Skill Micro-Lessons Platform — Project Report

Date: August 12, 2025

Name: name
College name: Sriparamakalyani college, Alwarkurichi.
Department: computer science
Register number:reg no

1. Executive summary
This document describes the design and implementation plan for a web platform that delivers
short, targeted lessons ("micro-lessons") in skills such as Excel, JavaScript, and Resume Writing.
The platform provides interactive quizzes, auto-grading, and verifiable micro-certificates (PDF +
QR/verification token). It includes learner dashboards, progress tracking, admin content
management, and gamification features to boost engagement. The design emphasizes mobile
responsiveness, accessibility (WCAG AA), security, and scalability.
Primary value: Fast, verifiable skill-building with measurable learner outcomes that
organizations and individuals can trust and share.
2. Project goals & success criteria
Goals
Deliver concise, high-quality lessons with video + text + interactive elements.
Provide auto-graded quizzes and issue verifiable digital micro-certificates for passing learners.
Track learner progress, recommend next lessons, and surface achievements in a personal
dashboard.
Provide an admin CMS for content creation, editing, and analytics.
Ensure accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and scalable architecture.
Success metrics (KPIs)
Lesson completion rate (target: >50% for core lessons)
Quiz pass rate (target: 60–80% depending on difficulty)
Certificate issuance rate (target: >30% of active learners)
7-day and 30-day retention
Avg. session duration and DAU/MAU

3. Scope & assumptions

In-scope (MVP):
User registration/login (email/password + social login optional)
Browse and search lessons by skill, difficulty, and durationLesson page: video embed, short text,
downloadable resourcesAuto-graded quizzes (MCQ, true/false, short text) tied to
lessonsCertificate generation (PDF) with unique verification token + QR
User dashboard: completed lessons, quiz history, certificates
Admin CMS: create/edit/publish lessons and quizzes
Mobile-first responsive UI and basic gamification (badges, streaks)
Out-of-scope (post-MVP):
Advanced question types (code auto-evaluation, sandboxed execution)
Enterprise SSO or LMS integrations (LTI)
Full ML recommendation engine (rule-based recommendations in MVP)
Assumptions
Videos hosted on YouTube/Vimeo or cloud storage to reduce bandwidth costs
PDF generation will run as an async background job
Certificate verification is publicly reachable via a secure token

4. Feature list
Learner features
Registration/login and profile management
Browse/filter lessons and search
Lesson viewing: video, text, resources, and interactive widgets
End-of-lesson auto-graded quiz
Certificate issuance and download when passing
Dashboard: progress bars, recent activity, earned badges, certificates
Personalized recommendations (basic rules)
Notifications (in-app / email)
Admin features
CMS: create/edit/publish lessons and quizzes (WYSIWYG editor + media upload)
Set lesson tags, difficulty and passing scores
User management and certificate revocation
Analytics: completion rates, popular lessons, quiz statistics
Bulk import/export content and users
Platform features
Certificate verification endpoint + public verification page
Audit logs for admin actions and certificate issuance
Role-based access control (learner/admin)
Basic gamification: badges, streaks, leaderboards (opt-in)

5. User journeys (high level)

1. Discover & Learn — Visitor browses lessons → opens lesson page → watches video and
reads content → takes quiz.
2. Complete & Certify — Learner passes quiz → certificate generation job runs → user receives
downloadable PDF and verification link.
3. Track Progress — Learner visits dashboard → sees progress, badges, recommended next
lessons.
4. Admin Workflow — Admin logs in → creates a lesson with media + quiz → publishes it →
views analytics.

6. System architecture (high-level)

Components
Client: Responsive SPA (React + Tailwind) or server-rendered HTML (PHP/Laravel)
Backend API: RESTful (Node.js/Express, or PHP/Laravel)
Database: PostgreSQL (recommended) or MySQL
Cache: Redis for sessions and hot data
Object storage: AWS S3 (media + certificate PDFs)
CDN: CloudFront or comparable
Background worker: Redis Queue / Bull / Sidekiq for PDF generation, emails
Optional: Search service (Elasticsearch or Postgres full-text)
Flow
1. User requests lesson → API returns content (text + video embed URL) and quiz metadata
2. User submits quiz → API evaluates answers and stores attempt
3. If passed → API enqueues certificate job → worker renders certificate (HTML → PDF),
stores in S3, updates DB
4. Verification endpoint serves certificate metadata and PDF link when token is presented

7. Data model (summary)

Key tables/entities (simplified):
users (id, name, email, password_hash, role, created_at, streak)
lessons (id, title, slug, content_html, video_url, tags, difficulty, duration, published)
quizzes (id, lesson_id, passing_score, time_limit)
questions (id, quiz_id, type, question_text, choices_json, answer_json)
attempts (id, user_id, quiz_id, answers_json, score, passed, started_at, completed_at)
certificates (id, user_id, lesson_id, score, issued_at, token, pdf_url, revoked)
badges and user_badges
activity_logs
(Full ER diagram & SQL schema can be provided on request.)

