Education is not just the cornerstone but the entire foundation of any civilization and to become a great living race we need to educate our children the right way. The education system that we see at present is 100 years old and if we are conscious enough to update our mobile phones and televisions then we should be responsible enough to do the same for our kids’ education system.
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. -Benjamin Franklin
A blackboard and chalk are not enough to teach the complexities of technology we are living in, so we need to update and digitize our learning methods. All of us who are reading this blog understand the painstaking cramming that we had to do just to remember what the molecular formula of Calcium hydroxide is (for the ones who forgot, it’s Ca[OH]2). We can make learning fun and interactive for the generations yet to come by giving them what we lacked, technology.
There are some amazing developments being done to education system using technology and some of these solutions are available for common people like you and me. Many amazing educational mobile apps are Udacity, Duolingo, edX, Brainscape, etc. The good news is that educational mobile apps are the third largest downloaded category of apps.
In this blog, we will be talking about what features are needed to build proficient mobile apps in education. So, let us get on it without any more delay:
Table of Contents
1. Interactive Content
Children are moody and can easily lose focus or interest from anything let alone studies. So your top education app needs what most educational apps lack in them, “eye-catching” content. If you are aiming to build an app for kids below 12 years then you need to add cartoon characters as guides for the chapters and use vibrant colors that kids love. If your target audience is above 12 then your work may not be easy but definitely different from the previous section. Kids above 12 are very impatient and they need something that is “cool” and “happening”, so you need to keep the style of transitions and design of your educational mobile app accordingly.
You need to understand that kids that use most educational apps are very different in the way that they grasp any topic so you need the content in the simplest language so that every kid could understand what the topic is trying to convey. Also, you need to add some fun facts and interesting stats that keep their interest and yet set an impact on their mind that will help them remember the important data.
2. Easy Navigation
You need to understand that many of these kids who are using the app for the first time are doing it against their will just due to the request of their teachers or parents. So these kids are feeling hostile towards the educational mobile app and trying to find even a small sign of annoyance to stop using the app. This may seem a problem but as an entrepreneur, you need to turn this problem into an opportunity.
Keep the login/signup form very short, not more than 3 columns (name, class, and contact number). Also, keep the navigation simple, you are not teaching rocket science and even if you are teaching that, keep the complexities only to the topics, not to the UI (User Interface). The students should learn all the important features of your app in the first 5 minutes or even less.
3. Powerful Database
This point is a more technical one but still very important to consider. All the data related to most educational apps are stored on servers and so would be yours. So you need a very reliable database management system that works efficiently and delivers results to the queries quickly and accurately. Another thing to consider is that the content needs to be updated regularly with latest videos, facts, figures, and statistics.
4. Live Tutorials
Many of the existing educational mobile apps lack this important feature. Having a top education app is not enough; students do need a sentient presence of a tutor who can clear their doubts instantly. Hosting live tutorials will give the students a chance to have live interactions with the tutor and ask questions live and receive exact answers without depending on pre-set questionnaires.
5. Mock Test and Practical
Tests are an integral part of learning and your educational mobile app needs to implement it too. The app needs to have a dedicated section for tests and quizzes. Besides having chapter wise and topic wise mock tests, the app should have feature for students to upload their school tests and get answers for them.
6. Offline Mode
Many students do not have internet connection 24/7. Giving offline mode where the students can download a limited number of modules in one sitting can keep them interested towards the app and also provide the app’s benefit without the internet. Every module that they download will give you exact stats on how successful the app is and how kids are responding to every module, this information is vital for course updates and app modification.
7. Push Notification
Push notifications have become an integral part of almost every app. This feature invites the user’s interest towards the app with frequent messages. Giving basic information in percentage about the course completed, the number of tests finished, and interesting facts on current running modules are just some of the things you can do with push notification in an educational mobile app.
8. Gamification
Kids love to play games and what would be better for an educational mobile app if they can teach kids using games. There are many proven research that supports the fact that kids learn more if taught through games and fun experiments. Gamification of your app is important to attract more users and giving them a delightful experience.
9. Social Media Integration
Parents usually stop their kids from using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to improve their studies; but, what if these platforms can be a positive factor in encouraging them to study. This feature can become a win-win situation for the parents and the educational app company. Kids can get to use social media according to the score they get on the app’s mock test. This would motivate the students to study more to get a bigger reward (in this case more time accessing social media).
10. Personalized Experience
As a customer, each one of us likes the feeling when a store owner gives us a special treatment and discount on our favorite products. The kids (the users in this case) will also feel more comfortable with the app if it responds according to their study habits and methods to teach them the way they love the most and not some preset pattern. If a kid is weaker in Maths then the app should simplify the explanations for Maths concepts to the simplest form to let them understand easily.
Conclusion
Each kid is the future and the future deserves every chance to succeed. If you wish to be a part in building this future, you need to put a step in the revolutionary educational app development trend. For this, you will need to find an app development company that understands your noble cause and build you an app that is useful for the students and profitable to you.
