MapIt

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  Adding Notes

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  Connecting similar topics together

Inspiration

Education is most impactful when students can connect ideas and see the "big picture." Inspired by the effectiveness of mind mapping in breaking down complex topics, we developed MapIt—a tool designed to help students, teachers, and self-learners organize and explore knowledge in a visual and interactive way. Our goal was to make learning collaborative and engaging, empowering users to dive deep into subjects while fostering understanding through connected concepts.

What It Does

MapIt is a real-time, collaborative concept-mapping tool that allows users to create interactive visual maps for any topic. Users can add nodes for key concepts, connect related ideas, and attach resources like articles and videos to each node. The map grows dynamically as users explore different aspects of a topic, and MapIt includes adaptive quizzes that assess understanding and reinforce learning directly on the map.

How We Built It

We built MapIt using D3.js for its powerful data visualization capabilities, which allowed us to render dynamic and interactive maps. To streamline development and optimize the build process, we used Vite as our frontend tooling. The collaborative aspects were developed with WebSocket-based communication, and the backend was structured with Node.js and MongoDB to store maps and track user data.

Challenges We Ran Into

Creating a seamless real-time collaborative environment was a challenge. Synchronizing updates between users without compromising performance required optimization, especially when handling multiple users simultaneously. Designing an intuitive UI for map creation with D3.js also presented a learning curve as we worked to implement smooth interactions.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We’re proud to have built a tool that brings a complex concept like mind mapping into an interactive, digital format accessible to students and teachers. Developing a functional prototype that effectively synchronizes collaborative actions was a significant achievement. Additionally, we successfully integrated adaptive quizzes to reinforce learning within the mapping experience.

What We Learned

Working with D3.js and Vite gave us valuable experience in data visualization and optimized frontend development. We also learned the intricacies of real-time collaboration and gained a deeper understanding of how to structure interactive applications to handle concurrent user actions smoothly.

W hat's Next for MapIt

Future updates for MapIt will include more robust quiz customization options, integrations with popular educational platforms, and advanced analytics for teachers to track student progress. We also plan to expand on the adaptive learning features, making recommendations more personalized based on users' interactions within the map.

Built With

• d3.js
• javascript
• npm
• tailwind
• vite