Inspiration

The idea for this project came from a desire to help students choose their classes with confidence, informed by both class difficulty and peer insights. While there are platforms like 'Rate My Professor' out there, we envisioned something more comprehensive, hence the integration of both a forum and a scheduler.

What it does

Our tool enables students to share their class experiences through difficulty ratings and descriptive tags, such as 'project-heavy' or 'test-heavy'. The platform is divided into:

Forum: A space for users to provide reviews and ratings for courses. Schedule Evaluation: In this section, the tool analyzes user-selected courses against forum feedback, giving them insights and suggestions on potential schedules. We used sample data from our database to demonstrate this functionality.

How we built it

Front-End: Developed using React, JavaScript, CSS, and some HTML. Functionality: The front-end houses the user forum, the scheduling tool, and the display of selected classes.

Back-End: Built with SQL, AWS, and Spring Boot. Functionality: This includes setting up AWS RDS, managing data with SQL, and ensuring the frontend can make necessary API calls.

Challenges

Working with databases was new territory for us. As a result, we faced challenges in both setting up the database and ensuring smooth API interactions.

Proud Moments

We successfully created an end-to-end solution. Through teamwork, task delegation, and determination, we realized our vision. We believe our tool can truly benefit students, especially as we continue to expand its capabilities.

What we learned

This project exposed us to several technologies, including React, JavaScript, AWS, and SQL. Beyond the technical aspects, we honed our skills in project planning and research.

What's next for GMUSchedTalk

Looking forward:

Scalability: We aim for all GMU majors to use our tool. Prerequisites: The tool will assess completed courses and provide insights into future ones. Popularity: Our goal is simple - make academic planning easier for GMU students. I hope this version hits the right tone for you!

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