Inspiration
After experiencing remote learning last spring ourselves and looking at multiple behavioral studies, we noticed a few trends:
- A major problem with online education is the lack of peer-to-peer interaction, leading to social deprivation.
- People, especially youth, find it hard to focus for long periods of time without peer interaction.
- Without peers to compete/collaborate with, kids become discouraged in school.
With online learning, the lack of social interaction once offered in classrooms poses many issues to a student’s learning experience, creating an absence of peer collaboration and classmate discussions. This often leads to high stress levels and, in extreme cases, depression.
Thus, we decided to create an application that solves these issues while also widening accessibility to diverse perspectives of classes.
What it does
Chatter provides a platform for social interaction, allowing students from across the country to gather and talk. Students can interact with each other and have the option to anonymously rant, relieving possible anxiety, stress, and nervousness.
What makes Chatter different from other apps that are created nowadays is that it is student run, which provides a sense of relatability between the developers and the users. Chatter is also the first of its kind, as no other app has provided a secure verification system for student interaction. Lastly, it is a cross-platform application, which allows students from around the world using any device to connect to each other, granting a feeling of unity.
First, the user register their account and verify themselves as a student by logging into partnered apps such as Canvas, ALEKS, and/or Skyward. The user then queues up into a class ranging anywhere from AP U.S. History to Spanish. They can also start and host their own category. Once the user joins the class, they are connected to the video chat room and can now interact with other students in the same class through the screen!
How we built it
We generated our code using packages like AutoRoute, which helped speed up the development process. These packages also helped us code animations quicker. Additionally, we universalized a lot of our widgets, like our text, so that everything is more uniform. Similarly, we universalized our animations so that we could instantly apply them on anything and get the same effect on any widget.
For our settings, we used other packages, like the Draggable Scoresheet, to get certain effects and animations. We also did that with Avatar Glow.
For our own code, we made it responsive by scaling the device height and width. Additionally, we painted the majority of our own UI, like the shadows on some of the buttons. Furthermore, the parallax background is also custom-painted.
For the SDK we used for live-chatting, we used Agora.
Finally, we drew many of our own art, like the Chatter logo with the bunny scholar.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest obstacle that we had to face was the communication barrier. We all had to contact each other through means of online communication platforms such as iMessage, Discord, and Instagram to form a timeline for our app. We also had to teach each other new skills through streaming of screens instead of physical help in person. Adjusting to completely online was a challenge that we never knew we would have.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of the fact that not only did we successfully build a video-chatting application within the designated time limit, but we also managed to develop a website using pure HTML, CSS, and Javascript that showcases our startup, making it more realistically ready for a business launch.
What we learned
We learned a lot about app development and how to integrate video-chatting features into a program.
What's next for Chatter
We hope to eventually publish this as an actual application in the app store, adding more features and classes. If we pursue this application idea into the formation of a startup, we'll market our application to students and schools.
Links
If you have an android and want to try out Chatter, feel free to download the APK!
** Website and APK and Test Flight**
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