8. Certificate design & verification

Certificate contents
Learner name, lesson title, score/percentage, issued date
Issuer name/logo
Unique certificate code (human-readable) and secure verify token
QR code linking to verification URL
Generation process
1. On pass → create DB record with token → enqueue generation
2. Worker renders certificate HTML with data and QR → convert to PDF
(Puppeteer/wkhtmltopdf)
3. Upload PDF to S3 and update record
4. Provide public verification URL: /verify/:token that shows metadata and PDF
Security
Tokens are unguessable (UUID/v4 or long random) and stored server-side
Optionally allow certificate revocation (set revoked=true)

9. Quiz & grading designQuestion types (MVP)

MCQ (single answer)
True/False
Short text (normalized match)
Grading rules
Immediate auto-grading for supported types
Score calculation: sum of question weights → percentage
Passing threshold configurable per quiz
Anti-cheating measures
Question pools and random order
Time limits and attempt limits
Limit viewing correct answers until attempt completes
10. UX / UI guidelines
Mobile-first — single-column layout, large tap targets
Clarity — short lesson pages with clear "Take Quiz" CTA
Accessibility — semantic markup, keyboard navigable, proper aria-* attributes, color contrast
Engagement — progress bars, micro-interactions, badges animations
Performance — lazy-load videos and non-critical assets

11. Security & compliance

HTTPS/TLS enforced
Password storage with strong hashing (bcrypt/argon2)
Input sanitization and parameterized DB queries
CSRF protection on forms, JWT/XSRF for APIs
Rate-limiting for authentication and quiz submission endpoints
Privacy features: data export and account deletion
Legal: Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

12. Scalability & operational concerns

Background workers for CPU-bound tasks (PDF generation)
Horizontal scaling for API servers behind load balancer
CD for static content and videos
Use managed DB with read replicas when needed
Observability: Prometheus/Grafana and centralized logging (ELK or hosted Sentry)

13. Testing & QA

Unit tests for grading logic and certificate generation
Integration tests for API flows (signup → lesson → quiz → certificate)
End-to-end tests (Cypress or Playwright)
Accessibility testing (axe, Lighthouse)
Load testing (k6) for peak scenarios

14. Deployment & CI/CD

Repo: GitHub mono-repo with frontend/ and backend/
CI: GitHub Actions pipeline: lint → tests → build → deploy to staging
Environments: dev, staging, production
Containerization: Docker images, deploy to Kubernetes or managed services (Render, Elastic
Beanstalk, or Heroku)

15. Roadmap & estimated timeline (MVP)

Sprint 0 — Planning & design (1–2 weeks)
Requirements, UX wireframes, database schema
Sprint 1 — Core backend & auth (2–3 weeks)
API, user auth, DB models for lessons & quizzes
Sprint 2 — Frontend lesson & quiz UI (2–3 weeks)
Responsive lesson pages, quiz flow, basic dashboard
Sprint 3 — Certificate generator & admin CMS (2 weeks)
PDF generation worker, S3 integration, admin CRUD
Sprint 4 — QA & deployment (1–2 weeks)
Testing, accessibility fixes, production deploy
Total (MVP): ~8–12 weeks (1 full-stack developer). With a 2–3 person team, ~4–6 weeks.

16. Estimated cost (indicative)

Depends on team and hosting choices. Rough ranges for a small startup MVP (staff + infra):
Development (contracted devs): $15k–$60k (varies by region & team size)
Hosting & infra (monthly): $50–$500 (small scale), $500–$2,500+ as scale grows
Third-party tools (email, analytics, SSO): $0–$200+/month

17. Next steps & deliverables I can prepare

Choose any of the following and I will deliver:
1. Full ER diagram + SQL schema with seed data.
2. certificate.html template + Puppeteer script to generate PDFs.
3. React + Tailwind sample frontend (lesson page, quiz page, dashboard).
4. Backend scaffold (Node.js/Express) with auth and quiz endpoints.
5. Admin CMS mockups or HTML prototype.
6. Clickable wireframes or a project backlog with user stories.

18. Appendix: Example API endpoints (MVP)

POST /api/auth/register — register
POST /api/auth/login — login
GET /api/lessons — list lessons
GET /api/lessons/:id — lesson details
POST /api/lessons/:id/quiz/attempt — submit quiz
GET /api/users/:id/dashboard — user dashboard
POST /api/admin/lessons — create lesson (admin)
GET /verify/:token — certificate verification page

End of report.
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