StudentSphere

A concise collaboration tool made using React framework and Canvas API to support collaboration amongst students and add functionality onto Canvas.

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Inspiration

The Inspiration behind this project was the need for a systematic collection of set of collaborative tools under one umbrella service supported by a wide-range use case product. Initially, we set out to mix canvas and discord and integrating zoom api + google drive api etcetra.

What it does

The project is still yet to be completed. Currently, most of its functionality relies on being able to handle Canvas API calls. Is able to dynamically and responsively output the course structure (syllabus) and current grade letter.

How we built it

Started out by experimenting with a discord bot but quickly scrapped that idea due to inability to automate server creation for individual courses. Quickly jumped to react.js framework to provide a stable and dynamic front-end. Started handling API calls via python and concatenating it into a json file which is further manipulated by JS objects and instances.

Challenges we ran into

  1. OAuth 2.0 for various other APIs - I still have a hard time figuring this out
  2. Inability to assume access to a significant extent for various services due to non-admin permissions

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of being able to successfully hardcode a webApp using react.js that is powerful enough to handle API calls and manipulating it successfully to output a dynamic webApp frontend. Though still in its initial development phases, I am proud of what I achieved for my first hackathon and look forward to many more.

What we learned

Working with React.js to create powerful front-end instances and manipulating HTML and CSS script with the use of DOM. Also gained a deeper perspective into API calls and all the possible implementations that could prove to be very useful for the project.

What's next for StudentSphere

Step 1. Completing the development to completely support the initial use-case scenario Step 2. Adding support for authentication without requiring user to input their access token (which is also against Canvas ToS) Step 3. Deployment with the help of appropriate CI/CD pipelines on the cloud (preferably AWS) Step 4. Creating API endpoints for the webApp to provide wider range of functionalities with respect to peer-to-peer collaboration

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