Streamlining the feedback writing process for ESL teachers everywhere
Toolset: Typescript, React, Node.js, Postrgesql, Docker
URL: https://www.eslreports.com/builder
Written feedback for students is valuable, yet teachers across the world, pressed for time, will often seek ways of streamlining the process while still keeping it accurate and personalized. Some might create their own solutions in an Excel file, others might turn to a web app or desktop software. In 2014, ESLReports.com was created by Matthew Weaver for just this purpose. In a very short time it was adopted across the ESL world. Little was done to develop beyond the initial design or to engage and grow the community, but the site proved popular and chugged onward to climb Google’s rankings.
In January 2022 I purchased the domain from Matt and released a small survey to discover how users engaged with the site, how they felt about the tools, and which features they would like to see in an update. Over 300 users self-selected into the survey, and with their feedback I developed and released a completely new version to a small group of beta testers. Within a few months and without having made the access link public, the new version’s user base had grown to 800 users with 70 unique logins and hundreds of reports written per day. Today the app, which is built on React, GraphQL and PostreSQL, generates over 2000 reports a day, and with more updates on the horizon including full AI integrations, there’s likely further in store for ESLReports.