E-learning platform with everything in one place

Tom Potanski

Last updated on May 25, 2023 | 5 min read

User-friendly e-learning platform for a startup from San Francisco.

Skillton is a platform built in a short period. It enables tutors and learners to connect and conduct an end-to-end interactive learning process. Created using cuttingedge technology, it is easily scalable and maintainable. Integrating Google, Sendgrid, and the in-app payment system made it complete and easy to use.

Project Overview

The Conception

We were chosen to design and develop a user-friendly e-learning platform for a startup founder. The main goal of the project – a web app –
was to be intuitive and straightforward so that the user could focus on learning new skills. Its main advantage over competition was the integration
of all tools, allowing smooth transitions between classes, chatting, and browsing – a unique application to share your skills and learn what you like from anywhere, anytime.

Since the project had a fixed launch date, there was no time to waste. After an initial deep-dive in the project objectives, our designer drafted the first platform mocks. The client accepted the final designs after only a two-week-long iterative process.

Then, the first pilot of the web app was developed and underwent extensive user testing to minimize the complexity of user flow. Finally, after several iterations, the platform was ready for launch and received excellent opinions from the beta testers.

The Application

Start to learn

We have created an e-learning platform where everything is managed in one place. From browsing classes, through reservation and payment, to hosting the video meeting, a user has the comfort of staying on one page. Outbound links and problems with outside vendors are limited this way.

The platform enables learners to sign up with a Google account, making registration last less than a minute. Users can then browse through classes of different skill sets and teachers. The learners meet with the teacher during the course via a built-in video conferencing service with multiple interaction features, drawing on the synergy of a real class experience with e-teaching tools. After the class, all participants can further discuss the matter and review the teacher.

Tutors to create classes

As for the tutors, the platform enables them to create various classes easily, be it single or recurring, and conduct an end-to-end interactive learning process with their students. A unique feature for running courses on two separate devices simultaneously enables them to share their screen and use phone camera at the same time, which improves the quality of content they are presenting. All financial matters are handled inside the web app to make the fee collection accessible. The earnings can be withdrawn at any time with a one-click process.

Sophisticated integrations

Providing smooth experience

During development, we faced many challenges. We had to enable 100+ users somehow to join a single class and participate in it without any problems.
Our solution was to use daily.co. – realtime web communication for audio and video. Integration with this service allowed us to deliver an outstanding and smooth experience for hundreds of users with relative ease and at almost no time
 – a simple yet elegant solution.

Improved user experience

We have also connected the application with Stripe. Stripe allows learners to pay for classes and the teachers to manage their account balance and withdraw money. It also allows users from all over the world to participate in classes.

The app has also been integrated with Google sign-up feature that allows the user to register without creating an all-detailed account in just one step. That significantly improves user experience and reduces time to get to the platform resources.

We have made the integration with Sendgrid for both transactional and marketing email sending. This solution has been applied for a faster development process and better deliverability of the emails.

Modern technologies and tech stack

Using cutting-edge technology, we have created a platform that is easily scalable and maintainable. In addition, well-designed architecture provides projects with excellent stability and reliability; be it platform rush hours or not, it is always fast and stable.

Our team has implemented Vue.js, Vuetify, and TypeScript for the frontend. Vue.js is a progressive framework for building advanced user interfaces. Unlike other monolithic frameworks, it is designed from the ground up; therefore, it can be gradually adjusted.

Vuetify is a reusable semantic component framework for Vue.js which helps to provide clean and reusable components.

We have incorporated Express.js for the backend development. Express.js is a web application framework for Node.js. It provides several features that make web application development swift and easy.

Both front-end and backend are written in TypeScript, which makes the code easier to read and understand and maintains type checking.

For database and data storage, we have used PostgreSQL managed by TypeORM. Finally, the app has been deployed on Amazon Web Services.