According to the analysis of marketplaces, educational mobile apps are sky-rocketing on marketplaces nowadays. On Google Play Store, apps for education are on the top of downloads. On App Store, downloads of educational apps come second.
All in all, educational applications ranked in the top 3 of all downloads, and these numbers are simply huge! More people are getting interested in learning on the go and prefer mobile solutions. To be more specific, about 43% of US students use mobile apps for doing homework and 80% believe that they will improve their knowledge by using educational mobile apps. To know more about educational trends, read our recent blog article Trends In Education Happening Now.
As a consequence, the access to learning materials should be quick and easy, while the interfaces should be user-friendly, attractive, and UI adaptive.
In this article, you will read how to make a learning app, what team you will need, and how much it will cost you.
Categories of educational apps
Before kicking off the development of a mobile app, its important to understand which types of educational apps you need. They are divided into three categories:
for students
for teachers
learning materials.
Below you can read descriptions of each type.
Educational application for students
Students mobile education is always associated with games and fun, gamification, and interesting and convenient design. Mobile apps for students fall into the following subcategories:
Educational apps for kids
Development of an educational app for kids is a good choice. Children continuously use phones and tablets, they are eager to play, have fun and learn something new. That's why educational apps are in great demand. Apps help kids to learn, read, count, and also make their first steps in education interactive and enjoyable.
Educational apps for exams
Exams are always related to stress and being worried. However, the right app may help students to remember information better, track the progress, analyze strengths and weaknesses.
Language learning app
In the near future the hype of learning new languages will continue, as they are the only bridge in the fast-moving world. Language learning apps are a great help for users on vacation or while studying or preparing for an exam.
Apps for online courses
Apps for online courses are a great source of continuous and life-long education for a wide-target audience: millennials, remote workers, knowledge-hungry geeks, and professionals looking for a new piece of knowledge.
Learning apps for disabled people
Modern education systems are still not fully set up for students with disabilities: from dyslexia to autism. Here is the point where technology will be a great help. Apps may help disabled students to keep up with their peers and learn according to their needs and capabilities.
Educational applications for teachers
Educational apps help educators to manage the learning process, create courses, communicate with parents, and submit reports. Let's look at the different types of teachers' apps:
Test preparation apps
Teachers are in need to automate some educational processes and to focus more on students' education itself. That is why test prep apps are in demand - they help to be prepared for the test and save time on teachers' preparation.
Apps for tracking students progress
Apps allow teachers to track students' progress, do automatic grading and attendance reporting. This kind of app enables teachers to monitor students' academic growth and achievements.
Apps for storing materials
Storing learning materials is suitable for both categories - learners and tutors. With such apps, educators don't waste time hunting for a personalized inventory organizer.
Additional materials for learning
Interactive learning materials encourage deep learning. E-books allow users to read, observe and listen to the material. Workbooks & Worksheets apps are good for homework practice as they generate multiple choice answers.
Encyclopedias allow users to choose the topic they are struggling with and focus on it.
How to Build an Educational App: Features of educational apps
Let's sort out here how to develop an educational app and what features are a must for an MVP version of the product. Before starting the development phase it is essential to decide what functionality is required for your product. You need to draw up a list of requirements and features that are necessary for your mobile app. There are a few methods to do it:
1) to develop an MVP version with limited features and present it to the market;
2) to create a prototype and ask for feedback from investors and a targeted audience.
Basic Features For Student's App
The functionality can be traditional and advanced. An MVP product usually includes a limited number of features to get feedback from the audience and to touch the market, while advanced features are necessary when the product is on track and needs to attract a wide audience.
Sign Up/ Registration
At first glance, the login function is obvious to have. But the key point is to make it user-friendly. It's important to provide the user with opportunities to login via Google or social networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Google. Also, don't forget about the Forgot Password option. It will save your customers plenty of time and allow them to avoid manually filling up forms.
