How to Build a Social Learning Platform using Next.js, Stream, and Supabase

Social media and real-time communication have transformed how people interact, making it easier to share ideas, collaborate, and learn from others, regardless of location. From professional networks to online study groups, these platforms allow vario...

Mar 3, 2025 - 18:14

How to Build a Social Learning Platform using Next.js, Stream, and Supabase

Social media and real-time communication have transformed how people interact, making it easier to share ideas, collaborate, and learn from others, regardless of location. From professional networks to online study groups, these platforms allow various forms of communication such as instant messaging, video calls, and content sharing.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a social learning platform that connects students with professionals across various fields. The platform enables users to:

Schedule video conferencing sessions that students can join,
Share posts or announcements about trending tools and upcoming sessions, and
Create community channels where students can engage with one another.

The Stream Video & Audio SDK and Stream Chat SDK will enable us to integrate video calls and community channels easily into the application.

Cartoon person with pink hair and green glasses holding a smartphone, which displays heart, poop, and smiley face emojis on the screen.

App Overview

The application consists of two types of users (students and instructors), each with access to specific features:

Students can do the following:

View an activity feed with posts from instructors and react to them.
Follow instructors in their field of interest.
Join upcoming video sessions and community channels.
Each student has an interest attribute that helps match them with relevant instructors.

Instructors can also:

Access a dashboard showing their follower count and post activity.
Schedule video conferences for students to join.
Make announcements or share posts.
Create community channels (if they haven't already).
The platform suggests instructors to students based on shared career interests.

Here is an image showing the various functions that the users can perform:

Flowchart titled "User Functions" showing a hierarchy. "Users" split into "Students" and "Instructors". Students can "Follow Instructors", "Join Video Sessions", "Join Community Channels", and "Read and React to Posts". Instructors can "View Dashboard", "Create Posts", "Schedule Video Sessions", and "Create Community Channels".

Prerequisites

To fully understand this tutorial, you need to have a basic understanding of React or Next.js.

We will use the following tools:

Supabase: a Backend-as-a-service platform that makes it easy to integrate authentication, database, real-time communication, file storage, and edge functions within your software applications. It also supports multiple programming languages.
Stream Chat and Audio & Video SDK: a real-time communication platform that enables you to add video, chat, and various types of communication to your application.
Shadcn UI: a UI component library that provides customizable, beautifully designed, and accessible UI components for your applications.

Create a Next.js project by running the following code snippet:

npx create-next-app stream-lms

Install the package dependencies for the project:

npm install @supabase/supabase-js @supabase/ssr @stream-io/node-sdk @stream-io/video-react-sdk stream-chat stream-chat-react @emoji-mart/data @emoji-mart/react

To install the Shadcn UI library, follow the installation guide.

Once everything is set up, your Next.js project is ready. Now, let's start building!