lectern

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  Landing Page

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  Student's In Class View

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  Instructor View

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  Student's Course View

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Inspiration

As a student, it's impossible to ignore the impact Covid-19 had, and continues to have, on the learning experience. Most of us are learning from home, and for many, home is very far from school. Further, the pandemic has made it even more difficult for less fortunate pupils to access teachers and verify their educations to prospective employers and academic institutions.

Even when the Covid crisis dies down, it is clear to see that our world has accelerated toward hybrid---or even online-first---systems. With this comes a need for fair, borderless, secure software.

We're starting to crack these issues with lectern.

What it does

lectern is a web app which is building the foundation for a decentralized token which will power education going forward. lectern is service which connects students and tutors around the world for virtual lessons (these can be one-on-one or group). What sets us apart is that the app is designed to be used with KnowledgeCredits (KCR), our crypto token. Tutors are paid in KCR which erases borders from learning. Your local currency is no longer a hurdle in the way of getting an education.

Simply sign-in as a student to view and filter classes and click one. You'll see a meeting link and see a button to start your session when your tutor shows up.

As a tutor, you can create classes in different subjects and have they displayed to students around the world. You'll receive an email (courtesy of Courier) notifying you when a student joins your session!

We also have the ability, therefore, to donate a considerable amount of educational resources to children who need it (and not just in North America). By donating KCR to students, we can pay tutors while providing free education.

How we built it

lectern is a React/NextJS app on the frontend with the centralized functionality built with Firebase. We use firebase for many things, including auth, realtime data, cloud functions, and firestore.

We use courier to send beautiful email notifications to tutors.

We used domain.com to register lectern.tech

What we learned

We wrote our first smartcontracts on the blockchain which proved difficult but learning blockchain is great considering its growing prominence in tech. We learned a lot about serverless architecture and authentication, as well as state management.

What's next for lectern

We want to expand lectern to add more tools for students and teachers. By using KCR we can verify degrees and coursework so students from across the globe can have their work recognized by international employers when working remote. We would also like to add more ergonomic features to polish up the app. Finally, we want to deploy our coin onto the real ethereum network. Unfortunately, the price to put our coin on the real ethereum network proved too high for now. So, we released a non-blockchain demo.

Built With

• blockchain
• courier
• ethereum
• firebase
• javascript
• nextjs
• react