PeerView

Peerview is a central hub for River Valley High School students to create, share, and access study notes, encouraging everyone to contribute and collaborate for academic success.

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Inspiration

I used to regularly create study notes for my peers across various subjects in which I excelled. Although my notes were well-received, I often faced repeated requests for the same materials because people lost the original links. This became frustrating, so I decided to develop a website to serve as a centralized hub for all notes created, not just by me but by others as well. This platform aims to encourage everyone to share their knowledge and resources with their peers.

What it does

PeerView is an innovative, web-based platform designed to foster academic collaboration and enhance the learning experience at River Valley High School.

Officially endorsed by school leaders, this platform serves as a central hub where students can upload, organize, and share study notes. By facilitating peer-to-peer learning, PeerView aims to inspire students to create high-quality notes and engage in mentoring relationships.

Users can explore all shared notes and sort them by subject, name, rating, and more. Sharing their own notes is simple: they just log in with their school-issued email and access our user-friendly creation interface to easily contribute. Users can upload photos of handwritten notes, Google Docs, PDFs, slides, or even notebook files.

How I built it

This website was initially built solely by me using PHP for the backend, as it was the only backend language I knew at the time. The frontend was crafted with pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without any additional frameworks. The Create, View, and About pages initially had a barebones design, and the site looked completely different with a distinct color scheme. The previous login system didn't include Google authentication, allowing anyone, including malicious individuals, to register.

After a year of development, I handed the project over to our school's software development club, RdeV, for further improvements while I remained as a supervisor. Together, we revamped the design, enhanced the code structure, and bolstered the website's security.

Challenges I ran into

In the early stages of this project, I was still a relatively inexperienced web developer. As a result, much of the JavaScript code was disorganized and messy. While the code functioned, it was challenging to maintain and difficult to expand with new features. Six months into the project, I decided to completely rework the JavaScript, making the scripts more organized and functions more concise.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

As of May 7, 2024, Peerview boasts approximately 400 registered users and 260 uploaded notes. During non-exam periods, we receive around 200 monthly visits, which can surge up to 1,000 during exam periods. I'm incredibly proud to have started this project, as the high usage by River Valley students demonstrates their appreciation and reliance on the website for their studies.

What I learned

I've learnt the importance of writing readable code, as well as the numerous safety practises I should have in mind to create a secure website that people can still enjoy using

What's next for PeerView

We plan on further improving the user experience on PeerView. In the future, we plan on connecting PeerView to the other projects we create, and plan to create in the future.

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