How to make an educational app

Nowadays, everybody has a smartphone, even the smallest of kids. Mostly they use it to play games, but also to communicate with friends, get fresh news, and to learn. That’s right people use their phones to study. You can find numerous educational apps, kids learning apps, teaching apps of any size and color on the App Store or Play Market, but there is always room for improvement and new ideas. In this article, we will cover main types, features, benefits of the educational app, as a concept. And tell you how to make an educational app. Also, we will provide a list of best and the most popular educational apps.

So, here are the types of educational apps:

• Courseware – as you may guess from the name, this is an app that goes alongside some course, usually, it is inseparable from the course
• Classroom aids – software that is designed to be used in the school classrooms, usually has the possibility to be projected on the whiteboard
• Assessment software – apps that assess and test the students, then computes the answers and show the score to the user
• Reference software – apps that belong in this category are all of the dictionaries encyclopedias and so on
• Specific educational purposes software – apps for highly specific niche markets, such as driving test, typing tutors, medical and healthcare educational software.

 

Educational app features

The features list of the educational apps can go on forever because of the wide range of situations where these apps are applied. Depending on the type of app several features can be included by default and some cannot be added at all. Today, the new trend of how to make and educational app topics is using the AR or VR technology to enrich the experience. So, here are the main features of educational apps, but don’t forget that you always can create something new and innovative:

• Integration with social networks
• Planning and scheduling
• Videos and live streams
• Surveys and tests
• Leaderboards
• Multilanguage
• Cloud integration
• Progress tracking and achievements

Benefits

• Integration with social networks

This feature is common in almost all apps, not only educational or learning apps. With it, you can register and sign in into the app with just a few taps. This is a huge timesaver because you don’t have to manually input your name and other personal info.

• Planning and scheduling

Education has always been a structured process. With plans, goals and final terms. So it will be very useful for students and teachers that struggle to keep up.

• Videos and live streams

Most of the time video content is easier to digest and understand, so this is no coincidence that videos in educational apps are popular and why this feature is mentioned in almost any how to make an educational app topic. This feature allows you to create and watch videos and live streams of lessons. Or upload them or stream, if you are on the other side of educational software. Don’t forget that students can rewind and rewatch videos numerous times if they need to.

• Surveys and tests

This feature will be useful for the teachers and the students. First of all, the teacher can see how well does the information sink in and students can test themselves. Also, you can use it as a survey platform.

• Leaderboards

Rivalship is a great thing. We assure you, that you will be surprised to see how hard students can work if they are motivated. And concurrency is a great motivator. Any educational app will benefit from the leaderboards.

• Progress tracking

This is an another feature that is made to motivate students. The ability to see how much have you already learned is a huge boost in self-esteem. Also, when you get some kind of achievement (badge, level, etc.) you gain a sense of accomplishment that motivates to continue, not to mention the ability to brag about your achievements in front of friends.

• Multilanguage

When you learn about how to make an educational app this will be another common feature among the apps. But, you should not underestimate it. The ability to provide learning material in different languages is a great advantage of any educational app. This way a lot more people will be able to use your app and learn.

• Cloud integration

This is a very handy tool to have when you are working in a team. Thanks to the Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Office online or any other cloud services you and your study buddies can work in the same file. Also, it is very handy for the teacher, he can collect all of the homework in one place.

Popular educational apps

Before figuring out how to make an educational app you want to create take a look on the best mobile educational apps of 2017. This way you can study the market and figure out what can be done better or ensure that your new idea wasn’t implemented in some app already. This is a list, not a rating, the first app is not better than the last. So, here’s a list of the most interesting educational and learning apps for iOS and Android.

Photomath. This app is designed for the high-school students who struggle with math. This app can instantly solve almost any math equation and calculate the “x”. The cool thing is that you don’t have to write down the math problem, simply photo it and the app will do the rest. This is one of the hardest apps to develop that is mentioned in this how to make an educational app article.

edX brings the most distinguished institutions such as McGill and MIT to your smartphones. That’s right you can get higher education from your phone. The features that are present in this app are online lectures, tests, quizzes, personal schedule etc.. You can even earn a certificate if you study hard enough. However, some of the courses and certificates cost extra.

Periodic table. This learning software was designed by the Royal Society of Chemistry. But this is no boring periodic table that you can find in every chemistry classroom. This one is much more. This educational app is an interactive periodic table featuring everything from different levels of data to satisfy needs of any user and podcasts to videos to help you learn about each and every element.

StudyBlue. StudyBlue is on a mission to make the process of learning as easy as it can be. With the use of a plethora of study guides, flashcards, quizzes. Furthermore, students rate those flashcard decks and tests, this way they can access the most popular ones in just a few taps. When you have finished a quiz, you can accept the result and try to beat your high score.

Udemy is a video lecture-based educational app. It includes courses on Adobe apps, Microsoft apps, cooking etc. It even includes lectures on social skills such as public speaking. A lot of courses are free to watch, but the more complex ones must be purchased.

Coursera is one of the most popular and well recognized educational apps. Take a good look on it when figuring out how to make an educational app. This app is popular because of it useful for anyone from kindergartens to established professionals. There are over 1,000  different courses of different categories. The courses include lectures, tests, assignments, videos and so on. The cool feature is that when you finish a course you will receive a certificate.