Document Sharing without Internet Connectivity during Study Abroad Programs

Abstract

With the increasing demand for study abroad trips, students and faculty require a streamlined platform to manage assignments and surveys during the trip. It is common for students studying abroad to lack a reliable internet connection, making it challenging to share and access documents efficiently. This is especially true in countries with underdeveloped areas with poor connectivity infrastructure. Our mobile application, UC Transform (originally “Woforo”, linked below) addresses this issue by offering a one-stop-shop platform for accessing all assignments without requiring an active internet connection. Teachers can build courses, create assignments, and track progress using visual graphs. Students simply join with a code and retrieve their course materials online. Once connected to the internet, they can download the assignments and store them locally on their device. Throughout the trip, students can access the materials and provide their responses. Upon regaining a stable internet connection, students can upload their answers for review by professors. We utilized the Flutter and Dart framework for the User Interface deployed on iOS, Android, and Web Platforms, while leveraging Google Firebase for authentication and data storage. In this paper, we introduce the challenges faced by the students and educators, our methodology/ process of designing and developing UC Transform Application as a solution and sample case study exploring the scenario.

Keywords: Study abroad, application, students, assignments, software, internet connectivity, educators, document sharing, offline access.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005508