How we helped our client with a custom video call & scheduling tool for his e-learning software?
ScholarBees is an innovative platform connecting teachers and students believing in futuristic eLearning.
Industry
eLearning
Technology
Laravel & Angular
Accomplishments
ScholarBees
ScholarBees is an e-learning platform connecting people from reputed colleges and their passion for giving back to society with their experience to reach the pinnacle of their careers. It offers flexibility for effective learning as the students can check the schedule of the teachers before setting up sessions with them and can pay per session.
This project gave us a chance to work with a passionate US client from India who even visited our work office for a better, in-depth discussion of his business idea. So we could get a better insight into the USP of the project and what he wanted to achieve with this platform.
The client wanted to start his venture in India because of his better understanding of its e-learning industry and then gradually expand around the globe. Flexibility is the key highlight of this platform that helps it stand out in the market by letting the students choose the teachers and sessions at the prices they can afford.
Not only this, but the tutors also get the freedom to manage their profile, set the hourly rate, the course they want to offer, availability, and accept the booking request of the students.
The idea was powerful as students don’t get to meet or study from such qualified and experienced people who have passed out from the most reputed colleges all over the world. They aspire to be in such colleges but don’t get proper guidance or don’t know whom to reach out to or consult to get into such colleges. Scholorbees would provide such a platform to both the students and the teachers.
It also removed the time and location limitations with its functionality to manage their schedule and availability for the teachers. Similarly, the students could schedule lessons online by searching for the teachers available at their preferred time.
This application also came at the right time - during the covid reign, so both teachers and students could get the optimal advantage from the application.
Challenge
When first presented to us, ScholarBees was a raw idea. The client had an idea about an e-learning platform that would give teachers the freedom to work part-time. Similarly, the students get a chance to work with the best teacher in live sessions at the prices they can afford.
Since we wanted to deliver the best, we welcomed him to our premises to understand the requirements. We also had to do intense research to find the right technologies. Since most sections had to be dynamic, it needed a scalable solution that could run flawlessly when the number of users increases over time.
After brainstorming different perspectives, we decided on using Laravel, Angular, AWS, Cashfree, Twilio, and Sendinblue, leading to better results in the long run.
NDP Analysis
Our team gauged the potential of the idea behind connecting qualified teachers who want to teach part-time and students seeking quality education. We wanted to help the client understand the target audience to enable him to take better decisions for his business growth by doing intense market research.
Scholarbees targets both young students and experienced teachers so the interface had to be interactive yet easy to navigate. Further facilitating an easier connection between teachers and students could help it make an industry impact and yield better results.
Although there is tough competition in the e-learning industry, proposed solutions like virtual classes with a whiteboard for real-time interactions and custom scheduling calendars would give it a competitive edge.
Implementation
ScholaBees has some advanced functionalities. Primarily we had to work on two of its main features including:
1) A custom scheduling calendar tool, where tutors can manage their schedule for each day with different slots and mark holidays and non-working days.
2) Create a video calling tool where tutors and students can connect for virtual classes with a whiteboard for real-time interaction.
We used Vonage to achieve this feature and added advanced functionalities like a whiteboard with multiple sheets, screen sharing, and video calling. It lets the users chat inside the video calls and share files to make learning easier for the students.
Additionally, we also used firebase to let all the users on the platform chat among themselves.
So we decided to divide its development into different phases:
Design
We followed a responsive approach as ScholarBees had to be compatible with all the devices keeping in view the mobile-first approach of Google. Moreover, user-friendly UI-UX has made it easily accessible to all users.
Development
ScholarBees also has advanced features that make it stand out among other e-learning apps. These were to be available to both - students and tutors. Some of these are signing up, verifying, setting up their profiles, and searching for the courses for the students. Though its list of functionalities is long, here are a few of these:
Chat
Scholarbees also supports chat functionality where students and teachers can chat on a video call and within the platform. For this, we used the firebase plugin to enable all the users on the platform to talk among themselves. Not only this, as per the requirements, this option was also set to be only available when toggled from the admin panel.
Payment
We needed a reliable payment gateway that would handle the transactions by the students to Scholarbees and also from Scholarbees to the tutors. Further, it also displays the amount credited, outstanding, or is yet to be decided. Cash tree proved to be a wise choice to keep up with all these requirements and is working efficiently ever since.
Video calling
The students and tutors at ScholarBees can indulge in one-on-one sessions through video calls. For this, we decided on using an open and customized whiteboard to give a real-time classroom experience to the students. Moreover, all the users – the students, teachers, or the admin have the power to cancel the sessions.
Manage Calendar
Tutors can also manage their calendars and accept requests according to the available slots. Here the use of a full calendar by our experts has set the feature working.
Admin Panel
ScholarBees operates with a motto to deliver quality education for students. So all the actions have to be carefully monitored. We skillfully framed the admin panel to monitor all the functions such that no coding skills are required. The admin can check the active users and deactivate any student or tutor. Further, if a student raises a student, the final decision rests with the admin. Moreover, there is also an option to add sub-admins with fewer rights.
Users
We wanted to make managing ScholarBees easy for the owner. So the backend is divided into three users:
- Student
- Teacher
- Admin
We also added Chart.js for an analytical view to study user trends and track the traffic on the website. Along with this, we also used Google analytics to let the admin track the site traffic. We used Twilio to send OTP and authenticate payments.
Industry Impact
Scholarbees has had a positive impact on the eLearning industry and made things easier for both - students and teachers. It assures access to quality education to the students and gives the teachers the freedom to share the knowledge easily for better revenue generation. Its advanced features like chat, secure payments, and the calendar have made e-learning easier like never before! The product has been well-received by both users and has thousands of active users.
