Building an E-learning System for 1,600+ Child Care Centers

Description

A provider of Head Start management software turned to Altoros to enable video-based training around the flagship platform and optimize performance of the mobile version.

Brief results of the collaboration:

• The organization built an e-learning system to enable training around its Head Start management platform, ensuring uninterrupted user engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing customer churn.
• Observing the Agile methodology, the company was able to deliver new functionality every 2–3 weeks.
• By preventing the Vimeo video hosting service from sending requests to the server each 250 milliseconds, the customer reduced response times by 20x.
• The migration to a modern Angular technology stack enabled the organization to optimize the mobile version of its Head Start platform.
• Thanks to the mobile-first design approach, the company ensured seamless user experience across multiple devices and operating systems.

The customer

The company is a leading U.S. provider of Head Start management software. Founded in 1985, the organization has already helped 1,600+ child care centers to receive grants for unprivileged children (e.g., from low-income families).

The need

To win grants, child care facilities have to comply with multiple legislation standards. To facilitate compliance, the customer offered a platform enabling the institutions to report to local, state, and federal offices. However, the system became too complex for end users to understand its 89 modules. The provider also could not deliver onsite training due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, a mobile version of the system was built on top of the outdated Windows Forms stack, causing performance issues and disrupting experience on modern smartphones.

Relying on front-end development expertise at Altoros, the organization aimed to create an e-learning solution to enable training around the platform, as well as optimize performance of the mobile version.

The challenges

Under the project, the team at Altoros had to address the following issues:

• The customer planned to create video tutorials using Vimeo. So, the tool had to be integrated with the e-learning system. However, Vimeo sent requests to the server each 250 milliseconds, which exceeded the average frequency by 20x, resulting in a negative effect on performance.
• The mobile version of the existing compliance platform employed two versions of a cache service. 34 out of 89 platform modules utilized the outdated cache service, which caused a lot of errors. For instance, it was impossible to choose the necessary option from the drop-down menu.

The solution

Stage 1. After analyzing the customer needs, the developers at Altoros outlined a roadmap for implementation. Following Agile best practices, the team managed to deliver new functionality every 2–3 weeks. In 6 weeks, the engineers built a video player, as well as enabled users to track watch history and progress through the educational program. System administrators were able to upload videos, add descriptions, assign titles, tags, and learning levels, as well as create series of videos categorized by topics. Trainees could access educational content, create “Watch later” and “Favorite” lists, etc.

Stage 2. Then, the developers integrated the e-learning system with Vimeo. After that, the team implemented the throttleTime operator and configured it to send requests to the server every 5 seconds, reducing response times by 20x.

Stage 3. To optimize the performance of the compliance platform's mobile version, the front-end engineers developed a strategy for migrating from Windows Forms to Angular. The developers identified 11 modules to move in the first place. Those business-critical components were responsible for creating education events, adding volunteers to child care programs, initiating and recording video calls, etc. During the migration, the engineers utilized the mobile-first design approach to ensure consistent user experience across different smartphones.

Stage 4. The team deprecated the outdated cache service, while upgrading the second functioning cache service and enabling the mobile version to utilize only it.

Stage 5. Finally, the QA engineers performed system testing for the software to meet the functional requirements.

The outcome

Partnering with Altoros, the company built an e-learning system for its Head Start management platform, ensuring uninterrupted user engagement during the pandemic and minimizing customer churn. Following Agile best practices, the organization was able to deliver new features every 2–3 weeks. On top of that, the customer was able to reduce server response time by 20x.

By initiating migration to a modern Angular-based technology stack, the company optimized performance of the platform's mobile version. Sticking to the mobile-first design approach, the organization ensured seamless user experience across multiple mobile operating systems and devices.