In today’s digital world, technology has ingrained itself in many aspects of our lives. It has a changed the way we communicate through multimedia, shop online, get healthcare and in automation of manufacturing, to name a few. And technology has made its way into Education too, rapidly influencing how instructors teach across students of all ages. For example, smartboards in classes, e-books, digital educative material etc. are in use in classrooms today. Scenarios such as the current pandemic has accelerated use of technology facilitating education online through digital classrooms.

Mobile apps have a major role to play in most of these requirements including education. An educational app is a software developed by app development companies that supports virtual teaching and learning enabling online remote learning across all levels of education from Nursery through schooling and higher education.

Educational apps enable such a learning by audio-visual communication through virtual classrooms, digital material and effectively scheduling of classes and assessment. In the current pandemic scenario, online remote learning from home has become an important requirement that can be aided by educational apps. Educational apps enable means of effective communication not only during classroom sessions, but offline too as a one-on-one communication between teacher-student or with parents. This helps in timely assessment of a child’s progress in academics. Apps can present concepts and subjects in a visually effective manner descriptively, animation or with entertainment making the learning process engaging. This can be tailored to enable learning across age groups be for school children or for higher education in colleges.

Let us look at some top educational app ideas for 2021 that can impart students with an enriched and meaningful learning experience.

Aiding the Differently Abled

Education is a basic right. Students who are Differently abled face several challenges in education. The challenge could be physical that impacts mobility to educational institutions, or cognitive that impacts timely and comprehensive learning. For the physically challenged, an educational app that enables remote joining into a classroom through virtual session from their comfort zones would boost their confidence and make it painless to learn. For students with cognitive challenges, a customized app that enables access to specialist educators, and enabling tailored sessions through interactive video sessions with necessary privacy would boost their confidence and make it a smoother learning experience.

Engaging Early-school Learners

In the current century, children are exposed to digital media from their early ages. To mitigate excessive exposure to digital distractions, there are educational apps that enable videos based on age selection. These apps can be enhanced to enable -schoolers pre-school curriculum that progressively builds a child’s skills from essentials such as letters and numbers followed by word learning etc. The app can examine interactive sessions, storytelling and reward points which will engage and motivate the child in learning.

Learning Language, Grammar and Vocabulary

There are educational apps such as dictionary apps that give word meanings through digital dictionaries and pronunciations. A grammar app can take a step much further. It can enable word search and pronunciation, sentence formation with tenses, grammar assessment questions with answers, with various difficulty levels. Such an app would help a student in learning the word meanings, understand the context of its use in sentences and the grammatical aspects aiding in rapid learning of a language. It can have options for multiple languages too.

Learning using Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment that combines a view of the real world with computer-generated elements that can be through visual or audio means. Such an app is very effective when teachers require to present lessons or demonstrate experiments that require a 3-dimensional and natural perspective. Such an app will help students engage with keen interest and effectively learn on aspects that are difficult to present or perceive such as solar system or human physiology.

Aiding Preparation for Competitive Examination

Students face one their biggest academic challenges when they appear for competitive examinations. The learning requirements of different competitive exams are unique depending on the subject matter, that could be Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Commerce or Social Sciences. Further, students may have difficulties in specific portions of the subject. An app that can enable students to choose their choice of examination, subjects that can be customized to the choice of syllabi and progressive difficulty level with assessment and feedback, can prove to be of significant aid to students.

Educational apps boost kids’ learning experience by giving them more creative freedom. They improve engagement and interactivity between parents and kids. Moreover, they help win over several learning challenges that a few children face. There are some cautionary aspects to consider too while developing an educational app. First is security that ensures prevention measures against hacking by intruders with malicious intent, and social interactions that can intrude into the privacy of the students. Second is on guidelines to the students on the diligent and careful usage of the apps on the devices without adverse impact on their health. The scope for ideas in educational apps is plenty. So, engage in developing an educational app that is meaningful and can achieve the key goals that a student requires.