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RevoU NEXT Project - January 2025

PIJAR - Community Learning Hub

A community-focused learning platform designed to empower underserved communities through accessible education and skill development.

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Project Information

Project Name

PIJAR - Pojok Informasi dan Jaringan Ajar

My Role

Project Lead and Fullstack Software Engineer

Timeline

2 months

Responsibilities

  • SCRUM master
  • Design Direction
  • PRD Development
  • Frontend Development
  • Backend Development
  • Database Development
  • Deployment

Overview

Pijar is a community-focused learning platform designed to empower underserved communities through accessible education and skill development. By connecting learners with experienced mentors, Pijar provides personalized sessions, localized topics in Bahasa Indonesia, and practical skills like farming, entrepreneurship, and digital literacy. Bridging education gaps in underserved communities through technology.

Project Goals:

  • offering a solution to access education in anytime and anywhere.
  • bridging the gap of educational access.
  • In Pijar we believe in collaboration, our learning system is designed to be as interactive as possible where students can ask mentor question and access the learning materials easier.
Hero Image

High Level Goals

01

Accessible Learning Opportunities

02

Mentor-Learner Collaboration

03

Building a Learning Community

04

Empowering Community-Based Learning

Initial Challenges

The journey of building PIJAR started with a significant challenge: crafting a clear ideation process while leading a team of junior developers with no prior software engineering experience. This required not only creating the technical foundation for the project but also nurturing a team dynamic that fostered growth, collaboration, and confidence in tackling the unknown.

The first hurdle was to align everyone’s understanding of software development principles, from version control to agile workflows. Simultaneously, the team needed to define the app’s vision, ensure it resonated with its purpose of empowering underserved communities, and scope out what features were essential for the first release.

With a clear direction, we embraced a learn-by-doing philosophy—encouraging team members to step out of their comfort zones, take ownership of tasks, and gradually build confidence.

Research and Design

Our research and design phase laid the groundwork for PIJAR’s development. This stage was broken down into several key activities:

  • Initial Ideation & Brainstorming
  • We conducted collaborative brainstorming sessions to identify the core problems we wanted the platform to solve and mapped out features to address those needs.

  • User-Centric Approach
  • We conducted collaborative brainstorming sessions to identify the core problems we wanted the platform to solve and mapped out features to address those needs.

  • Designing in Figma
  • We translated our ideas into wireframes and prototypes in Figma, ensuring the designs not only met usability standards but also reflected a modern and inclusive UI that resonated with diverse audiences.

  • Development Planning
  • We translated our ideas into wireframes and prototypes in Figma, ensuring the designs not only met usability standards but also reflected a modern and inclusive UI that resonated with diverse audiences.

  • Beta Testing & Feedback
  • After completing the first stage of development, we launched the app in beta and gathered feedback from external users. Their suggestions played a pivotal role in shaping our revisions and enhancements, including improved performance, additional features like notifications, and better user interaction flows.

    Trust Building Strategy

    Trust was a cornerstone of our team’s success, especially given the diverse skill levels within the group. To ensure the project moved smoothly:

    I took the time to understand each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, and capacity. This allowed us to assign tasks that matched individual skill levels while providing opportunities for growth.

    We incorporated knowledge-sharing sessions, where more experienced members helped bridge gaps for those unfamiliar with certain tools or concepts (e.g., Git, API integrations).

    We held regular meetings to monitor progress, address roadblocks, and create a space for open communication. This helped foster accountability and a sense of shared ownership of the project.

    Recognizing and celebrating individual and team milestones, no matter how small, helped build morale and confidence in the team’s ability to succeed.

    Tech Stack Used in PIJAR

    • TypeScript Logo

      TypeScript

      Added type safety and better maintainability to the codebase, helping us catch errors early and ensure a more reliable app.

    • Next.js Logo

      Next.js

      Chosen for its server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) capabilities, ensuring fast page loads and better SEO. Simplifies routing and improves performance for scalable, responsive applications.

    • TailwindCSS Logo

      TailwindCSS

      A utility-first CSS framework that made it easy to implement a clean, responsive, and modern design system. Allowed for rapid prototyping and consistent theming across the app.

    • GO Logo

      GO

      Selected for its high performance, concurrency management, and efficiency in handling backend services. Simplified API development with clean, modular code.

    • Gmail OAuth Logo

      Gmail OAuth

      Enabled secure and seamless user authentication through Google, eliminating the need for password storage. Added an extra layer of trust and convenience for users.

    • Cookie-based Authentication Logo

      Cookie-based Authentication

      Transitioned from traditional JWT tokens to cookie-based authentication for enhanced security and protection against vulnerabilities like XSS.

    • MySQL Logo

      MySQL

      Reliable relational database system to handle user data, session details, mentor/mentee records, and more.

    • AWS RDS Logo

      AWS RDS

      Ensured scalable, secure, and managed database hosting with automated backups and failover support.

    • Vercel Logo

      Vercel

      Enabled fast and seamless deployment of the Next.js app with built-in CI/CD integration for continuous delivery. Optimized frontend performance with serverless architecture and edge network.

    • AWS EC2 Logo

      AWS EC2

      Deployed the backend services on scalable virtual servers, ensuring stability and performance under varying loads.