Opiq is the most modern learning management environment and it is used in the majority of Estonian schools. Opiq contains textbooks, learning kits, study journals, a self-assessment system and other useful features used by teachers, students and parents. Besides a PC and tablet, the application can also be used on smartphones. Opiq learning management environment was ordered and is owned by Star Cloud OÜ.
Project Opiq began in 2013, when Antti Rammo, CEO and founder of Opiq, started to prototype a solution of digital textbooks for Avita publishing house with Hendrik Väli, the creative director of Opiq. Soon they realized that the platform they are prototyping will have a bigger purpose than they thought at first. After that, the goal was to give the students and teachers a convenient, exciting, interactive and modern tool for studying, which would fully replace paper-based textbooks and workbooks, while also serving as a study journal. As a bonus, Opiq would drastically reduce the weight of school bags and would also enable the students, parents and teachers to manage schoolwork at any location and on any device.
The platform is designed for conducting and assessing the study process between the students, teachers and parents in the most productive, convenient and modern way possible.
From the beginning, our priority has been end-user satisfaction with the product. We are developing the product using agile development practices: adopting the forever-changing business needs and customer requests. We started with the functionalities of the highest priority and we are still expanding them continuously. In the beginning, the development cycles were short (2 weeks), now the development cycles are as long as necessary: ranging usually from 2 weeks to 5 weeks. The releases are planned together with the customer – that way we can provide a solution fit for their needs. The customer can monitor and give feedback throughout the development process.
During the development, we follow the principles of Test Driven Development and Domain Driven Design. As Opiq is a cloud application, it is hosted in Microsoft Azure cloud. It uses Azure storage and has a strong search engine built on ElasticSearch. We use continuous integration with TeamCity and Bitbucket to store the source code. Project management is carried out in Pivotal Tracker which includes code reviews.
The project has been so exciting – it’s a big and relevant project with a lot of ambition.
Opiq is widely used in Estonia by thousands and thousands of users every day. This shows us that we are doing the right thing and that makes it an exciting challenge for the developers. The application has to work without any interruptions and the sudden rise of active users can’t affect the user experience.
We already are international, but the project is conquering more and more markets each year. Being part of something so big and ambiguous is something truly amazing. Who knows – maybe one day going to Japan or South Africa, Estonians are known as the creators of Opiq.
As for the client – I couldn’t ask for a better one. Communication with the client is based on trust and because of that, the collaboration is both smooth and fun. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome on both sides and there is the liberty to choose the best technical approach as long as we reach the desired destination. Meetings are usually full of positive energy. I hope that the collaboration continues to be as simple and natural as it has been so far.
Opiq is a digital learning environment that makes learning easier for students. For example, students can search for a topic to revise from last year or to study something extra about it from the next year’s curriculum. Opiq has a strong search engine that helps to find all the materials where a certain topic has been mentioned. There are self-assessment tasks for students so they can test their knowledge.
For teachers, there is automatically checked homework. This helps to cut back on the time it takes to check homework. Teachers can make different tests depending on the need. They can check the answers themselves and give feedback with comments instead of grades.
School administrators can manage users and their licenses for both teachers and students. Publishers can add new books and manage learning kits.
When students from all over the world had to isolate and stay at home, we in Estonia already used Opiq. Still, the user base of Opiq grew exponentially, but increased demand was handled with flying colors. Opiq is a scalable highly available service, with an uptime of 99.99%.
It is used in most Estonian schools but has also a market in Finland, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Uganda and there is a plan to conquer more and more international markets.
AgileWorks has been developing Opiq from the start – the life cycle has been connected with AgileWorks. We started the collaboration when the company was still young and we have come a long way. That shows that we work well together. AgileWorks has offered the necessary support, knowledge and skills to build such a technically strong version of Opiq. Opiq is one of the most popular learning tools in Estonia. We are happy and grateful for this collaboration and we are sure that together we are going to take Opiq to new heights.
Accessible at https://www.opiq.ee/
Opiq - From Textbooks to Digital Learning Environment | Trade Estonia
Phone: +372 503 7594
E-mail: info@agileworks.eu
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