Today it is possible to study anytime and anywhere with just a smartphone or something like Google Classroom. The education industry is currently being driven by constant innovation and increasing players and investments such as Alphabet, Dell, and Samsung.
Duolingo built a $700 million+ business with its top-rated language-learning app. The education apps market is expected to grow by $ 70.55 billion globally during 2021-2025, according to Technavio.
The growing demand for STEM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) apps is a major educational trend. The increasing focus on wearable technology, game-based learning or gamification, projects related to coding and digital education, and language learning apps.
Education is the second most popular category in the Apple App Store and number 1 in Google Play, according to Statista (if we don’t consider the category of “Games”).
Trends in Mobile Learning
Many apps are based on game-changing edtech, but there is a lot of room to grow in this sector. So if you are a tech enthusiast or an individual or entrepreneur with a desire to improve the education system or offer personalized or innovative courses or tools, education apps can not only provide you a profitable market but also a great opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of many learners and children around the world.
Many apps for learning, such as Coursera, Udemy, Duolingo, and Google Classroom, have become much more popular, especially since the pandemic.
The higher education segment accounted for the largest market share in 2020.
During Q1 2020, 466 million educational apps were downloaded through Google Play, and the Apple App Store had 470 million educational app downloads, according to Statista. Both platforms had their respective highest reported educational app downloads till then.
The ability to integrate wearable devices with smartphones and the increasing preference for cloud data storage will drive the adoption of wearable technology in the education sector.
Improvising the learning processes has led to microlearning, allowing professionals to catch up on topics quickly.
A Mobile App Development Company that has built forward-thinking and cost-effective online teaching solutions incorporating the best industry practices can help you build education solutions with high returns on investment that are user-friendly on multiple devices.
Some key facts about the growing educational technology sector:
- U.S. ed-tech investments surged to $2.2 billion in 2020, up from $1.7 billion in 2019, according to EdSurge.
- And 7 of the 10 most significant investments in the USA in 2020 went to U.S. edtech companies selling their services directly to consumers. So investors are gravitating toward businesses that sell directly to consumers.
- According to HolonIQ, an education market research firm, ed-tech companies raised more than $16 billion globally in 2020.
Monetization
The top apps depend on subscription and advertising. Apps can be easily monetized through ads. Educational apps have the same options for monetization as other types of mobile apps:
- Subscription
- In-app Purchases
- Sponsorship / Referral programs
- Advertising
Process of Developing Customized Educational Apps
Reach out
Let the experts know your requirements. They will do a quick analysis and get back to you at the earliest.
Project Discussion
Discuss your idea with the experts- your goals, expectations, the prospective audience, doubts, and any problem bothering you. They will dive deeper to make things clear and simple for you.
Select an Engagement Model
The right experts will suggest the most suitable engagement model according to your requirements, budget, and delivery time, with information about future maintenance plans.
Project Initiation
Your project will be allocated to a talented team that will work on your technological requirements.
Delivering the Project
The right experts will ensure that the project progresses, matching or exceeding your expectations. Then, after the project is tested for bugs and quality, taste success in your project launch.
Support and Maintenance
The right experts will ensure that your apps are built to be ready for the future and always support you after the project launch, including maintenance, new value additions, modifications, etc.
Solutions for Learners
Learning solutions need to be diverse and specific to be highly successful while reaching the maximum number of users possible.
Following are the major types of learning apps being developed:
Apps for Children
Create personalized e-learning apps that will make children fall in love with learning.
The pandemic in 2020 forced the adoption of modern ways of learning despite the debate of decreasing the time children spend in front of the screen.
Applications that make learning engaging and entertaining changed the way concepts are introduced to kids. Today parents look for apps that take their children through an innovative process of learning various things they can relate to in their daily lives as they grow and have experienced.
Gamified Apps
These apps offer smart and unique ways of learning various concepts and help engage students in many activities to learn a particular topic. These apps are most popular among children going to school.
Reading on devices and smartphones can get monotonous. So gamified apps try to break the routine. Instead, they refresh by involving students in creating and applying the concepts they have studied through elements such as a narrative and characters, learning with increasing challenges, opportunities for mastery, and leveling up social connection.
Education Mobility Solutions
Break the barriers of place and time in spreading knowledge.
Today, advanced and professional courses are not limited to colleges or universities. Instead, many professionals, students, and learners prefer taking online or extra classes to strengthen their knowledge about a subject or an entire field.
