Decentralized web application for programming courses with cryptographic security for the P2P-Academy

Abstract

Online programming education continues to face structural challenges: delayed feedback, limited personalization, weak articulation between pedagogical support and academic operations, and growing information-security risks in digital educational platforms. This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a decentralized web application for P2P-Academy, integrating educational management, synchronous sessions, progress tracking, continuous assessment, multichannel payments, universal accessibility, and a cryptographic security layer as a structural component. The research was conducted as an applied case study with a mixed-methods approach, combining technical system analysis, functional and non-functional testing, and an exploratory four-week pilot with 84 students and 12 instructors. The platform was built with Next.js on the frontend and Django REST Framework on the backend, incorporating JWT authentication, real-time communication via Django Channels, TLS 1.3 for data in transit, AES-256 encryption for sensitive data, hash-based certificate verification, role-differentiated dashboards, and modules for courses, sessions, progress, messaging, and payments, with decentralized architectural elements for transactions and certifications. Results show high functional performance: a 99.1 % success rate across 214 end-to-end test cases; video-call latencies of 180–220 ms with a MOS of 4.3/5; a global p95 of 2.1 s under 1,000 concurrent users; a payment success rate of 98.7 %; WCAG 2.1 AA compliance; a SUS score of 86/100; and an NPS of 72. At the educational level, the pilot recorded gains of 14–18 % in retention, 21 % in module completion, and improvements in satisfaction and learning tracking, supported by formative assessment strategies and immediate feedback. The study concludes that P2P-Academy constitutes a technically robust and pedagogically coherent solution whose differential contribution lies in integrating academic workflow, peer-to-peer interaction, cryptographic security, and evidence traceability within a single unified architecture; nonetheless, longitudinal validation and broader testing under large-scale scenarios are required.