Educational Initiatives (Ei), a pioneer in K–12 learning innovation, partnered with 18North to conceptualize, design, and develop the QMC Portal , a digital-first platform for managing the lifecycle of educational questions. From authoring to multilingual rating, the QMC system empowers decentralized question creation, review, and quality assurance. 18North delivered the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) through an agile, sprint-led approach using a secure, scalable full-stack web architecture.

Ei needed a digital platform to enable distributed curation of test items, supporting both Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and Free Response Questions (FRQ) across subjects and grades. The users — including teachers, content creators, reviewers, and raters — span regions and languages, requiring a system that was multilingual, mobile-responsive, and aligned with CBSE frameworks and assessment standards. The system also needed to integrate with Ei’s content ecosystem and governance workflows.

• Disparate spreadsheets, docs, and email-based workflows slowed down question curation.
• Lacked transparency on rating quality, audit history, or content lifecycle.
• No centralized repository for content linked to user actions or approval stages.
• Pre-login content (info pages, branding) had to be separately managed by non-technical teams.
• Needed to handle role-based workflows across teachers, raters, reviewers, and admin.

1. Agile Development Roadmap

• Delivered MVP through six defined sprints, starting with login, dashboard, question creation (MCQ/FRQ), and progressing to submission, multilingual rating, reports, notifications, and admin controls.
• Early hosting done by Ei; 18North managed architecture and deployment readiness from Day 1.

1. Full-Stack Architecture

• Frontend: React.js + HTML5/CSS3/SCSS + TypeScript.
• Backend: Node.js with Express.js for API services.
• Databases: PostgreSQL for core logic and WordPress DB for CMS-driven pre-login content.
• Hosting: AWS EC2 instances for UAT and production; provisioned with optional WAF & Load Balancer.
• Security & Audit: Authentication, session management, and auditing modules built into core.

1. Functional Architecture – From User Flow to Workflow

• The QMC system was designed with a modular, role-based functional architecture to support content creation and governance at scale:
  1. User Access & Security
  • Login, Registration, Forgot Password
  • Role-based Access Control for Teachers, Raters, Reviewers, and Admins.

2. Teacher–Author Workflow

• Dashboard: Personalized view for creating and managing content.
• Profile Display: Update/view personal info and contributions.
• Question Authoring: MCQ and FRQ formats supported, with rich text fields, metadata tagging, and language input.
• Submission: Moves authored questions to the next review/rating stage.

3. Review & Rating Workflow

• Raters and Reviewers interact with submitted questions.
• Features: Rating based on defined rubrics. Optional Voting for consensus or quality indication.

4. Multilingual Enablement

• • Both content and interface support multiple Indian languages.

• Designed to ensure regional inclusivity and broader outreach.

5. Reporting & Notifications

• – Test Reports: Show progress, submission counts, ratings status.
• – Notifications: Email/SMS messages on status changes and approvals.

6. Admin & Pre-login Modules

• – Admin Dashboard: Controls for user permissions, workflow overrides, and content moderation.
• – Pre-Login CMS: Powered by WordPress — allows Ei teams to independently manage static pages like FAQs, About, and Guidelines.

This user flow reflects the full lifecycle of content creation — from ideation to approval — while allowing transparency, governance, and multilingual participation at every step.

• MVP in < 6 Sprints: From zero to production with real-world usage in under two months.
• Clean Role Management: Multiple user personas (Teachers, Admins, Raters) each with tailored dashboards and access control.
• Scalable Design: Supports future addition of question banks, quizzes, and assessments aligned with CBSE/NAS.
• Pre-login Flexibility: CMS-based WordPress layer allowed Ei teams to manage landing pages and static content independently.
• Multilingual Support: Enabled content creation and rating across Indian languages, aiding outreach and regional inclusivity.

By embedding structure, workflow clarity, and multilingual access into the QMC Portal, 18North enabled Ei to scale its question curation efforts across geographies. The platform now stands as a blueprint for collaborative academic content generation — traceable, extensible, and purpose-built for India’s diverse educational needs.