Educational App Development: 15 Must-Have Features for Smart and Systematic Learning

Globalization has greatly influenced the education sector. Many educational organizations worldwide are now starting to transition from the traditional learning approach to the modern learning method. However, some colleges, secondary schools, universities, language learning schools, primary schools, tutoring institutions, vocational or technical schools, and academies still refuse to join the bandwagon.

While many educational institutions have already realized the importance of having a mobile e-learning app, others refrain from embracing the idea due to different reasons. Lack of resources, the complexity of developing and maintaining mobile applications, and cost are just a few factors that are stopping some educational institutions from building their own app. These factors, however, should not hinder you from developing an educational mobile app.

At the end of the article, we hope you will find valuable insights about all these things and, at the same time, get inspired to start a new educational mobile app development project.

Why Should You Build a Mobile e-Learning App for Your Educational Business?

Technology-enabled solutions have undeniably helped advance all industries, including education. And this is made evident with the advent of a wide range of educational systems, learning tools, and e-learning applications that allow learners to continue their education despite the widespread lockdowns. But why should you consider developing a mobile e-learning app like Khan Academy App, Duolingo, and DragonBox education businesses? Well, check out these interesting facts.

• According to the study conducted by Global Market Insights, the E-learning market crossed $315 billion last 2021. This number is estimated to grow in the coming years exponentially. The market is forecasted to grow at a 20% CAGR between 2022 and 2028.
  

• Statista report revealed that the global e-learning market will hit approximately $400 billion by 2026.
• In 2021, the United States e-learning market size reached $59.52 billion, and it is expected to climb to $120.67 billion by the end of 2027.
• Between 2020 and 2024, Business Wire expects the corporate e-learning market to increase by $38.09 billion.

These statistics show how promising the future educational mobile app industry is. Now that you have seen that the education sector is going to boom in the next few years, let us proceed to our next topic – knowing and understanding the primary features of an educational app.

Primary Features for an Educational Mobile App

The primary features of an educational mobile app ensure that the app operates according to its purpose. These features also guarantee that the app satisfies the primary needs of users- the students and teachers. Below are the primary features of an educational mobile app.

Primary Features for Teachers

• Log-in and account set-up: The log-in feature will enable teachers to log into the e-learning app’s system and start using the platform. The account set-up feature allows teachers to create their profiles and verify their identity via mobile phone or email.
• Profile dashboard: This feature will enable teachers to input and display their professional information in the app. The profile feature should allow them to add their job-related details, including their name, educational background, area of expertise, job title, courses or subjects offered, certifications, and other relevant information.
• Student management dashboard: The student management dashboard feature will allow teachers to efficiently manage and keep track of their student’s information and activities. Having this dashboard makes it easier and quicker for teachers to view each of their students’ projects, requirements, task performances, exams, and attendance. The student management dashboard is also more like a traditional paper-based class record where teachers write their students’ remarks and grading information.
• Course management section: This section allows teachers to manage and organize all the courses and classes they are currently handling. The course management section should also include a feature that will enable teachers to upload learning materials such as images, PDF documents, and videos related to the course.

Primary Features for Students

• Log-in and account set-up: The log-in feature should allow students to log into the app’s system using different methods: via username, email, mobile phone number, or social media. The account set-up feature is similar to that of the teachers’. Students can create a student account, verify their identity, and start using the app through the account set-up feature.
• Student dashboard: Apart from the students’ profile information such as name, gender, age, location, and courses or subjects, the student dashboard should also allow them to view all the information relevant to the class, course, or subject they are currently taking. This information may include linked teachers, schedule of exams, class schedule, list of projects or tasks, and the student’s progress.
• Search feature: The search feature allows students to search for courses, teachers, and programs available within the system.
• Payment: The payment feature provides students with a faster, safer, and more convenient way to pay for their courses. You can integrate different payment platforms to offer more flexibility.

Fantastic Features for an Advanced Educational Mobile App

Aside from the basic features that mobile educational applications need to have, you can also choose to add more advanced features to make your app more sophisticated. Custom e-commerce solutions can further tailor your app to meet specific needs and offer a unique user experience. Let us look at the fantastic features that the most popular and advanced educational mobile apps today have.

Live Streaming

Active interaction between learners and teachers is critical to effective learning. Sadly, most educational mobile applications you can find today lack features that cultivate interaction. If you want your mobile e-learning app to stand out among the pool of options available on the market, consider integrating features that would help improve the interaction between learners and teachers. One of these advanced features is live streaming. Live streaming features help make learning more efficient and effective by allowing students and teachers real-time interaction.

File-sharing

The file-sharing feature makes it possible for teachers and students alike to share files such as videos, images, documents, and other multimedia content with each other. Users no longer need to send the files through another platform like email or social media as they can conveniently do this within the application. This makes downloading, uploading, and accessing the document easier and faster.

