Cengage Learning is a leading global education technology provider for the higher education, K-12, workforce, and library markets. As an innovator in digital learning, the company created the MindTap platform for delivering multimedia, interactive, and customizable online courses. The system, which consists of multiple applications, offers educators and students access to the breadth of Cengage educational content, adaptive learning paths, and practical tools for authoring and learning.

Quoin partnered with Cengage to provide technical leadership and effective application development teams over a three-year engagement. Specific efforts in support of these initiatives included the following.

• Initial Platform Architecture – Quoin supported the initial development of the MindTap platform. Our principal consultant was integral to defining the platform architecture and implementing the initial release. Quoin, therefore, contributed to the conception of the fundamental architecture, services, integration, and content conversion for this strategic initiative. We also supported product development teams with coaching in test-driven and agile development practices.
• Architecture Standards & Practices – After the initial commercial release of MindTap, we provided a principal consultant to guide Quoin and client-led project teams. Our consulting focused on the design and implementation of critical integration points in the maturing platform architecture and was instrumental in maintaining code quality and consistency of the system architecture.
• Speech Outlining Tool – A Quoin project team built an app to help students create outlines, note cards, visual references, and other materials to give a speech. This 'MindApp' was the first to use a new technology stack that included AngularJS and Node. Our project team delivered on time and on budget after an intensive three-month development effort.
• Composition Outlining Tool – We continued the effort above to deliver a similar app for composition. Our team demonstrated the flexibility of the design and implementation practices from the earlier project. Both efforts were recognized by Cengage management for our agile development practices and were used as examples for process improvement at Cengage.
• World Languages – Quoin developed a replacement for a third-party application to provide improved language learning capabilities and integration with the MindTap platform.
• Instructor Resource Center – We built an app that enables an author to easily add content as reading material, interactive exercise, or graded assignment to a course. This project required conversion of the app to ReactJS to address performance issues, integration with a new plugin architecture, and support for MindTap platform services.
• 4LTR – We defined the application architecture and led the implementation of new multimedia content and assignments editor. This specialized application is integrated with the MindTap service and a component of the overall system.
• Product Builder – A Quoin project team developed a suite of course authoring tools that supported the assembly of multimedia content for interactive courses.
• MindApps – Applications for creating, building, or accessing content. MindApps are implemented in JavaScript using AngularJS, ReactJS, and Redux frameworks. An application will generally depend on MindTap services, but specific requirements can also interact directly with content management services or specific databases.
• Specialized Applications – Applications that integrate with MindTap and Content Management services outside of the plug-in architecture for MindApps. These applications are implemented in a broad range of technologies, but most are built-in JavaScript.
• MindTap Services – Common services for creating, finding, accessing, or storing content; and, for learning management. The services are implemented in Java for both plug-in and standard applications.
• Content Management – Persistent storage for rich content and platform-specific data, including students, grades, and courses. This layer was implemented using both No-SQL and relational technologies including Node, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Cassandra, and others.

For each application, Quoin was responsible for application architecture, design, code quality, implementation, platform integration, testing, and delivery. Our project team collaborated with Cengage architecture and product management stakeholders to ensure timely delivery of the application for key product release milestones.