Gamified Business Education Inside Zoom for Zach
The Problem
Most online classes on Zoom remain passive. Students attend meetings, but engagement, participation, and measurable learning outcomes are limited. Instructors have no way to run interactive exercises, track progress, or gamify learning without forcing students to leave the meeting and open separate tools.
Zach needed a solution that could live inside Zoom meetings, keep students engaged during sessions, allow instructors to manage classes without leaving Zoom, and go far beyond video and chat.
The platform had to run entirely inside the Zoom sidebar — no external tabs, no context switching. Every interaction needed to feel native to the meeting experience.
Context
Zoom dominates live online education, but its built-in tools stop at screen sharing and chat. Existing edtech platforms require students to juggle multiple windows, breaking focus and reducing participation. Zach envisioned turning Zoom itself into an interactive classroom where gamified business scenarios play out in real time alongside the lecture.
The technical challenge was significant: the Zoom Meeting SDK imposes strict constraints on sidebar apps, and every interaction had to sync instantly across all participants without disrupting the video session.
Approach
Zoom Sidebar Experience
Using the Zoom Meeting SDK, we developed a dedicated sidebar experience that runs alongside live meetings. From within the Zoom session, participants can view class status and their role (teacher or student), allocate skills and track progress in real time, participate in competitive business scenarios, and receive live updates — all without switching tabs or apps.
Real-Time State Sync
All in-meeting actions are synchronized instantly across participants using WebSocket infrastructure. Live skill allocation updates, market-share changes, and teacher-triggered events propagate in real time with secure role-based access. The result is a shared, dynamic learning state that evolves during the class.
Synchronizing game state across dozens of participants inside a constrained Zoom sidebar environment required careful optimization of WebSocket payloads and reconnection handling to prevent desync during network fluctuations.
Class Management & Gamification
We built a full class management dashboard where instructors create sessions, assign scenarios, and monitor student performance — all from within Zoom. The gamification layer includes skill trees, XP tracking, and competitive market-share mechanics that turn passive lectures into active learning.
Architecture
The tech stack was chosen for real-time interaction, Zoom integration, and scalability:
- Zoom Integration: Zoom Meeting SDK with a custom sidebar app embedded inside live meetings
- Frontend: React + TypeScript (Vite), optimized for embedded Zoom environments
- Backend: NestJS (Node.js) with REST + WebSocket architecture
- Database & Auth: Supabase + Prisma for secure session handling and data persistence
- Real-Time Layer: Socket.io for instant in-meeting synchronization
Results
The platform launched as a fully functional Zoom-embedded learning environment. Interactive features run live inside Zoom meetings, students stay engaged throughout sessions, and teachers manage everything without leaving the call. The MVP was delivered production-ready with an extensible architecture built to support new scenario types and scaling to larger classes.
"10/10. The team delivered exactly what was promised, on time and with great attention to detail. Communication was smooth and they handled feedback very well. Highly recommended." — Zach, Founder
Next Steps
Zach is expanding the platform to support additional scenario types beyond business simulations, including finance and strategy modules. The team is also exploring analytics dashboards for instructors to track long-term student progress across multiple sessions and cohorts.