Homepage with Leaderboard
My Events Page where students can view points, prize target, and submit and view past event submissions
Admin Events page where admins can approve user event submissions for points
Event Gallery Page where users can upload photos like a social media page
View Events Page where admins can add or delete events
User Interactive and Dynamic FAQ Page
Winners Page with student with the highest points and a randomly chosen winner

SchoolBoost: Enhancing Student Involvement Through Technology

Inspiration

The inspiration for creating SchoolBoost came from witnessing the significant social and academic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. My brother, among many other students, struggled to reconnect with the school community and engage in extracurricular activities. This motivated me to develop a platform that would facilitate student involvement in school events, fostering a sense of community and enhancing their overall school experience, especially for first-generation students.

What I Learned

Building SchoolBoost was an incredible learning experience that deepened my understanding of software development, project management, and user-centered design. I learned how to:

Design and implement a semi-3-tier architecture using .NET.
Manage and interact with SQL databases.
Develop responsive web pages that adapt to various screen sizes.
Implement user authentication and role-based access control.
Create a user-friendly interface that encourages engagement and participation.

How I Built the Project

Tools and Technologies

Framework: .NET v4.8
Development Environment: Visual Studio v17.5.4
Database: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio v19.0
Frontend: Material Pro HTML Template for design
Hosting: Microsoft Azure for SQL backups and hosting

Key Features

Home Page: Displays the student points leaderboard and provides navigation through a dynamic menu bar.
Registration and Login: Secure user registration with email verification and login with multiple validators.
Event Gallery: Allows students to upload and share pictures from events, with functionality for liking and deleting posts.
My Events Page: Personalized dashboard for students to track their event participation and progress towards prizes.
Admin Events Page: Admin interface for managing events, generating reports, and bulk updating event statuses.
View Events Page: Centralized page for administrators to create, update, and delete school events.
Winners Page: Displays top performers and randomly selected winners by quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions Page: Provides users with answers to common questions and tips for using the platform.

Program Structure

Home Page: Accessible to all users, displaying the leaderboard and dynamic menu based on user roles.
Registration and Login: Pages for user authentication with robust validation and email verification.
Event Gallery: Feature-rich page for posting and interacting with event photos.
My Events and Admin Events Pages: Role-specific dashboards providing relevant data and functionality for students and administrators.
View Events and Winners Pages: Interfaces for event management and recognizing top performers.
FAQ Page: Comprehensive help section to assist users in navigating the platform.

Challenges Faced

Ensuring Data Security: Protecting user data was a top priority. Implementing secure authentication methods and robust error handling mechanisms was challenging but essential.
Scalability and Performance: Ensuring the application could handle a growing number of users and events required careful optimization and efficient database queries.
User Experience: Designing an intuitive and engaging user interface involved multiple iterations and feedback from potential users.
Email Functionality: Integrating email verification and notifications posed challenges in managing email servers and ensuring reliable delivery.

Future Plans

To further enhance SchoolBoost, I plan to:

Host the website on a dedicated web server for increased reliability.
Implement additional security measures to protect user data.
Improve the performance and efficiency of the application.
Add new features such as event comments, a forgot password functionality, Google sign-in, and more comprehensive error notifications.
Expand usability across all major operating systems and introduce paging functionality for large tables.
Enhance the aesthetics and user experience of the application.

By continually improving and expanding SchoolBoost, I aim to provide an even more effective platform for fostering student involvement and enhancing the high school experience.