CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL COMMUNITY PLATFORM

This project presents the design and development of BenTalk, a centralized digital community platform specifically tailored for academic interaction and knowledge sharing within Nigerian universities, with a prototype implementation for the University of Benin's Faculty of Computing. The study addresses the critical challenge of fragmented academic communication, where
students currently rely on general-purpose social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram—platforms fundamentally designed for social interaction rather than structured academic discourse. Through comprehensive literature review and system analysis, the research identifies key limitations of existing communication channels: information fragmentation across multiple platforms, lack of institutional oversight, absence of knowledge preservation mechanisms, erosion of professional boundaries, and algorithm misalignment with educational objectives. These challenges necessitate a purpose-built solution that balances the accessibility of social media with the structure required for effective academic collaboration. The BenTalk platform employs a three-tier architecture consisting of a Python FastAPI backend with PostgreSQL database, a React-based responsive web application, and a native Android mobile application developed using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. The system implements a hierarchical subspace structure organized by departments (Computer Science, Cyber Security, Data Science, Software Engineering, Information and Communication Technology, Information Technology, and Information Science) and academic levels (100L, 200L, 300L, 400L), aligning with the university's existing organizational framework. Core functionalities include secure user authentication via JWT tokens, threaded discussion forums with nested commenting capabilities, upvote/downvote mechanisms for content quality signaling, full-text search across posts, and real-time updates through WebSocket integration. The platform emphasizes knowledge preservation through permanent, searchable archives that
benefit future student cohorts while maintaining intuitive navigation and mobile-first design principles suited to Nigerian infrastructure constraints. The prototype demonstrates technical feasibility and addresses identified gaps in current
academic communication systems. Testing confirms that the platform successfully provides structured academic discourse spaces, reduces information redundancy, facilitates peer-to-peer learning, and enables optional institutional oversight without compromising student ownership of discussions. The system's modular architecture allows for scalability and adaptation to other faculties and institutions. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on educational technology in African
contexts by demonstrating that locally-developed, context-appropriate solutions can effectively address challenges that generic global platforms cannot. The project provides a blueprint for similar implementations across Nigerian universities and offers practical recommendations for institutional adoption, technical enhancement, and sustainable deployment.