Ear Training – Aural Learning Platform

A web-based learning platform for ear training (Gehörbildung), built with Django. The platform supports two roles (teacher / student) and covers the full teaching workflow — from module management and homework submissions to grading.

Motivation

I teach ear training myself and always struggled to consistently manage course materials and keep up with student submissions. That frustration is what drove me to build this. If I were teaching again, this is the tool I'd want to use.

Live Demo: aural-learning-platform.onrender.com

Role	Login	Password
Teacher	Demo_Lehrkraft	Demo1234!
Student	Demo_Schüler_in	Demo1234!

Screenshots

Teacher Dashboard	Module Detail

Homework Management	Invitation System

Student Dashboard	Glossary

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Features

For Students

• Module overview with personal progress tracking
• Mark modules as completed
• Audio files and PDFs per module
• Submit homework (PDF upload)
• View own submissions and track correction status
• Personal dashboard with progress bar and "Continue Learning" shortcut
• Glossary with musical terms

For Teachers

• Create, edit, and delete modules (script, solution, homework, audio)
• Homework management: view submissions per unit, mark as corrected, ZIP download of all PDFs
• View and manually edit student progress
• Generate invitation links for students and teachers
• Manage glossary (terms, exam relevance)
• Manage task types
• Course progress overview (goal: 40 modules)

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Tech Stack

Area	Technology
Framework	Django 5.2
Database	PostgreSQL (production), SQLite (development)
File Storage	Cloudflare R2 (3 buckets) / local (development)
Static Files	WhiteNoise + CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage
Deployment	Gunicorn, HTTPS, HSTS
Dependencies	django-storages, boto3, adminsortable2
Frontend	Vanilla CSS (Glass Design System), Vanilla JS

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Architecture

Apps

aural-learning-platform/
├── accounts/          # User model, roles, login, invitation system
├── modules/           # Core logic: modules, glossary, submissions, dashboards
├── config/            # Django configuration, URLs, middleware
├── templates/         # Global templates (login, about, imprint …)
└── imports/           # Scripts for initial module data import

Role System

The role system uses a custom role field on the user model — not Django's built-in permissions or groups:

class User(AbstractUser):
    TEACHER = "TEACHER"
    STUDENT = "STUDENT"
    role = models.CharField(choices=ROLE_CHOICES, default=STUDENT)

    @property
    def is_teacher(self): return self.role == self.TEACHER

    @property
    def is_student(self): return self.role == self.STUDENT

Views are protected with TeacherRequiredMixin and StudentRequiredMixin.

File Storage (Cloudflare R2)

Three separate buckets — based on file sensitivity:

Storage	Contents	Visibility
StudentMaterialsR2Storage	Script, homework PDF, audio	Logged-in users
TeacherMaterialsR2Storage	Solutions (PDF 2 & 4)	Teachers only
SubmissionsR2Storage	Student submissions	Teachers + submitting student

In development mode (DEBUG=True), files are stored locally.

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Data Model (Overview)

User (accounts)
 ├── role: TEACHER | STUDENT
 └── created_invites → InviteToken

InviteToken (accounts)
 ├── token: UUID (single-use, valid for 7 days)
 ├── role: TEACHER | STUDENT
 ├── first_name, last_name, email
 └── used: bool

Module
 ├── title, slug, order
 ├── inclass (lesson content), homework
 ├── pdf_1 … pdf_4 (script, solutions, homework)
 ├── audio_1 … audio_4 + titles
 ├── tasktype → TaskType (M2M)
 └── glossary_terms → GlossaryEntry (M2M)

Unit  (created automatically when a homework PDF is added)
 ├── module → Module (1:1)
 ├── date, number, kind (REGULAR | HOLIDAY | EXAM | OTHER)
 └── submissions_enabled: bool

Submission
 ├── unit → Unit
 ├── student → User
 ├── status: SUBMITTED | CORRECTED
 └── files → SubmissionFile (1:N)

ModuleCompletion
 ├── user → User
 └── module → Module

GlossaryEntry
 ├── title, slug, definition
 ├── exam_relevant: bool
 └── modules → Module (M2M)

TaskType
 └── name, slug

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Invitation System

Teachers generate invitation links directly in the frontend — no admin access required.

Flow:

1. Teacher → /teacher/invite/ → enter first name, last name, email, role → generate link
2. Share the link via copy or email button
3. Invited person opens the link → sees their name and role → sets a password only
4. Username is automatically set to the email address
5. Link is single-use and expires after 7 days

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Homework Submission & Locking

• submissions_enabled = True → student can upload files
• Teacher locks submissions after downloading
• Status transitions: SUBMITTED → CORRECTED (manually by teacher or via bulk action)
• Teacher can download all PDFs for a unit as a ZIP

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Setup (Development)

Prerequisites: Python 3.11+, PostgreSQL (or SQLite)

git clone <repo>
cd aural-learning-platform

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a .env file:

SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
DEBUG=True
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/dbname

# Contact form
[email protected]

# Cloudflare R2 (production only)
R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
R2_ENDPOINT_URL=https://<account>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
R2_BUCKET_STUDENT=...
R2_BUCKET_TEACHER=...
R2_BUCKET_SUBMISSIONS=...

Migrate and run:

python3 manage.py migrate
python3 manage.py runserver

Load demo data (optional):

python3 manage.py create_demo_data

Creates two demo accounts ([email protected] / [email protected], password Demo1234!) along with sample modules, task types, and glossary entries.

To make a superuser a teacher — set role = TEACHER in the admin, or via the shell:

python3 manage.py shell -c "
from accounts.models import User
u = User.objects.get(username='<username>')
u.role = 'TEACHER'
u.save()
"

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Deployment (Production)

DJANGO_ENV=production
DEBUG=False
DATABASE_URL=<postgres-url>

python3 manage.py collectstatic
gunicorn config.wsgi:application

Automatically enables: HTTPS redirect, HSTS (7 days), secure cookies, SSL headers.

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Known Technical Debt

Topic	Details
Remove django-taggit	Taggit is no longer active in the code (replaced by TaskType), but remains in INSTALLED_APPS due to migration history. Fix: squash migrations, then remove the package from settings and requirements.txt.

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Project Structure

aural-learning-platform/
├── accounts/
│   ├── models.py           # User, InviteToken
│   ├── views.py            # RoleBasedLoginView
│   ├── forms.py            # RoleLoginForm, AcceptInviteForm
│   ├── mixins.py           # TeacherRequiredMixin, StudentRequiredMixin
│   ├── admin.py
│   └── migrations/
├── modules/
│   ├── models.py           # Module, Unit, Submission, GlossaryEntry, …
│   ├── views.py            # ~30 views
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── forms.py            # ModuleForm, ContactForm
│   ├── admin.py            # Extended admin views
│   ├── storages.py         # R2 storage classes
│   ├── context_processors.py
│   ├── widgets.py
│   ├── migrations/
│   ├── static/modules/
│   │   ├── css/style.css   # Main stylesheet (Glass Design System)
│   │   ├── css/auth.css
│   │   ├── js/script.js
│   │   └── icons/
│   └── templates/
│       ├── base.html
│       ├── includes/sidebar.html
│       └── modules/        # All app templates
├── config/
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
│   └── middleware.py       # RememberMeMiddleware
├── templates/              # Global templates (login, imprint, …)
├── imports/                # Data import scripts
├── media/                  # Local uploads (development only)
├── staticfiles/            # collectstatic output
├── requirements.txt
└── manage.py