🛡️ O/A Levels EdTech Platform

An educational web application designed to help students prepare for O/A Level examinations by providing access to categorized past paper questions.

🎯 Project Overview

This platform allows students to browse, filter, and attempt past paper questions organized by subject and topic. The application includes both a student-facing interface and an admin panel for content management.

✨ Core Features

Student Panel

Feature	Description
Signup/Login	Email + Password authentication with JWT
Browse Subjects	View available subjects
Browse Topics	Explore topics within each subject
View Questions	Access questions organized by topic
Download/View PDFs	View or download past papers and mark schemes
Attempt Questions	Type answers to practice questions
Filters	Filter by subject, topic, and year

Admin Panel

Feature	Description
Login	Admin authentication
Upload Past Papers	Upload PDF files (papers and mark schemes)
Categorize Questions	Split papers into individual questions and assign metadata
Edit/Delete	Manage uploaded content

🏗️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Frontend	Next.js 14 (React)
API Layer	Axios with Interceptors
Data Fetching	React Query (TanStack)
Backend	Node.js (Express.js)
Database	MongoDB Atlas
Authentication	JWT
File Storage	Local storage (MVP)

📂 Database Structure

Users Collection

{
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "password": "hashedpassword",
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "role": "student", // or "admin"
  "isActive": true,
  "lastLogin": "2023-05-01T12:00:00Z",
  "createdAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2023-05-01T12:00:00Z"
}

Subjects Collection

{
  "name": "Physics",
  "description": "Study of matter, energy, and their interactions",
  "imageUrl": "/images/physics.jpg",
  "isActive": true,
  "createdAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z"
}

Topics Collection

{
  "name": "Waves",
  "description": "Study of wave properties and behaviors",
  "subjectId": "ObjectId('subject_id_here')",
  "isActive": true,
  "createdAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z"
}

Questions Collection

{
  "topicId": "ObjectId('topic_id_here')",
  "year": 2021,
  "examBoard": "Cambridge",
  "paperNumber": "Paper 1",
  "questionNumber": "3a",
  "difficulty": "medium",
  "marks": 5,
  "questionText": "Describe the behavior of light waves in different media.",
  "questionImageUrl": "/uploads/questions/q123.jpg",
  "paperPdfUrl": "/uploads/papers/physics_2021_p1.pdf",
  "markSchemePdfUrl": "/uploads/markschemes/physics_2021_p1_ms.pdf",
  "isActive": true,
  "createdAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2023-01-01T10:00:00Z"
}

Attempts Collection

{
  "userId": "ObjectId('user_id_here')",
  "questionId": "ObjectId('question_id_here')",
  "answer": "Light waves travel at different speeds in different media, which causes refraction...",
  "status": "completed", // or "in-progress", "saved"
  "startedAt": "2023-05-01T12:00:00Z",
  "completedAt": "2023-05-01T12:30:00Z",
  "createdAt": "2023-05-01T12:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2023-05-01T12:30:00Z"
}

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18.x or higher
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB (local installation or MongoDB Atlas account)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ijlaldev007/oa-learn.git
   cd oa-learn

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   # or
   yarn install

3. Set up environment variables:

   cp .env.example .env.local

   Edit .env.local with your specific configuration.

   Environment Configuration:

   The application uses different environment files for different deployment contexts:

   • .env.development - Used during local development (npm run dev)
   • .env.staging - Used in the staging environment
   • .env.production - Used in the production environment
   • .env.local - Used to override any of the above (not committed to git)

   Key Environment Variables:

   Variable	Description	Example
   APP_URL	Base URL of the application	http://localhost:3000
   JWT_SECRET	Secret key for JWT tokens	your-secret-key
   MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string	mongodb://localhost:27017/oa-learn
   STORAGE_TYPE	Storage type (local or s3)	local
   S3_BUCKET_NAME	S3 bucket name (if using S3)	oa-learn-files

4. Run the development server:

   npm run dev
   # or
   yarn dev
   # or
   pnpm dev
   # or
   bun dev

5. Set up MongoDB Atlas:

   • Create a free account at MongoDB Atlas
   • Create a new cluster
   • Create a database user with read/write permissions
   • Add your IP address to the IP access list
   • Get your connection string and update it in .env.development

6. Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result.

Project Structure

oa-learn/
├── public/             # Static files
├── src/
│   ├── app/            # Next.js App Router
│   │   ├── api/        # API routes
│   │   │   └── health/ # Health check endpoint
│   │   └── ...         # Page routes
│   ├── components/     # Reusable UI components
│   │   └── Button.tsx  # Example button component
│   ├── hooks/          # Custom React hooks
│   │   └── useLocalStorage.ts # Local storage hook
│   ├── lib/            # Library code
│   │   ├── db/         # Database module
│   │   │   ├── models/ # Mongoose models
│   │   │   ├── connection.ts # Database connection
│   │   │   ├── utils.ts # Database utilities
│   │   │   └── init.ts # Database initialization
│   │   └── utils.ts    # Utility functions
│   └── utils/          # Utility functions
│       ├── api.ts      # API client utilities
│       └── formatters.ts # Text/data formatting utilities
├── middleware.ts       # Next.js middleware for API security
├── .env.example        # Example environment variables
├── .env.development    # Development environment variables
├── .env.staging        # Staging environment variables
├── .env.production     # Production environment variables
├── tailwind.config.js  # Tailwind CSS configuration
├── next.config.ts      # Next.js configuration
├── postcss.config.mjs  # PostCSS configuration
├── eslint.config.mjs   # ESLint configuration
└── tsconfig.json       # TypeScript configuration

🎯 Success Metrics

Metric	Goal
Time to Launch	4–6 weeks
Students using app	50–100 early users
Admin ease of upload	<5 minutes per paper
Bugs/Crashes	<5% error rate

🔥 Future Enhancements

• AI-powered question selection
• Enhanced student dashboards
• Mobile application
• Multiple admin roles
• Analytics dashboard
• Cloud storage integration