The problem
Course completion had stalled at around 50%. The data showed a sharp drop at one point in the curriculum: the coding exercises. 30% of users abandoned the course there.
In interviews, students told us why. When they got stuck on a problem, the widget gave them no help, and they felt discouraged. Asking support wasn't much better: coding tickets took 1 to 2 hours to answer, which made the frustration worse.
What we set out to do
Help students finish coding exercises on their own, with help available the moment they need it. That would reduce how much students depended on support, make learning feel better, and lift course completion.
What I did
We added three kinds of help inside the widget:
- Hints: that nudge a student towards the answer without giving it away.
- Step-by-step solutions: for when a hint isn't enough.
- Debugging support: to help students find what's wrong in their own code.
We also redesigned the widget with a cleaner layout, giving students more room to focus on the code.
What changed
- Coding exercise completion up 32%.
- Course completion from 50% to 62%.
- Daily active users up 14%.
- Coding-related support tickets down 40%.