Beacon: A Developer-Focused, Event-Driven Error Monitoring Platform for ASU Online

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of Beacon, a self-hosted error monitoring platform developed for ASU Online. Beacon addresses the challenges of observability in digital learning environments by providing comprehensive error tracking, real-time alerting, and customizable dashboards while ensuring data sovereignty, cost efficiency, and scalability. Built on an event-driven architecture using open standards, Beacon aims to improve issue resolution times, enhance student experience, and reduce operational costs compared to commercial alternatives. The system leverages OpenTelemetry for data collection, Kafka for event processing, and Elasticsearch for storage, demonstrating how these technologies can be integrated to create a robust observability solution tailored to educational technology needs.