Developing an Educational App: Major Elements and Trends
The variety of educational applications in Google Play and the App Store is mesmerizing, but the number of applications is not the only indicator of demand in the niche. The number of downloads of educational applications from Google Play reached 466 million in the first quarter of 2020 alone, and in the App Store – 470 million.
This figure was significantly influenced by the pandemic, but it also demonstrated that modern educational applications are ready for serious challenges, making up entirely is a promising area. Let’s break down the top crucial elements in developing a learning application today.
Design and Content
The modern world is overflowing with pieces of knowledge to grab. On top of an application’s informative content, an equally important aspect is how users perceive and consume this content. A lot depends on the employed teaching methods – both the overall success of your application and the effectiveness of student education. There are a few top parameters worth focusing on:
- High-quality student collaboration;
- Student engagement in the program;
- Active participation.
Quality collaboration is the most challenging aspect to implement in the conditions of distance learning. However, this part (verbal and non-verbal communication) is as essential in learning as knowledge itself. Online interactions can be achieved in part by the structural characteristics of the application.
It may seem that the level of engagement depends only on the teacher’s skill who created the curriculum. The application itself plays an equally important role here. Ease of use, for example, the absence of the need to log in to the service every time or the high speed of work, can significantly increase the student’s willingness to learn—less obvious elements: means to increase student’s motivation for learning and sense of control.
One way to motivate students can be by opening access to interesting exclusive content that students with due diligence get. The classroom engagement efficiency cannot be translated online that simple; it takes the best teachers to develop a quality curriculum. On top of all that, it’s always best to create a solution with offline access to certain features. Some innovative features mentioned below also come in handy. Also, avoid extra stuff that you don’t need to pay for.
Innovative Features
The modern understanding of education has changed dramatically. Many new tools have appeared at the disposal of a teacher, trainer, or coach that cannot be ignored:
Gamification
Making the learning process more interesting has become easier with the advent of the game components integration or “gamification”. Various interactive and competitive elements can be used in teaching all sorts of studying user audiences. A vivid real-life example is Duolingo – games have always been an important element of inspiration to its creators. Gamification has become a thing thanks to an equally important factor – augmented reality development.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Students can now visit the Louvre or study terrestrial organisms using AR. For instance, Google invites users to explore Mars or famous paintings close with Google Arts, a hard-to-find offline pleasure. This is just the beginning of development, judging by the expected growth of the market, the annual growth of which in the United States will reach 80% by 2031.
Developing an Educational App: Content streaming
Services like Spotify have long been used for educational purposes. Streaming services are relevant addition – 88% of university representatives said they believed that the Livestream video format helps students better stay in touch with the curriculum (the study was conducted before the pandemic).
App monetization
Monetization can seem like a major challenge to many entrepreneurs and app founders, but only if they don’t know about the top monetization methods. Today’s essential monetization models include:
- Subscription;
- Paid advertising;
- In-app purchases;
- Freemium (free basic features and paid full access.)
These methods can co-exist, but a freemium model is today’s top strategy for engaging an audience. It is usually combined with ad revenue, but it’s important to note that ads in educational apps must be highly relevant and free of obscene connotations.
Developing an Educational App: Bottom Line
Educational applications are at the peak of their relevance, which is caused by both the development of technology and the global social situation. With all the mentioned innovations implemented via solid expertise, we provide custom app development services that result in the best user engagement rates and high profits for you.
