · 21 Nov
Learning card 2Validated
We believed
Students hold back feedback to lecturers because they fear it will make a bad impression, so they would only use a feedback channel if it were genuinely anonymous.
We observed
1 supporting
We learned
The fear is real and consistent. Students will speak up only if the channel collects nothing that identifies them, and only if they can see that speaking up leads somewhere.
Therefore we will
The feedback channel collects no identifying information and shows a visible status: Received, Under review, Responded. We approach Student Affairs to confirm the university will actually answer.
Because
Every interviewee raised the same two doubts. Without a visible response the channel is an empty box, and they told us they would not use one.
A team member · 21 Nov
Learning card 1Validated
We believed
Students lose motivation mid-semester because workload piles up and assignment requirements are unclear, not because they stop caring about the subject.
We observed
3 supporting
We learned
The mid-semester drop is predictable and systemic: workload peaks, unclear briefs and isolation, not laziness. The survey, the interviews and the published studies all pointed the same way.
Therefore we will
We stopped treating this as a motivation problem. Gamification and 'encouragement' ideas are dropped; we build for time saved and clarity.
Because
72% named workload; all eleven interviews raised unclear requirements or overload without being asked; not one person described losing interest in the subject.