Project Overview
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many educational institutions faced the daunting challenge of transitioning to remote learning while keeping costs low. Sacred Heart University’s Discovery Science Center and Planetarium turned to technology to continue offering valuable science education to students during this time. The result was Digital Discovery, a Learning Management System (LMS) designed to deliver high-quality science content remotely while remaining extremely cost-effective.
To meet these goals, we built a solution using serverless technologies on Amazon Web Services (AWS), ensuring scalability and affordability. The system was designed to facilitate both content management for educators and content delivery for students—without the need for expensive infrastructure. Below, I’ll dive into the technical architecture, functionality, and how we managed to keep costs under control.
Technical Architecture: Building on AWS for Scalability and Cost Efficiency
The core goal of Digital Discovery was to build an LMS that could handle the educational needs of Sacred Heart University while keeping costs below $25 per month. By leveraging serverless technologies, we ensured the system could scale as needed, only incurring costs based on usage. Here’s how the architecture was structured:
Front-End: Single Page Application (SPA) on Amazon S3
The user-facing portion of the platform was built using Angular and deployed as a Single Page Application (SPA) on Amazon S3. This approach minimized infrastructure costs and maximized performance, ensuring that students could access content quickly and without delays.
- Content Access: Students could easily browse the content they were authorized to view, including videos, downloadable files, and interactive materials.
- Responsiveness: With an SPA, the application was responsive across desktop and mobile devices, providing a seamless user experience regardless of the device being used.
API Layer: Node.js/Express with AWS API Gateway
To power the backend, we used Node.js and Express, hosted through AWS API Gateway. This combination allowed us to efficiently manage requests from the frontend, while also providing automatic scalability as user demand fluctuated.
- API Gateway: A cost-effective solution that scaled automatically based on incoming API requests, ensuring that costs stayed low even during times of high traffic.
- Node.js/Express: The backend powered by Node.js managed user permissions, content access, and integrations with the database, handling everything from logging in students to serving content.
Database: Amazon Aurora Serverless
For the database, we chose Amazon Aurora Serverless, which provided a fully managed, auto-scaling relational database solution at a fraction of the cost of traditional database setups. Aurora Serverless automatically scaled up or down depending on demand, so we only paid for the resources we used.
One important consideration was that Aurora Serverless could scale down to zero instances when the system wasn’t being accessed, meaning that the first user request after a period of inactivity would experience a brief 30-second delay while the database “warmed up.” This was an acceptable trade-off for Sacred Heart University, as the savings in cost far outweighed this minor inconvenience.
- Low Costs: The database’s on-demand scaling meant that costs remained incredibly low, with monthly expenses averaging around $2–$25 depending on usage.
Functionality: A Simple Yet Powerful Tool for Content Delivery and Management
The Digital Discovery platform was designed with two primary roles: admin and user. Both had tailored features that allowed for effective content management and delivery.
Admin Back-End
For administrators, the backend of the system provided an intuitive interface for managing both content and users.
- Content Upload and Organization: Admins could upload educational videos, PDFs, quizzes, and other resources, organizing them into classes complete with descriptions, images, and metadata.
- User Permissions: Admins had control over which users could access specific content, including the ability to set expiration dates for materials. This allowed for greater flexibility in managing the availability of educational resources.
- Home Page Management: Admins could compose and curate the homepage, ensuring that important announcements or new content were prominently displayed to students upon login.
User Front-End
For students, the frontend provided a simple and engaging way to access learning materials.
- Content List: Students could log in to view a list of content available to them, including videos, documents, and interactive files.
- Streaming and Downloading: Students were able to stream educational videos and download materials such as PDFs and worksheets directly from the platform.
Overcoming Challenges: Database Scaling and Warm-Up Delays
One of the biggest challenges of the Digital Discovery project was dealing with the warm-up time for Amazon Aurora Serverless. Since Aurora Serverless can scale down to zero instances to save costs during inactivity, the first request after a period of dormancy could result in a 30-second delay as the database scaled back up. While this could be frustrating for the first user accessing the platform after a break, it was determined to be an acceptable trade-off for the significant cost savings that the serverless database provided.
By keeping the system’s operational costs so low, we ensured that the LMS could continue to operate for Sacred Heart University’s Discovery Science Center and Planetarium without burdening their budget, even as the need for remote learning grew.
Key Benefits
- Low Operational Costs: With total monthly costs averaging around $25, Digital Discovery made it possible for Sacred Heart University to continue delivering quality educational content to students while maintaining a lean budget.
- Scalability: The serverless architecture ensured that the system could scale automatically to meet demand, whether it was supporting a handful of students or thousands of concurrent users.
- Simplicity: Both the admin and user interfaces were designed to be intuitive and easy to use, reducing the learning curve for both instructors and students.
Conclusion
Digital Discovery was an ideal solution for Sacred Heart University’s Discovery Science Center and Planetarium during a time when remote learning was essential. By utilizing AWS’s serverless architecture, we were able to build a scalable and affordable platform that ensured uninterrupted access to educational content for students. With features designed to manage content, track user access, and minimize costs, Digital Discovery proved that effective remote education doesn’t have to come at a high price.
If you’re looking to create a similar platform or need a cost-effective solution for your own educational project, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be happy to discuss how we can help you build a system tailored to your needs.
Code:
API Layer
Angular App