HubbS - The hub for vocational schools
HubbS is the central point of contact for all dual vocational training teachers. The user-friendly platform offers quality-tested teaching materials, effective networking and collaboration opportunities as well as comprehensive information on all aspects of vocational training.
The FWU, as the media institute of the 16 federal states, is responsible for the production of interactive, audiovisual educational media and supports the states with various projects as part of the DigitalPakt Schule. In 2022, keytec was commissioned with the Drupal development of the HubbS platform. HubbS is the central digital point of contact for teachers, students and institutions at all vocational schools.
The portal is divided into two areas:
The public area offers an extensive media library with teaching materials from various publishers as well as information on professions, schools and events. A sophisticated categorization system allows users to filter specifically for teaching content, professions or learning resources.
The community area, which requires registration, functions as a social network that enables teachers and institutions to create their own materials, network, exchange ideas and develop content together. This closed member area promotes interaction and facilitates the nationwide exchange of teaching materials.
HubbS Screencast: What is HubbS?
https://hubbs.schule/mediathek/hubbs-screencast-was-ist-hubbs
OBJECTIVES
The overall goal of the project was to develop a centralized platform that enables easy access to digital teaching materials and resources and promotes collaboration and exchange between teachers, state institutes and ministries across school and state borders.
The platform should serve as a central point of contact that not only offers a powerful media library and efficient search function, but also supports collaborative work processes and social interactions. The improved networking should unlock valuable potential to relieve the burden on teachers, strengthen the innovative power of schools and improve the quality of teaching.
GOLDLAND MEDIA, responsible for the UX/UI design, conceived the functionalities, user stories and information architecture together with the FWU and the state institutes, which were implemented in a detailed design concept. In close cooperation with all parties involved, keytec realized the technical implementation of the platform.
SOLUTIONS
Apache Solr was integrated via Search API for the media library and search function, ensuring a fast and efficient search. The content of the media library is regularly retrieved from SODIX, the educational media content hub of the federal states, and updated using specially developed extensions for Migrate. Related and linked materials are displayed directly in the content.
Drupal plays to its strengths by using structured content types with predefined fields. For complex landing pages, the layout builder was used, which offers a high degree of flexibility.
The community area, which requires registration, relies on the Open Social Distribution, which has been expanded and adapted to the needs of the platform. This enables social network functions such as personal profile pages, social media streams, groups, messages, notifications, watch lists, follow/unfollow options and abuse reports.
Additional functions, such as friend requests and contact management, were developed independently.
External functions have been seamlessly integrated to further promote collaboration: File storage is provided through a connection to NextCloud and video conferencing functionalities are provided via Jitsi. Both systems automatically authenticate themselves to Drupal via OAuth.
RESULTS
Drupal acts as the central technical interface and forms the basis for subject-specific exchange, networking in working groups and the joint creation of teaching materials.
With the launch of the area requiring registration, users have access to an extensive portfolio of functions for communication and collaboration, including video conferencing tools and online office solutions.
In future, Drupal will play a key role as the central technology in the implementation of further functions, including learning location cooperation, a transnational workshop infrastructure for dual training occupations and the technical connection of nationwide multiplier events. This will set new priorities.
