Learning Management System (LMS) platform development
An LMS is a system for creating, managing, and delivering educational materials. The platform provides: course creation → student enrollment → lesson progression → grading → certificate issuance. Complexity depends on content type, interactivity, and scale.
Key roles
- Administrator — manages platform, users, integrations
- Teacher/Author — creates courses, materials, assignments, grades work
- Student — takes courses, completes assignments, gets certificates
- Manager/Curator — tracks group progress, communicates
Course structure
Course
├── Section 1 "Introduction"
│ ├── Lesson 1.1: Video (15 min)
│ ├── Lesson 1.2: Article
│ └── Quiz 1 (5 questions)
├── Section 2 "Basics"
│ ├── Lesson 2.1: Video
│ ├── Assignment 2.1 (homework)
│ └── Lesson 2.2: Webinar (live)
└── Final Exam
└── Certificate
Each element stored as course_items with type (video, article, quiz, assignment, live_session) and order. Prerequisites — lesson unavailable until previous completed.
Video hosting
Uploading video directly to server is bad for > few hours. Standard solutions:
Vimeo OTT / Vimeo Pro — secure video with domain restrictions, view analytics, adaptive bitrate (HLS). Upload and management API.
Cloudflare Stream — cheaper than Vimeo, $1/1000 minutes storage, HLS transcoding, built-in player.
MUX — professional video hosting with detailed analytics (% watched, rebuffer rate), Data API for custom analytics.
Process: app requests upload_url → client uploads directly (bypassing server) → provider transcodes → webhook signals ready → update lesson status.
Quizzes and testing
Question types:
- Single choice — one correct answer
- Multiple choice — several correct
- True/False
- Short answer — text input with auto-checking
- Essay — manual teacher grading
- Code exercise — run code in sandbox (Judge0 API)
Results stored in schema:
CREATE TABLE quiz_attempts (
id, student_id, quiz_id, started_at, submitted_at,
score INT, max_score INT, passed BOOLEAN
);
Time limit, max attempts, question shuffling — configured per quiz.
Progress and completion
Student progress tracked via lesson_completions:
CREATE TABLE lesson_completions (
student_id, lesson_id, completed_at,
watch_percentage INT, -- for video
PRIMARY KEY (student_id, lesson_id)
);
Course complete when 100% of required elements done. Optional elements don't block completion.
Certificates
Auto-generated on course completion. PDF template with data: student name, course title, date, teacher signature. Unique certificate number + verification page (/certificates/verify/{hash}).
Generation: puppeteer (HTML → PDF), @react-pdf/renderer, or wkhtmltopdf.
Integrations
- Zoom / BigBlueButton / Jitsi — for live sessions
- Stripe — course access sales, subscriptions
- SCORM — import courses from authoring tools (Articulate, iSpring)
- xAPI (Tin Can) — modern activity tracking
- Slack / Telegram — assignment and deadline notifications
Timeline
MVP LMS (courses with video and quizzes, student progress, basic certificates, simple shop): 3–5 months. Full platform with live sessions, assignments with manual grading, SCORM import, mobile app: 6–10 months.