Transforming Education: How We Automated Homework Workflows in an EdTech?

Productivity
Automate HomeworkFlow

Introduction

Let’s take a journey through the incredible transformation of an EdTech nonprofit from old-fashioned methods to amazing automation. We’ve been there every step of the way, witnessing their struggles in different parts of India and beyond.

Imagine a time when EdTech relied on manual processes for homework assignments, handling the workload for 5,000 students. It was a tough task, slow, and incredibly time-consuming. But that’s where our story begins, with challenges that seemed insurmountable. Let’s explore how we helped automate their processes, significantly reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Top 9 Challenges we faced for the EdTech

challenges
Credit: Canva

1) Managing Data Growth with Excel

When the NGO began, we managed data using Excel, but as our student numbers grew, keeping track became challenging. The simplicity of Excel turned into a bottleneck as we struggled to handle the burgeoning influx of student data, academic records, and administrative information.

2) Transitioning to a Scalable Data Management System

When we moved to a scalable system, the operational team needed effective tools for data visualization to track student progress and monitor the work of our Community Leads (CL) and Relationship Managers (RM).

3) Operational Challenges

While implementing scaled interfaces, our Relationship Managers (RM) and Community Leads (CL) teams encountered operational challenges. They struggled to navigate the interfaces and understand the processes effectively.

4) Manual Worksheet Generation Strains EdTech NGO’s Content Team

The manual generation of worksheets consumed considerable time and effort for the content team.

5) Ensuring Smooth System Performance

Upon launching our scaled interfaces, we encountered a crucial challenge: effectively monitoring and observing system performance. With a growing number of users and increased complexity, ensuring smooth operation became paramount.

6) Updating and Deploying Software: Manual Effort and Potential Risks

Our software deployment and update processes relied heavily on manual intervention. Each update required meticulous attention to detail and involved multiple steps, increasing the likelihood of human error. Coordinating these updates across different teams and environments often led to delays and inconsistencies in deployment. Moreover, the absence of automated testing mechanisms made it challenging to ensure the stability and reliability of the deployed software. As a result, our deployment processes were time-consuming, and error-prone, and hindered our ability to deliver updates swiftly and efficiently to our users and stakeholders.

7) Maintaining Code Quality Amidst Technical Expansion

As our technical infrastructure expanded at EdTech NGO, we encountered significant challenges related to code readability and scalability. With the growth of our projects and systems, it became increasingly difficult to uphold code quality standards. Manual code reviews, although necessary, proved to be time-consuming and prone to human error. These challenges hindered our ability to identify and address potential issues effectively, risking the stability and scalability of our codebase.

8) Manual Struggles: Homework Assignment Complexity

The process of assigning homework to students was manual and time-consuming. Relationship Managers (RMs) had to individually select each student and send the homework, resulting in significant effort and inefficiency. Additionally, after assigning homework, RMs had to manually send reminder messages to each student via WhatsApp, further adding to the workload and complexity of the process.

9) Manual Homework Checking

Students shared homework via WhatsApp with Relationship Managers (RMs), who manually checked 80 questions per student.

Time-Consuming Process: The manual checking process was time-consuming and posed a significant challenge for efficient homework evaluation.

How We Solved It

Transitioning to Scalable Data Management Solutions

To solve the challenges posed by Excel’s limitations, we upgraded to a scalable system using React, Node.js, and MySQL. This transition introduced interfaces like RM (Relationship Managers), Cl (Community Lead), and OM (Operational Manager), enabling us to effectively manage and track student data as our educational initiatives expanded.

Enhancing Data Visualization for Improved Tracking

To further improve data management at EdTech NGO, we used Data Studio and BigQuery. These tools enable our operational team to visualize large amounts of data, track student progress, and evaluate the effectiveness of processes. This solution streamlined our operations and empowered our team to make informed decisions based on comprehensive data analysis.

