MathPhysy

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Student's Menu
Teacher's Menu
Student's Menu
Teacher's Menu
Student's Menu
Teacher Asks For Price
Conversation Starts
Finding Teacher To Get Helps

Inspiration

The motivation behind MathPhysy is about math and physics online tutoring services. Math and physics are the core subjects in science and students are struggling with those, especially when it comes to solving the problems. By statistics, 1.3 billion people are using messenger globally, so I decided to bring this new and easy user experience with Messenger to empower this online tutoring business. With these, students/clients can easily access MathPhysy just by going directly to MathPhysy’s Messenger, reload their balance and request tutoring.

What it does

+Students
-The major function of MathPhysy is to let the student/client send in their question/problem related to math or physics and then the system will notify available teachers. If the teacher accepts the request, they will be asked to enter a reasonable price that they want in order to solve or answer the question they were given. Then, the student will be asked if they want to accept that price or not. If they accept, the thread will start and the student and teacher will have a conversation through MathPhysy. When the thread is finished, the student/client will be asked to rate the teacher in terms of price, quality, and response time, and balance will be deducted from the student and paid to the teacher.

-Students/Clients can reload their balance using the “Reload” button as well as view their previous transactions using “View Transactions” button.

-Students/Clients can use their referral to refer their friends to MathPhysy. When their friend joins MathPhysy through their referral (link or QR code), their friend and referrer will get 1$ each to use MathPhysy.

-Students/Clients can buy/redeem gift cards that contain QR code for them to scan, or they can enter the gift card’s code directly.

+Teachers
-Teachers can go online or go offline depending on their availability. When they are offline, they won’t be notified by any request from students.

-Teachers can view their past transactions with the “View Transactions” button.

-Teachers can view how students rate their service based on price, quality, and response time so that they can improve customer service based on the rate.

How I built it

I built MathPhysy by using Messenger API with PHP backend and phpMyAdmin. Some frontend stuff such as sample payment portal was built using HTML, JavaScript, and Jquery.

Challenges I ran into

The first challenge I ran into was to think of the idea of how online tutoring services could be improved by messenger. After I had the idea, I ran into another challenge with PHP and Messenger API such as time complexity, databasing, and how to handle thread between student and teacher such as texts, photos, videos, and voices. The last challenge I ran into was about UX and UI. I had to ask my family and my friends to try and let them give me feedback on user experience so that I could furtherly improve it.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am really proud that I could successfully build this. I really like the way I combined user experience and some designs with a backend algorithm. It is like I have brought online tutoring business to another level.

What I have learned

With this hackathon, I have learned about time complexity in PHP and databasing. I have done research on how to effectively use databases as well as Messenger API to improve business. Last but not least, I have learned that everything needs patience. It took a lot of steps and thinking to finally create this.

What's next for MathPhysy

-If this application goes in the real-run, it should have contained Term and Condition for the user to accept/agree in the first place. The sample payment portal should be replaced with the actual payment portal such as PayPal and Credit Card. Teachers should also not be paid 100%. It should be 90%, 80%, or 70% based on the real business setup.

-Add more majors/fields.

-Create/build/use QR code decoder in PHP backend so that users can directly send the picture of the gift card without having to use the native camera app or entering the code directly.

-Create a frontend for managers in order to track transactions, conversations, and etc to prevent scam, spam and to deal with user reports.