CollabWatch is a website that allows you to watch class lectures with your friends or with randomized strangers.
One of the biggest problems with online learning is that there is not much human interaction involved, which leads students to feel disconnected, isolated and like they are not part of a community. This results in them not watching lectures and also lowers grades and productivity.
CollabWatch will help solve this problem by mimicking interactions you would have in an in-person class. CollabWatch does this by having a space where you can watch both live and video lectures with friends or with strangers.
Furthermore, in many classes teachers ask students to discuss or solve a particular problem with other students sitting near them. These conversations are stimulating, fun, and help create bonds between students inside the classroom. However, this is, unfortunately, not a possibility in online classes. But with CollabWatch this can become a reality.
On the starting page, there are two text fields-Name and Class ID. Enter your name and create any random class ID to go to the next page.
In the final product, this page will not be present. Instead, there will be a link from school portals that will directly open the website which will show the lecture that the student is going to watch.
On this page, there is a video screen that is currently connected to YouTube APIs and is hosting the opening ceremony of HackThis. A chatbox is also included for the people watching the lecture to interact. A box shows who all are currently online and a textbox is provided to change the videos. This feature will be mostly useless but can be used when a group of students are rewatching lectures in their group study.
In the final product, we will acquire APIs of school portals and link actual lectures to the video screen and we will also have randomized people in certain groups.
This project is not fully completed as we did not have the necessary permissions and the APIs to use our university's website and because of time constraints.
The project in the future will include:
- Recorded and live lectures of the specific university which will be provided with the help of their APIs and permissions.
- The website will be integrated into specific school websites.
- Different time slots to watch these online lectures in. Scheduling would be possible as per the convenience of the user.
- The people who have scheduled the same time for a particular lecture will be randomly (unless they invite their friends) grouped in small groups with who they will watch the lecture. Every group will be on a "table"
- People on one "table" cannot see/hear/interact with the other students in the class who are not on their "table" while class is going on.
- Video calling for the people on the same "table" will be possible. They will be able to socialize before and after lectures and will be able to ask doubts to each other while in lectures thereby making connections that they would if they were in an in-person class.
- They will also be able to mute themselves and change speaker settings of the other peers on the "table" to customize their ideal environment for learning.
- A doodle space for the people on the same "table" to explain ideas that they couldn't explain well enough verbally.
This is the Figma link to viewing the UI of the future project.
This product is useful for all students but more useful for middle-schoolers, high-schoolers and college students than it is for kindergarteners. It is especially useful for students that are enrolled in Distance Learning Programs or other online courses.