Navigating Operational Challenges: A Journey of Support

For operational challenges we provided extensive support through video documentation and live demos, actively resolving their queries and concerns to ensure a smoother transition and improved operational efficiency across the organization.

Unleashing Efficiency: Content Generation Revolution

Recognizing this, we developed a content generation tool using LaTeX and Python, revolutionizing the process and empowering our content team to focus on creating quality educational materials without the burden of manual work.

Enhancing System Performance with New Relic Integration

To address the Performance challenge, we integrated New Relic tools into our system. New Relic provided invaluable insights into our application’s performance, allowing us to identify bottlenecks, monitor response times, and optimize resource utilization.

By leveraging New Relic’s capabilities, we gained real-time visibility into our system’s health and performance metrics. This proactive approach enabled us to swiftly address issues, enhance user experience, and ensure seamless operations across all interfaces.

Implementing CICD for Automated Software Updates

Credit: Canva

To address the Deployment challenges mentioned earlier, we introduced CICD. This automated system allowed us to consistently test, integrate, and deploy changes to our software. Now, with a single automated process, we ensure smoother updates and minimize the chances of errors. The implementation of CICD has not only enhanced our efficiency but also reduced the time and effort required for software deployment at Saarthi.

Implementing SonarQube for Enhanced Code Quality Management

To address the challenges posed by our expanding technical landscape, we implemented SonarQube, a robust code quality management tool. SonarQube offers a comprehensive analysis of our codebase against a predefined set of rules, providing valuable insights into code quality, readability, and scalability. SonarQube enables us to detect and rectify issues early in the development cycle by automating the code review process. This proactive approach not only improves overall code quality but also enhances the scalability and maintainability of our software systems.

Introducing WhatsApp Bot Feature: Automating Homework Management

WhatsApp Bot
Credit: Canva

To address these challenges manually and streamline the homework assignment process, We introduced the WhatsApp bot feature. This innovative solution revolutionized how RMs interacted with students and managed homework assignments.
With the WhatsApp bot, RMs can send homework to all students with just one click, significantly reducing the time and effort required for assignment distribution. This automation not only improves efficiency but also allows RMs to focus more on student support and engagement. Moreover, the WhatsApp bot also automates reminder messages for students to send back their completed homework. By utilizing a cron job, the bot sends timely reminders to students, ensuring that homework submissions are prompt and organized.

In summary, implementing the WhatsApp bot feature has transformed the homework assignment process, making it more efficient, automated, and student-centric. This innovative solution underscores commitment to leveraging technology to enhance the educational experience for students and streamline administrative tasks for staff members

Automating Homework Evaluation: Enhancing Efficiency with Answer Checking Tool

Automated Answer-Checking Tool: Introduced a WhatsApp bot integrated with an answer-checking tool for RMs to streamline and automate the homework-checking process.

Interface Integration: Integrated the answer-checking tool into the RM interface for seamless grading and score provision, eliminating the need for manual checking.

Final Impact

Saarthi Education’s innovative approach to education technology has led to a significant impact on productivity and cost-effectiveness. By embracing automation and new solutions, they have streamlined operations, reduced overhead costs, and increased efficiency. This has resulted in a substantial improvement of 70% in delivering quality education at scale. As Saarthi continues to evolve, it remains a symbol of excellence and efficiency in the field of educational technology.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Saarthi Education has come a long way by using technology to improve how they help students with their homework. They started with manual work but now use automated solutions, like a WhatsApp bot, to make things easier. This has made education more accessible and efficient for everyone involved.

As they’ve grown, Saarthi now has over 10,000 students using their services. We have automated 70% of their homework assignment process, which means tasks are completed faster and more accurately. This growth has been impressive, with an 80% increase in students and 85% more engagement.
This success showcases the positive impact of innovation in education, promising a brighter future for learners and educators.

Thank you 🙌🏻 for joining us on this journey through our blog! We hope you find it informative and insightful ✨. Remember, the journey doesn’t end here. If you have any questions or feedback đź’¬, need further assistance, or want us to do the same work for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

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