Is this a good idea?
Hello, first time posting in IH. I don't even know if this is the right place to post this, but here it goes. This might be long so sorry.
Apparently I want to create an open-source clearance system for universities. I get the inspiration from moodle/dmoj. I want the backend to be Node.js so it can easily be maintained, coded, and tested. For the front-end, I am thinking of making it as a PWA, since what I found lacking in moodle is the accessibility in phones. But the front-end can be anything as long as they are running in the same server API.
The thing is, I am not into the instant money. I will code it slowly even if I am alone. I just love coding. But my immediate peers (which are non-programmers, so I don't know why I am affected) seemed to discourage me with this viewpoints. Apart from that I don't want to charge anything since I want it open source. Most universities locally, are still processing their clearance thru papers and having students line up for hours. So I feel that I want to help by providing this service.
Do you think this is a good idea? Also, do you think universities will implement this? Any pointers on what are my next steps? Thank you.
I was in the edtech business for some time.
The idea of open source is really nice for education but the schools don't have developers ready to fix things and want support. So the open source doesn't matter that much to them they have budgets for software.
Deals with Moodle are multi year and are build in a way that schools can't move away from them (they really suck a school in, this is why they have more sales people compared to developers and why the platforms are horrible to use).
The laws, oh man the amount of certificates I had to get just to run a pilot.. it was killing me. (it's a good thing but for a solo dev it's just too much hassle).
I would focus on building something that can be used directly by teachers and students without having to purchase or reinvent the wheel for them. I had teachers ask me for a printed out manual for my platform.
Thanks for that insightful response. I guess I'm going to focus on making it class-wide instead of univ-wide, so the target would be for studs and teachers.
Good luck, and feel free to PM me, maybe I can help you avoid the mistakes I made !