One of the biggest struggles that students have to face during the pandemic is the lack of accountability and peer interaction in this learning setup. We saw how some students used different apps such as Notion and Forest to be able to properly keep up with their schoolwork, and we wanted to make a platform that combines the idea of the two and focuses on collaboration and responsibility.

What it does

There are two main features of NextPage: MySpace and Bulletin Board. The main concept of “MySpace” is accountability. You can share your to-do list and your calendar, and your friends can view it and keep you in check of your different responsibilities. Furthermore, it also has an option for you to customize your personal space for it to be a comfortable environment for you and your friends. This allows you to continue to have fun with your peers while still being productive! “Bulletin Board” on the other hand is more focused on collaboration. As it enables you to meet and interact with people you have things in common with (such as classes and courses), it fosters synergy to be able to let everyone excel in their classes and to learn from each other.

How we built it

We first collaborated and talked about the different struggles that we encountered in the remote learning setup. We then thought of the things that we wished were available to us, and what could’ve helped us overcome our struggles. After that, we brainstormed on the different features of the web app that we found to be most important in the creation of a study platform. We created the low-fidelity wireframe, as well as the initial prototype on Figma.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We’re satisfied with what we were able to create in the span of two days. As incoming college freshmen, we came into this hackathon with the thought of learning new things that we can apply in our stay in university. During our busy schedule as high school seniors, we wanted to learn about Figma and other programming languages in preparation for college but we couldn’t due to our busy schedules. So we both find it a HUGE accomplishment to be able to finally learn about it through GirlHack. Not only that, but being able to properly apply what we learned and create something (through the software) is something we are immensely proud of.

What we learned

Aside from the technical skills that we were able to develop, we learned how we can apply our skills and specialties to respond to the needs of the greater community. We should create projects with a sense of purpose and responsibility. In our case, we want to foster productivity and communication in education because we believe that just like what Ms. Ambe Tierro said, ‘Knowledge is power’. Our current situation must not hinder us from maximizing our potential to learn. Hence, we should use the various technologies present to aid us in creating a more conducive learning environment for everyone. Furthermore, through this event, we also learned the importance of collaboration in reaching a common goal. Indeed, we should never feel isolated. We can work through everything with a lot of people who have our backs.

What’s next for NextPage

We are hoping that other students will find this project useful and use it especially in their endeavors in remote learning! As NextPage is centered around accountability and collaboration, it will work best when more people are contributing to the community and making full use of the features that it offers. We are hoping that universities and schools will partner with NextPage and promote it for the use of their students. We are also thinking of expanding it to personal development and this includes adding options for habit tracking, screen time tracking, and more.