Exams and Practical Tests

Regardless of whether your educational institution follows the modern or traditional learning methodology, you will need to give learners practical tests and exams. Giving students exams and practical tests is an integral part of learning. Likewise, it is one of the effective ways to evaluate how much understanding the students have gained so far. You need to add a specific space in your app for exams and practical tests to make finding them easier for students and teachers. You may also add an option for mock exams, which students can use to practice and study before getting an actual practical test or exam.

Hand Signal System

The non-verbal feedback feature or hand signal system allows students to communicate with their teacher during live sessions without disturbing the discussion. For instance, if a student has questions or concerns that need to be addressed, he or she can just click the “raise hand signal.” Moreover, if the teacher asks if everyone has understood the lesson, the students can simply click the “approve hand signal” to signify positive feedback.

In-session Chat

One of the most remarkable features of leading mobile educational apps is the in-session chat. The in-session chat feature allows students to raise questions regarding the lesson, receive answers from their teacher in real-time, participate in live discussions, and interact with their classmates. Like live streaming, this feature also helps cultivate interaction, encourage active participation, and better understand the lessons presented.

Chat Feature

The learning app should allow students and teachers to connect and collaborate anytime. Unlike the in-session chat, where students and teachers can interact during live sessions, the basic chat feature will enable users to communicate outside class hours. Group chat is also an excellent addition to this feature. This feature will allow teachers to monitor their students’ progress quickly, share relevant information, and make important announcements.

Session Recording

The session recording feature allows both the teachers and students to record live session discussions and review them later. Integrating this feature into your educational mobile app will help maximize student engagement. It eliminates the need for students to manually take down notes during live sessions, affecting their focus. By allowing students to record the live sessions, they can concentrate more on listening to the discussion. The recordings are also a great material students can use when reviewing their lessons and preparing for assessments and exams.

Offline Schooling

One great addition to an advanced e-learning mobile app’s features is the offline schooling feature. With this feature, the students can download the recorded lessons or modules and study them anytime offline. This feature allows students to still get access to their lessons even if they cannot attend the live sessions and even without an internet connection.

Breakout Rooms

This feature allows the teacher to divide the class into smaller groups and hold the groups in separate sessions. The breakout room is particularly beneficial when assigning group assignments and monitoring each group’s assigned tasks.

Screen Sharing

Adding the screen sharing feature to your educational mobile app will attract users looking for effective and efficient ways to share their screens. The screen sharing feature allows the teachers to share their screens with the class or their students. Being able to see the teacher’s screen makes it more effective for the teachers to deliver their lessons and easier for the students to understand what the teacher is trying to say. It also helps enhance teacher-student engagement and, at the same time, ensures that everyone is on the same page. Moreover, the screen sharing feature is also beneficial during class presentations. Students can easily share their screens with everyone or selected viewers when they need to do class presentations.

Customization

Each student is unique, especially in terms of learning abilities, intelligence, study habits, and needs. A great educational app allows students to customize the app based on their personal preferences and needs. With customization features, students can personalize their learning experience based on what works best for them.

Polls

Another fun way to improve student engagement is by adding poll features. This feature allows teachers to publish live polls or questions. The students can then answer the questions and see the result instantly.

Social Media Integration

Integrating social media makes it more convenient for students to share their progress with their family and friends on various social media platforms. It also provides users with easy log-in access and account creation options.

Push Notifications

The push notification feature provides users with instant notification regarding any updates on the courses or classes. With this feature, teachers will be notified of any upcoming courses, every time a student submits reports or activities if there are new students who would like to join the course, and more. The students will also receive a notification whenever there are updates on their courses, class schedules, etc. It’s a great way to ensure that everyone is informed of the latest updates at every stage.

Gamification

Nowadays, new-era learners prefer playing games more than studying. Moreover, some students learn faster through playing games or participating in fun experiments. To capture the attention of these types of learners, you will need to make your educational mobile app as interactive, engaging, fun, and exciting as it can be. One best ways of doing so is through gamification. Gamification is about providing students with learning options in a gaming format. This feature allows students to enjoy and learn at the same time.

There you go, the primary and advanced features you need to consider in building an awesome mobile e-learning app. Now let’s jump into the next important thing you need to know when creating an educational app- the technologies required for learning application development.

What Technologies Are Required for Learning App Development?

Selecting the right tools and technology is critical to the success of your educational app. The tools and technology will affect the educational app development process, cost, maintainability, quality, and scalability of the application.

To help you decide which tools and technology to use for your next educational mobile app development project, we have narrowed down below the best technology stacks and development approaches for building e-learning apps.

• Native app development
• iOS-based learning app
• Android-based learning app
• Web app development
• Hybrid app development
• Backend development

Below is a summary of the technology stack required for each education app development approach.

