Inspiration
A problem that each of us realized we faced in our academic life was communicating with other students. There was no easy way to communicate with other students from a similar class without sending an email to every single person, so we set out to find a low-maintenance, convenient, and simple solution to helping students ask questions more effectively and comfortable with one another.
What it does
Our website is a platform that takes in students data provided by a school and automatically assigns student to their specific classes for the term. Withing the website, students can easily chat, upload files, link, and images to help or ask for help from other students or their TAs. Often, students have similar issues and questions regarding class material, and this website provides a way not only for those questions to be answered simultaneously by other students or TAs, but can provide a long-term database of student-created materials regarding a particular course to catalogue and store, aiding students who take the class in the future. Students can sort posts by the class they are interested in, make posts to a larger class, and view media posted by previous students.
How we built it
We build this website in HTML5 and CSS, utilizing a JavaScript file for managing user interactivity. The database was created by Mauricio with PHP and is hosted locally on his computer. We worked collaboratively in Visual Studio Code using the Live Share feature.
Challenges we ran into
Neither Mauricio nor I (Gordie) knew either of the languages or structures that we were assigned to work on. Mauricio knew nothing about PHP and I had never worked with HTML or CSS before, so learning how to create a complete website tied to a database in less than a day was quite the challenge. Actually connecting the website to the database (so that the website could be easily managed by school administrations) was especially difficult, and PHP is not as well documented as HTML and it's syntax is bizarre and confusing. On my end, user interactivity with the HTML was a pain, as working with JavaScript in an HTML setting was more complicated and tedious than I would've assumed.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of the fact that we have a semi-functional product to present in the first place. Learning how to make an intractable website so quickly impressed us, and we're glad that we got to make something while learning so much.
What we learned
I learned how to program in HTML and Mauricio learned to tie HTML to a PHP database. We both discussed that even though we couldn't add all the features that we wanted, we're happy to have learned so much about web development.
What's next for S.O.C. (Studient-Organize Communication)
Given more time, S.O.C. can be connected to a web server, be given additional functionality, and become a viable and useful resource for student, and also help to foster more of a sense of community in each class, as some classes struggle more than others when it comes to connectedness.
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