CoTeacher AI
a full-stack platform where instructors upload course materials and students chat with a course-specific AI.
overview
CoTeacher AI is an intelligent course assistant platform that leverages Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to provide students with personalized, course-specific AI tutoring. The platform enables instructors to upload various course materials (PDFs, DOCX, PPTX) which are then processed, chunked, and embedded using OpenAI's API. Students can interact with a ChatGPT-style interface that answers questions based on the uploaded course content, ensuring accurate and contextually relevant responses.
tech stack
frontend — Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, React
backend — Node.js, Next.js API Routes, OpenAI API
database — PostgreSQL, Supabase, Vector Embeddings
infrastructure — Vercel, Supabase Storage
features
- multi-role authentication system (owner/TA/student) with role-based access control
- document upload and processing pipeline supporting PDF, DOCX, and PPTX formats
- server-side RAG implementation with vector embeddings and semantic search
- per-course vector database isolation for accurate, course-specific responses
- ChatGPT-style UI with conversation history and integrity guardrails
- real-time chat interface with streaming responses
- file management system with supabase storage integration
challenges
- implementing efficient chunking strategies for different document types while preserving context
- designing a scalable vector search system that maintains per-course data isolation
- balancing response accuracy with response time in the RAG pipeline
- creating an intuitive UI that handles complex document structures and long conversations
next.js · typescript · tailwind css · supabase · postgres · rag · openai api · vercel · node.js