A website for preparing for the medical ECN with Drupal 9 and ReactJS, a Drupal LMS model to maintain...

Conf+, the experience of preparing for medical exams

The site conf-plus.com aims to be the platform for preparing for the national ranking exams (ECN) in medicine. For several years now, it has been a benchmark in terms of content and educational pathways for students, despite the various ongoing reforms. The redesign project aims to make the conf-plus.com platform a reference in LMS (learning management systems) for medical students. It offers in particular:

• Access for students who are part of the conf+ community;
• An online learning platform featuring content and assessment tools;
• Access for trainers and speakers who lead these training sessions.

The platform's richness lies in having a network of doctors and speakers who help contribute content to the platform -

• Through course summaries;
• Through lectures and medical imaging;
• Through MCQs and progressive clinical cases;
• Through correction of MCQs / Progressive clinical cases.

In exchange for a subscription, students are invited to review the competition subjects, memorize sheets and concepts, and train for the exam. Learning paths, validated by successful quizzes, allow students to quickly see their level of preparation and formalize their progress. Messaging or event organization features (limited-time mock exams or student battles in a battle royale format) spice up the learning process.

The former platform powered by Drupal 7

The previous platform, powered by Drupal 7, had run its course—over 9 years of operation, tens of thousands of students went through the conf-plus reviews and courses, with about fifteen universities connected to the site’s content. A victim of its own success, the platform needed a technical overhaul and a better user experience. Most of the course content has been migrated to the new Drupal 9 site.

Rethinking learning paths and redesigning the graphic charter

The overall graphic redesign was carried out by our Breton partner, aptly named Gweno! Efficient and modern, it emphasizes both simplicity of implementation and the prominence of content.

User journeys were thoroughly studied and evaluated during design studio workshops. This allowed us to compare our expertise in usage with the user insights of the conf+ team. Key focus areas included:

The non-subscriber user journey:

• Discovering the offerings;
• Requesting information;
• Subscription and sales funnel.

The subscriber user journey:

• Login process;
• Messaging pathway;
• Consulting learning sheets (learning, asking the speaker questions, creating notes);
• “Progressive Clinical Case” pathway (case sessions by subject, by topic, questions to speakers, submitting a note);
• “Single MCQ - Isolated Questions” pathway (isolated question session by subject, by topic, questions to the speaker, submitting a note);
• “Lectures” pathway (consulting a lecture by subject/topic/sheet, questions to the speaker, submitting a note);
• “Doctor’s Kit” pathway (consulting a note by subject/item, creating and updating a note in the kit).

The bluedrop.fr agency handled the creation of the design system and the deployment of wireframe and graphic mockups, available on Figma.

The redesign project using Drupal 9

The year 2020 saw the comprehensive redesign project for the platform. The technical team leveraged Drupal’s robust permission management to configure a platform with multiple participant roles, from proofreader to contributor, including shop administrators and clients (the student or their representative). The use of powerful contributed modules saved time on content retrieval and development. The following configurations were notable:

• Deployment of Drupal 9 and initial configuration of the core and standard contributed modules;
• Setup of the quiz module to manage and generate MCQs (extensively modified to meet requirements);
• Setup of the Stripe module to manage subscriptions, payments, and recurrence;
• Development of an internal messaging feature between users—mainly between speakers and students;
• Setup of the online store—Purchasing subscriptions and managing their expiry (using role expire and commerce modules);
• Configuration of products and payment options (monthly subscriptions, one-time payments, monthly payments with commitment period);
• Setup of transactional messages via Sendinblue, whose incomplete module was heavily patched;
• Development of a connector for the service provided by kumullus (video hosting);
• Development of a student user dashboard (profile, internal messaging, statistics, subscription);
• Development of a speaker dashboard (profile, internal messaging, adding a progressive case, adding a quiz)

Feedback and Corrections

At the end of a question session, during correction, three types of comments can be offered to students to help them understand their mistakes or reinforce their knowledge:

• Text comment;
• Video comment;
• Mnemonic comment.

The choice of partial decoupling with ReactJS

The initial analysis of the project specifications raised architectural questions. The workspace for students required display speed, fluidity, and adaptable responses. It quickly became clear to the project team that a frontend decoupling could offer advantages. We therefore opted for a gradual/partial decoupling, as explained in a previous blog post:
Feedback - Method and thoughts on choosing between total or progressive decoupling with Drupal - Wednesday, May 26, 2021.

The idea is to make the most of the power of the Drupal CMS whenever it provides a guarantee, and to offer users an improved experience and routes.

Therefore, we chose a progressive decoupling of interfaces using ReactJS.

Pages for anonymous users as well as standard editorial pages are built within Drupal’s box, using the classic method. This way, you can take full advantage of Drupal’s content management capabilities.

The student workspace, the consultation of learning sheets, lectures, videos, as well as MCQ generation, dashboard, results, and corrections are produced via ReactJS, powered by the Json API module now integrated into the Drupal Core.

The result is an integrated, up-to-date, and independent platform. We salute the entire project team for their work and achievements. Now, it’s time for maintenance and further development projects.

URL: https://www.conf-plus.com

Resources:
Feedback - Method and thoughts on choosing between total or progressive decoupling with Drupal - Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Gradual decoupling with Drupal 8... The RTM site. - Wednesday, April 8, 2020