EduKona: A Customizable, Mobile-Friendly Platform for Enhanced Educational Engagement and Collaboration

This Innovative Practice Work in Progress paper presents a novel educational platform that is both free and open-source, specifically designed to enrich the learning experience. Our system enables educators to create customizable educational learning experiences, accommodating the diverse structures of classroom settings. Acknowledging the constraints of a one-size-fits-all approach, our initiative was motivated by the demand for a versatile tool that is flexible enough to support a range of teaching objectives-be it fostering collaboration, increasing individual engagement, or pursuing any other pedagogical aims the instructor may have. The core of our innovation lies in the system's exceptional adaptability, offering instructors the ability to tailor the educational content to their precise objectives. This adaptability extends to creating a diverse range of learning scenarios, from interactive quizzes to collaborative challenges, each designed to enrich the educational journey. Furthermore, our platform simplifies the transition to digital learning environments by providing a fully managed, ready-to-use website, eliminating the complexities of code modification or the necessity for self-hosting. Our system is designed with contemporary educational interactions in mind, showcasing full mobile compatibility. This allows students to engage seamlessly with the educational material, whether through smartphones or computers, ensuring the tool's accessibility and convenience for a digitally native generation. The user-friendly interface and the interactive nature of the platform may remind some of Kahoot, but our system distinguishes itself with its extensive customizability and open-source framework. To view our project's progress, please visit our repositories: the back-end at https://github.com/uncc-hice/edukona_backend and the front-end at https://github.com/uncc-hice/edukona_frontend.