Inspiration
I was inspired to build Lectura the Live Lecture because I noticed a gap in how professors and students interact during class. Too often, professors ask “Any questions?” and are met with silence not because students fully understand, but because many feel anxious, don’t want to interrupt, or worry about asking a “dumb” question. At the same time I noticed the distance between long term professors and current students. It feels like at some point they stop receiving critique for their teaching ways. I wanted to create a tool where every lecture could speak back, giving students a voice without pressure and giving professors real insight into engagement.
What it does
Our MVP for Lectura lets professors create a room with a code that students can instantly join. Students can react in real time with simple signals or ask anonymous questions, while professors see everything live on their dashboard. At the end of class, the professor can close the session and receive an automatic engagement recap by email.
How I built it
I built Lectura as a real-time classroom tool using React with Vite on the frontend and Node.js with Express on the backend, connected through Socket.IO to handle live reactions, questions, and class controls. Each lecture session generates a unique code so students can join instantly, with the server managing rooms to keep events isolated. To wrap up every class, Nodemailer(mailing library) automatically sends professors an engagement recap straight to their inbox. The result is a lightweight but powerful system where students interact without pressure and professors get meaningful feedback the moment a lecture ends.
Challenges I ran into
Web sockets Web sockets Web sockets they are quite tricky
Accomplishments that I am proud of
I made a basic working mvp at least the core functions work. I also am glad I learnt about web sockets and rather attempted a difficult version of working with web sockets
What I learned
Web sockets are cool but can be very tricky
What's next for LiveLecture
I want to build. Next, I plan to add polling features, so professors can quickly gauge understanding with multiple-choice questions. I also want to introduce a confusion heatmap, showing which lecture moments sparked the most questions or reactions. On the student side, I’ll expand options for personalized feedback and make the interface even more seamless on mobile. Long term, I see LiveLecture integrating with platforms like Canvas and Blackboard, so professors don’t have to juggle separate tools
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