Apply Once: A Decoupled Drupal 9 Education Portal

Apply Once is a global education portal dedicated to simplifying the journey from course discovery to application and career success. Apply Once serves a wide audience, including students, agents, universities, and employers, with a mission to provide equal access to international education opportunities through technology and personalization. With a mission to make dreams come true through accessible and affordable global education. By enabling students to submit one application to multiple universities, including Ivy League and niche institutions, Apply Once streamlines the process.

Apply Once required a solution that could:

• Simplify multi-institution applications through a unified interface.
• Personalize course discovery for diverse user profiles.
• Handle multilingual content and ensure consistency in localization.
• Deliver secure user access across different roles and geographies.
• Reduce bounce rates from complex workflows and non-intuitive UX.
• Support scalable content governance across global users.

If your website is also struggling with personalization, localization, or secure role-based access, discover how OpenSense Labs can transform your digital experience.

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Here’s how we helped Apply Once overcome these exact challenges!

OpenSense Labs proposed a Decoupled Drupal 9 backend with a React frontend, optimized for performance, personalization, and future-ready scalability. After evaluating traditional monolithic setups, the team opted for this decoupled architecture to maximize flexibility while maintaining centralized control over workflows and content. Custom APIs bridge content and interactions between the systems, offering a smooth, dynamic experience for users.

We built our approach around:

1. Objective Realignment: Making course discovery and application intuitive.
2. Perception Uplift: A modern UI to increase credibility and trust.
3. Enhanced User Journey: Reducing friction through multi-step guidance.
4. Content Hierarchy: Structuring information for clarity and ease of action.
5. Localization: Enabling global access via a robust translation workflow.

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Design

• React-powered UI for dynamic, responsive user experiences.
• Role-based interfaces tailored for students, agents, and administrators.
• User journeys are designed to improve clarity, accessibility, and engagement.

Development

1. Backend: Drupal 9 for structured content, workflows, and localization.
2. Frontend: React handles all user-facing interactions with real-time data sync.
3. Search: Elasticsearch matches student profiles with relevant courses based on proximity, eligibility, and performance scoring.
4. Security: Integrated social login (Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft) and 2FA via OTP to both mobile and email.
5. Application Workflow: Drupal Webform integration through APIs for multi-step forms, application tracking, and real-time feedback.
6. Translation Management: Drupal-based workflow exports JSON files for static React translations.

Apply Once brings together modern tech and empathetic UX design:

1. Student-Centric Workflows: Easy profile creation, course wishlist, and application tracking.
2. Powerful Search with Elasticsearch: Personalized, fast, and accurate course recommendations.
3. Secure & Inclusive Access: Federated login, multilingual support, and agent collaboration.
4. Streamlined Content Operations: Centralized governance with scalable translation and editorial workflows.
5. Built for Growth: A decoupled foundation that supports future evolution without backend disruption.

Our intervention delivered measurable outcomes:

• Boosted conversion rates with user-guided, multi-step UX design.
• Faster and smarter search through Elasticsearch personalization.
• Higher engagement via secure access, 2FA, and social logins.
• Improved global accessibility with a multilingual interface and structured translations.
• Simplified management for content and localization workflows.

Looking to build a next-gen education platform or explore Drupal + React architecture for your domain? Let’s transform your vision into a scalable, high-performing solution.