Menu
The menu consists of all information necessary for a user. It includes classes, courses, schedules, lists of tasks, or homework. All student's info should be organized in the Menu.
Progress tracking
It's important to track attendance and progress of the student. Thus students may track their knowledge evolution and manage it.
Push Notifications
They will notify all participants about upcoming lessons, home tasks, or new materials. Also, students will see the teachers feedback, which increases the user engagement level.
Offline learning
Offline learning enables students to access the lesson or material without an Internet connection. It boosts the learning process on the go, on vacations or in transport.
Basic features for teacher's app
Students management
For teachers, it is important to see all group members and students. This feature consists of student's info and details.
Push Notifications
Educators will be notified about the students test, homework done, progress or upcoming lesson.
Progress Tracking
Teachers need to see the knowledge evolution of their students. Thus they will be able to manage courses and the program effectively.
Comments
After checking a homework or a test, teachers need to write feedback and explain details.
How to create an educational app
Business Analyst - collects all necessary requirements, and draws up the documentation
Project Manager - manages all the mobile app development processes from A to Z
UX/UI Designer - creates a user-friendly design to attract your end-users
Back-end Developer - develops the server-side logic of the mobile application
Android Developer - develops a product for the Android operating system
iOS Developer - develops a product for Apple's iOS operating system
React Native Developer - delivers a cross-platform product for both platforms, iOS, and Android
QA engineer - tests the product in order to prevent any bugs and ensures the quality of the app.
Right Tech Stack
To develop a mobile application, the following programming languages are usually used: Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. There is also a cross-platform development option - Flutter/ React Native/ Cordova.
I've prepared a list of technologies we use for learning app development:
iOS app
Programming language: SWIFT / ReactNative / Flutter
Android app
Programming language: Kotlin / ReactNative / Flutter
Back-end development
Programming language: Node.js / PHP
Framework: NestJS / Express / API Platform / Symfony / Laravel
Database: MySQL / PostgreSQL
API: Swagger.
Tools
Signup: OAuth / SAML
Emails: Amazon SES, MailGun
Search: Elastic Search
Payment: Braintree, Stripe, Apple Pay / Google Pay
Push notifications: Firebase (FCM), One Signal
Storage: Amazon S3
Deployment: TeamCity / GitLab.
How much it costs to make an educational app
The main question is still How much does it cost to make an app?. Let me explain how to calculate the final price for development.
To understand how much the development of an educational mobile app will cost you, it's necessary to calculate the number of hours that developers will dedicate to your project. Below you can see the estimation table that represents the number of hours and type of development. I also added the React Native graph, so you can compare prices and development time. This estimate will be enough for MVP development:
Resources needed for MVP educational app for a student:
Resources needed for MVP educational app for a teacher:
After developing an MVP version of the project and touching the market, it is the right time to enhance your product with additional features. It will help you to stand out in the market and attract new customers.
The final price
To calculate the final price of the project it is important to consider all the points we discussed above. Below you can see the total number of hours that different types of developers will dedicate to your product:
To calculate the final price, we need to multiply the number of hours by the hourly rate. Keep in mind that the average price for development is about 35 $ per hour.
All in all, here is the average price for educational app development:
How we can help: PioGroup Expertise
We have a profound expertise in the development of educational solutions. Here is an example of an education app that we've recently developed - a mobile application for students' communities, Post-Ed. Post-Ed is a multi-platform community resource for students from Canada.
This mobile app helps students to become a part of the community they are interested in. They can create, manage and promote different events, private and public meetings, parties, sports events. They get general information about university and community updates. Also, students stay up to date with education opportunities, such as grants and scholarships.
Users can see all events in a calendar and search for an appropriate one using tags. All members receive notifications about their upcoming meetings. This application was developed for Android, iOS, and a web version.
Contact us if you're interested in developing the best education app or mobile solution. Drop us a message and we will set up a free tech consultation to turn your idea into a product.
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Anastasiia Dyshkant
Content Marketing Manager
