How DonorsChoose Uses Delve

To Uncover Opportunities to Help Teachers

“We’d still be combing through the data now without Delve.”

- Liam Cates, UX Researcher @ DonorsChoose

Josh Rosenberg and Liam Cates, two user experience researchers at DonorsChoose, recently went into schools to find out what the end of the school year looks like for teachers. Through in-person onsite conversations, they were able to acquire an insightful glimpse into the lives of the teachers that DonorsChoose serves. To make sense of the hours of conversations they had with teachers, they turned to the research tool Delve. With Delve they were able to analyze and organize these in-depth conversations with teachers, and uncover opportunities for DonorsChoose to increase its impact.

About Donors Choose

DonorsChoose is a nonprofit website on a mission to make it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need. Teachers request classroom supplies or experiences and donors choose the projects that they want to support. Over 80% of public schools have had at least one teacher use DonorsChoose to request the resources they need for their students and, since DonorsChoose was founded in 2000, donors of all stripes have given over $900 million to teachers.

The Research Study

The research team needed to dive into the ways that teachers plan for upcoming school years. A previous DonorsChoose study revealed that many teachers begin planning at the end of the school year, well before the traditional back-to-school season. To gain a deeper understanding of end-of-year planning, the team met teachers on their home turf: the classroom. Through these one-on-one conversations, they were able to gain more insight than any survey or questionnaire would ever give them. 

“Visiting teachers in their classrooms provided a rich understanding of the tasks they need to complete at a really busy time of the year. We were able to experience the conditions of the classrooms first-hand, see exactly how teachers packed up their materials, and read their supply lists. The quality of the data was much higher than anything we could have collected over a phone call.” - Josh Rosenberg, UX Researcher

The Analysis

The site visits not only provided a high quality of data, but a high quantity as well. Hours of interviews generated nearly 150 pages of transcripts and the daunting task of extracting meaning out of them. The research team used Delve, a qualitative analysis tool, to analyze patterns, pull insights, and synthesize meaning.

In the past, the team had considered clunky CAQDAS tools that were overcomplicated, difficult to learn and use, and had limited collaboration. Delve simplified their process so they could concentrate on analyzing their data.

“Delve is focused solely on coding qualitative data and creating meaning out of it. To me, that is really valuable. I don't have to think about anything else when I'm using it. It's me and the data with very little in-between.” - Josh Rosenberg, UX Researcher

Collaborative Analysis

Delve allowed the team to to seamlessly work on their research project, with their co-researchers’ analysis live updating on their computers. After first creating a loose coding structure based on their research agenda, with topics like: “End of Year Activities,” “Funding Sources,” and “Using DonorsChoose,” the team split up the transcripts for analysis. 

Once finished with the first pass, Josh and Liam came together and used Delve to collaboratively analyze the data and reconcile diverging interpretations. Delve allowed them to view multiple transcripts at once through different conceptual lenses. They were able to immediately see all quotes associated with a theme. As they read through them together, meaning emerged as they made sense of the hours of conversations. They could review high-level insights while delving in to see supporting quotes from teachers.

“I think there was a ton of value in being able to quickly navigate between all of our participants and all of the data that we had without feeling overwhelmed or lost… We’d still be combing through the data now without Delve.” - Liam Cates, UX Researcher

Delve helped DonorsChoose better understand teacher needs at the end of the school year. They learned how teachers plan supplies for the year, clean and organize their classrooms, and assess their curriculums. Delve allowed the researchers to connect the challenges teachers face with opportunities for DonorsChoose to provide solutions.

Sharing Insights, Piece by Piece

As every researcher knows, discovering insights is only half the battle. The open-ended nature of generative research gave the DonorsChoose research team a treasure trove of information. While they set out to learn how teachers plan for the school year, they also learned about unexpected topics such as how teachers apply for grants and how they interact with school district leaders. These were valuable insights that the team shared in a consumable format with key stakeholders during a presentation.

To focus the research insights for their team, Josh and Liam limited themselves to an initial 1-hour presentation to leaders. Their presentation focused on just a sliver of essential information, while still alluding to the study’s vast landscape of knowledge. Delve helped streamline their presentation, making it easy to quickly pull together insights and quotes on any subsection of topics. They converted their code synthesis into a presentation deck that highlighted key quotes, and they used Delve's timestamps to find essential video clips to support their work. This effort led to a focused and persuasive presentation.

“The reception has been really great. One org leader called it a revelation in the way we think about planning. These findings will help guide our team for years to come.” - Liam Cates, UX Researcher

The Longevity of the Research

The presentation did not mark the end of the research project. Instead, it unlocked opportunities to spread the insights to the rest of the company. Because the field study highlighted foundational knowledge about teachers, the findings had broad implications across the organization. As one team leader conveyed:

“Our best ideas have always come from teachers, beginning with our founding. Getting to hear real teacher experiences with the insights from the research team sparked a laundry list of ideas that we’re excited to explore” - Katie Vallas, Marketing Director, Teacher Success

To make it easy for their stakeholders to digest their diverse findings, the researchers compiled a reference report, using Delve to explore learnings unrelated to their initial goals. The report lists actionable insights and draws a narrative tapestry of teachers’ needs at the end of the school year. Having analyzed the transcripts in Delve, Josh and Liam can quickly dive back into their research to surface more insights.

Conclusions

Delve helped Josh and Liam along every step of their analysis process. It allowed them to explore pages of transcripts collaboratively, turn teachers’ individual perspectives into high-level patterns and meaning, and share out their findings quickly. In doing so, Delve allowed DonorsChoose to take empathetic action based on a new understanding of the teachers that they strive to serve.

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