Native app development is used when you intend to build an educational app for one platform- it can be an iOS-based learning app or an Android-based learning app. Native app development is also used to design an app that runs on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Web application development is ideal for developing web-based educational applications. The web-based e-learning apps run similarly to the mobile e-learning apps. Mobile apps need to be downloaded on an iOS or Android mobile device. But unlike mobile apps, web-based apps are accessible over a network or the web and do not need to be downloaded.

Hybrid app development is a perfect choice if you are looking into developing an educational app that offers both web and native solutions. This programming approach combines the strengths of HTML5 and native programming app development.

Backend development is for creating codes that enable an application and a database to communicate with each other. This development approach involves server-side functions, security, and data storage.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop an Educational Mobile App?

• The cost of developing an educational mobile app is quite flexible, and it depends on different factors, including but not limited to:
• The complexity of the app
• Type of app
• Location
• Development time
• Features to be included
• Required technology stack
• The size of the development team
• The expertise of the developers

The cost of learning app development, which often relies on a per-hour basis, depends on whether the developer offers services per project or hourly. For a rough estimate of your education mobile app project, including basic features, consider the time required. Mobile consults can provide valuable insights into optimizing costs and enhancing project efficiency.

Total: 1353 hours

We also compiled the average minimum and maximum hourly rates offered by mobile app development companies from the top three countries that provide IT solutions. These figures are based on the average cost as stated in Clutch.

Please note that these time estimates are based only on the average time our development team spent in completing our previous educational mobile app development projects. These tables do not reflect the actual cost of your project. If you want to know how much your next educational app project will cost, you may share your ideas with us and our expert developers will then provide you with a rough estimate based on your requirements. Our educational mobile app development service starts at $18 per hour. You can also hire our expert mobile app developers full-time and part-time. Full-time mobile app developers’ rate starts from $2800 per month. Part-time mobile app developers’ rate starts from $2000 per month.

Most Successful Educational Apps in the United States

The market is packed with a significant number of mobile educational applications. Of the many available options, we have picked out the top three educational mobile apps in the United States in 2022.

Khan Academy App

The Khan Academy App is a world-class, free educational app run and owned by Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organization. This educational app helps students from the U.S. and other parts of the world who want to study for free at their own pace.

The Khan Academy App is the top choice for educators, parents, visual learners, and students from different levels because of the wide range of courses it offers. The app offers courses in finance, economics, art, chemistry, computer programming, math, biology, history, medicine, and more.

Khan Academy App uses videos, images, and illustrations that are engaging enough to capture users’ interest in presenting the courses. On top of that, the app also features quizzes and practical exercises, which help test the comprehension skills of the learners.

Duolingo

Duolingo is the best educational mobile app for learning new languages. This game-based app offers an easy, fun, and interactive way to learn several languages, including English, Hindi, Russian, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, French, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and more.

Duolingo caters to learners of all ages. This creative language-learning tool is entirely free and available for iOS and Android users. They feature instructional activities that help improve grammar, vocabulary, listening, and reading comprehension skills.

DragonBox

When it comes to mathematics, nothing can beat the popularity of DragonBox. This free educational mobile app specializes in mathematics. DragonBox offers four different applications- DragonBox Numbers, DragonBox Algebra 5+, DragonBox Big Numbers, and DragonBox Algebra 12+.

The DragonBox Numbers and DragonBox Algebra 5+ are designed for learners ages four to eight. DragonBox Numbers helps young learners to know about addition and subtraction. DragonBox Big Numbers is ideal for learners six to nine years old who want to learn how to solve more complex math problems. The DragonBox Algebra 12+ covers topics related to algebraic equations. It is considered the most advanced among the four DragonBox learning apps.

Endnote

Today, developing a mobile educational application is no longer just a luxury but a necessity. But to captivate your target users’ interest, it is not enough to just build an app similar to what’s popular nowadays. Your educational mobile app must stand out among the rest, and the best way to do this is to design it based on the specific needs of your target users.

We hope you have learned so much from the topic discussed above. We also hope that the facts about mobile educational apps and the top three most successful apps we mentioned above give you enough inspiration to build your application for the educational business. Apart from picking the best features and the right technology stack, finding the best educational mobile app development company is also critical to the success of your project.

APPWRK IT Solutions is here to help you bring your e-learning app concept to reality. We have been helping brands from around the world in building impressive mobile applications from scratch. Not only that, but our elite team of developers can also help customize and update existing apps. Whether you want to add more features to advance your e-learning application or you want to eliminate less attractive ones, we can help unlock the full potential of your educational mobile app. And best of all, we offer high-quality services at a remarkably affordable price.

Do you already have ideas in your mind? Get in touch with us today, and let us start building an impressive and successful educational mobile app.