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User Guide

Introduction#

Frustrated with the lack of material and information available from previous sem’s and the lack of functionality in the official learning management system LumiNUS, we set out to design a system where students can learn their module content in a more engaging way.

With our background as teaching assistants for the module CS2030(Programming methodology II), we have a burning desire to help our students strive for perfection. We know that learning takes time and continuous effort, but making the process of learning fun and enjoyable will greatly improve students’ performance.

We hope that our project becomes a source of external motivating factors that nudge students to learn the materials by heart. We want students to feel good doing assignments, and be rewarded with virtual points and record their attempts for further analysis. We also want students to try alternative ways of learning, via questions and answers in a forum, via quizzes that are self generated or created by the TAs, and via consolidating their learning into articles to be shared with other module students in the wiki.

If you think: "Yet another contrived combination of Luminous and Coursemology", please read our Competitive Anaylsis section to find out why we think different.

Quick Start#

For the adventurous, just login with a variety of options (Google, Github, etc) and start your journey today!

Overview#

While our dream is to make learning fun for every student regardless of module, we hope to first create a pilot platform where targeted students studying CS2030/S will have the best learning experience in their life.

We want students to know the various ways of learning on top of doing school assignments (by actively raising questions and answering them, by attempting quizzes and creating quizzes themselves, and by summarizing what they learn in articles or diagrams to teach to others).

Lastly we want all their learning activities to be tracked and gamified to provide a constant stream of motivation to achieve more. In summary, we hope to provide students with the following:

Motivation for users#

  • Gamification of tasks and visualization of student’s progress

Quality of life features#

  • A better quiz app, makes making quizzes easier and more enjoyable
  • Forum is quick and simple to use, one-click to navigate to any post with smart sorting and filtering.
  • Dashboard for users to see what is going on at a glance with quick access to all other pages.

Badges#

Badges are a good way to show off your achievements to the other users in your class. Some of the badges that are currently available are:

BadgesRequirement
Smart Badgeanswer 1,10,100 quiz question correct
Strong Badgecomplete 1,10,100 questions
Math badgestudent
Achilles Heel Badgeget 1,10,100 questions wrong
Welcome BadgeCreate and setup your account!
Ace Badgeget full marks for a quiz 1,10,100 times
Community Badgemake 1,10,100 forum posts
Takeoff Badgereply a post 1,10,100 times
Speed Badgebe the first to reply a post 1,10,100 times

Experience points#

Leveling system where the user can do quests to get more experience points.

  • Users will be able to see their standing in a leader-board to gauge their efforts compared to the other students.
  • Leveling will feel rewarding as levels get exponentially harder to increase as time goes on.
  • Leveling will unlock new user privileges as they become higher in level.

Learning opportunities#

  • Forum
    • A forum for students to interact with one another, with live chatting, upvoting, and many other features.
  • Wiki
    • Knowledge database for students to see a collection of articles and diagrams that aid in explaining concepts taught in class
  • Quiz
    • Students and TAs can post their own quizzes and look back on past quizzes

Convenience#

  • Weekly progress
    • Once the week is over, the previous week’s level and progress will become final (cannot be changed). Allowing the student to view the progress they have made in each individual week of the semester.
  • Be the goto place for students when they need information or want to do anything related to the module.

Pages and Functionalities#

1. General#

1.1 Landing page#

1.2 Login page#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/login
  • Description: To login via Github or Google account. Logged in users enjoy the ability to have a profile and interact on the website.
  • Screenshot: login

1.3 Logout page#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/login
  • Description: After logged in, visiting the login page will provide the option to logout. Afterwards users may choose to login with a separate account.
  • Screenshot: logout

1.4 404 page#

  • URL(example): https://nus-connect.vercel.app/404
  • Description: The 404 page will also show up for all URL addresses that are unaccounted for. Users will be notified that they may have keyed in a wrong URL and be provided with a way to navigate back to the home page. Warning: you will be greeted by a cat :)
  • Screenshot: 404

2. Personal#

2.1 Dashboard#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/dashboard
  • Description: A place to see all the information about users' current progress for the selected module and also the module related information. The module information includes announcements and quests. For admin users, options will be available to modify announcements or edit the quests.
  • Screenshot: dashboard

2.2 Profile#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/profile
  • Description: Users will be able to view details of their account. There is also the ability to edit users' display name. They may also view their enrolled module information.
  • Screenshot: profile

2.3 Inbox#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/profile/inbox
  • Description: All system notifications will be available here. Users will be notified about their on-site activities. Users will be able to mark messages as read.
  • Screenshot: inbox

2.4 Badges#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/profile/badges
  • Description: All available badges will be displayed here. Each badge will have its icon, name and the description. On the top section, users will be able to view their attained badges.
  • Screenshot: badges

2.5 Scoreboard#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/profile/scoreboard
  • Description: Scoreboard showcases all members of a module, ranking from the highest experience points to the lowest. This is the place to see one's involvement level within each module.
  • Screenshot: scoreboard

3. Module#

3.1 Module#

3.2 New Module#

4. Quiz#

4.1 Quiz Home#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/quiz
  • Description: Displaying a full list of available quizzes. There are also sorting and filtering options for users to easily select a quiz.
  • Screenshot: quiz

4.2 Individual Quiz#

4.3 Make New Question#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/quiz/make-question
  • Description: Users may submit a new question. These questions can later be selected to make up a new quiz. References to the questions can be made when discussing them within the forum.
  • Screenshot: make-question

4.4 Make New Quiz#

5. Forum#

5.1 Forum home#

  • URL: https://nus-connect.vercel.app/forum
  • Description: The home page of the forum. Users may view and react to the posts on the forum. The toolbar on top will help users navigate the forum more effectively.
  • Screenshot: forum

5.2 Make New Post#

5.3 Make New Reply#

5.4 Individual Post#

Moving forward#

Finally, our final goal is to branch this out to every CS module and then to every NUS module and become the “forum” for NUS where everyone can come to view content and interact with peers taking the same mod. We hope to start small but grow big as we implement more features and make taking a new mod become a better experience.

We also realized that as much as we would like to implement all the features that are beneficial and great to have, we did not manage to get to all of them due to the lack of time. For future improvements and new features, we will continue to keep track of them in our Github issues page and work on them in the coming months.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)#

Q: Can I use the website without logging in?

A: Our system comes with a gamified profile that tracks the progress of users who actively participate in various activities. Thus, we recommend users to login and create a profile with us. However, some features of the website will be kept public to allow users to access the materials easily.

Q: What is the pricing model for the website?

A: In a very realistic sense, we understand that montary rewards can be very effective in keeping a project alive. However, we decided to keep our website free of charge for the initial launch and for as long as possible to support learning activities. This is possible becaues we stand on the shoulders of giants (that are kind enough to provide generous resources at minimal costs).

Q: How does it work with the modules that I am taking in NUS?

A: We support a list of modules that are direct mapping of NUS modules. Take CS2030S as an example, students who are going to take the module in the upcoming semester are welcome to join the same module in the website and use the study resources provided. Accordingly, our forum and quiz functions will be organized into weeks such that students can find the relevant information for that particular module in that particular week.

Q: What if the module that I attend is not on the website?

A: We are open to support more modules and are ready to do so! If there are any modules that you would like to see, please contact us directly. We are also keen to assign admin roles to students who are interested to manage the module.

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