Mobile App to Streamline Teacher-Student Workflows

NIX developed a cross-platform mobile app for a Fortune 500 tech company bridges the gap in US hybrid learning, streamlining communication and knowledge sharing, resulting in 40% reduced development costs and high user engagement.

Business Domain

Education
Service

Mobile Development, Cloud Services
Technologies

Flutter, AWS, Android SDK

Business Overview

Our client, a Fortune 500 technology company developing software and hardware solutions, aimed to empower U.S. educators facing the challenges of a post-COVID learning environment. The rise of hybrid learning and the increasing need for personalized instruction presented new difficulties for educators.

Recognizing the shift towards blended learning environments, the company envisioned a new solution to bridge the gap between in-person and remote education. They engaged with NIX, a proven expert in software development and trusted partner through years of successful collaboration, to develop a proof of concept (PoC) for a software-agnostic mobile tool that would facilitate seamless communication for both teachers and students.

2017

Client since

U.S.

Location

Challenge

The project faced a tight deadline and a strong emphasis on cost-efficiency, requiring the mobile solution PoC to be delivered before the second semester. This urgency was driven by the need to gather a full semester’s worth of data for robust analysis and future development.w

Solution

Cross-platform Mobile Application for Streamlined Learning
Key features:

Cross-platform Mobile Application for Streamlined Learning

To enhance communication and streamline workflows for students and teachers, NIX developed a cross-platform mobile application using Flutter. This framework enabled rapid development, cost-efficiency, and a consistent user experience across Android, iOS, and ChromeOS devices.

It was especially important as the project was a PoC, where rapid development and cost-efficiency were crucial to demonstrate feasibility. Flutter’s flexibility allowed the team to leverage ChromeOS-specific features while maintaining the same codebase as the mobile applications. The app features an intuitive dashboard and a ChromeOS-specific toolbar for seamless integration with the learning environment.

This cross-platform solution fosters a dynamic learning process in US educational settings, supporting both synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Key features:

Multimodal communication: Facilitates diverse communication methods through chat, screenshots, annotations, screen recordings, and camera functionality.
Enhanced knowledge sharing: Enables users to capture, annotate, and share screen content using various input methods (audio, video, voice, text, pen/touch).
Secure learning environment: Focuses exclusively on teacher-student communication, fostering a safe and distraction-free learning experience.

Cloud-native Approach

To optimize scalability and cost-efficiency, we implemented a serverless architecture on AWS, leveraging Lambda functions and a suite of services like AppSync, API Gateway, Cognito, DynamoDB, S3, and Pinpoint. This approach, facilitated by the AWS Amplify Flutter library, enabled the rapid development of a robust and scalable solution. An intuitive dashboard and a toolbar further enhance the user experience, delivering a solution that aligns with the client’s business objectives.

To empower data-driven decisions, we automated application usage statistics and provided management with easily accessible KPIs and insights for optimized resource allocation.

Security Measures

Secure Functions: Access to the system is strictly controlled and secured using Identity and Access Management (IAM).
Data Protection: To ensure data security and maintain strict governance of sensitive information, all S3 storages are configured as private and made accessible solely through designated serverless functions.

Outcome

By successfully delivering a powerful cross-platform application within a short deadline before the school semester, the client validated the solution’s feasibility and paved the way for a market-ready product. Through beta testing with US high schools, the company gained valuable feedback for future development. The NIX team developed an application that enhances the learning experience, bridges the gap between in-person and remote learning, and provides an efficient platform for both teachers and students.

Furthermore, data collected during the pilot phase sparked a new project phase focused on a generative AI solution, utilizing NLP and data modeling techniques to visualize key insights on a dashboard web application.

40%

reduction in development costs

with cross-platform compared to traditional native app development methods

85%

of teachers and 70% of students

actively used the app weekly during the pilot program

45%

reduction in server costs

with cloud compared to a server-based infrastructure