Users can register for a course of their choice and personalize their accounts based on their needs. Well-designed courses that provide a good understanding in many exciting and practical ways motivate learners to learn more.
Apps for Learning Languages
With the world getting increasingly interconnected, people want to learn a new language to have new experiences and explore opportunities.
Language-learning applications offer a platform for language experts or tutors from different parts of the world to give tutoring lessons on a one-to-one or group basis and share their expertise in language on-demand.
Learners can look for tutors according to their needs, purpose, and expectations.
Apps for Exam Preparation
We develop applications for specific purposes that support different test formats, and practice tests are instantly evaluated. In addition, tutors can upload various types of question papers to familiarize students with their exams.
Learners from all walks of life, entrance exam aspirants, school students, and advanced studies use these kinds of apps.
Apps for Classrooms
These apps made a huge contribution during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
These apps assist students with their classes, supporting the curriculum, and enable students and teachers to connect easily. In addition, written content, images, and videos can be shared conveniently while the classes are on.
Teachers and students can upload and access the necessary material, assignments, and schedules in the app. The two-way flow of information results in an environment like a classroom.
Solutions for Teachers
The focus is mainly on the learners when education apps are developed. However, expert designers understand that dedicated apps are required for teaching and assessment too.
So these types of apps, including Library Management Solutions, for example, provide various tools to instructors and also enable easy management while: creating, storing, and accessing student learning aids; planning and scheduling; and testing and evaluation of the progress of students.
Essential Features To Include In A Good Education App
In-App Purchases
You can make your catalog for offering study materials, video tutorials, easy-to-understand podcasts, photos, e-books, books, etc., and enable customized subscriptions for students monthly or yearly.
Education
Effective utilization of students’ leisure hours with different educational tools. Ensure that learning never stops, and learning or training can be done on the go anywhere, anytime—Foster seamless connectivity with guides and teachers with the app being available in the offline mode also.
App Analytics and Reviews
There is always scope for improvement, no matter how great your app may be. You can find and focus on areas that require improvement and those doing well using app analytics. With app analytics, you can analyze features that are resulting in more downloads. Also, easily get feedback from students about the features of your app.
Individual assessments
You will be able to conduct individual as well as group assessments for your students.
Parental monitoring for children
To create a good and secure online learning environment for children, parents can be given access to monitor the online learning activities of their kids.
Online groups
You can encourage your learners to form online study groups to have engaging and mutually beneficial learning experiences through your app.
Social network
Students will be able to sign in using their Facebook or Instagram accounts. Let learners also share content on their favorite social media platforms.
Blog and News
You can add value-adding blogs or integrate blogs from third-party platforms for students. Allow students to gain as much knowledge as they can with your app. You can provide relevant news by creating a news feed or integrating a third-party platform into your app.
Multi-currency payments
Multi-currency payments will be supported within the educational mobile app for your international learning community.
Major Benefits of Developing a Learning App
Personalized, engaging, and insights-based teaching makes learning impactful, pertinent, and engaging, bringing learners closer to the organization.
A complete learning management solution: Easier, effective and efficient management of courses with highly engaging, customized, and easy to navigate through and can be delivered in different ways. Automated solution for repetitive and administrative tasks, resulting in a paper-free environment, saving time and costs.
Seamless connectivity: Break geographical boundaries and make high-quality education accessible to people even in remote locations.
Break the language barriers and help students learn in a language they are comfortable with. With education apps, you can start teaching quickly, without any hassle. In addition, you can continue e-learning services seamlessly even during periods like lockdowns, holidays, inclement weather, and calamities.
Student-performance Tracking and Analytics: Teachers and parents can conveniently monitor the progress of students. There are functionalities to offer certificates and rewards to good performers.
Free and paid courses: Teachers and administrators can create free and paid or premium courses personalized according to the needs and choices of different learners. Integrating a payment gateway into an education app makes fee payment and management of fee reminders effortless.
Instant Messaging: Learners and instructors can communicate with each other during online classes using live chat options.
Easy video uploads: Instructors can upload videos to simplify difficult topics and make learning interactive. Also, students can upload and share videos related to the coursework.
Announcements and Parent-Teacher Interactions: Post and update schedules, guidelines, events, and news in the manager dashboard to broadcast announcements and news to teachers, students, or parents, using just mobile education solutions.
Cost of Developing an E-learning Application
The cost of education and eLearning application development solutions depends on many factors such as the complexity of the idea, the size of the application, the features it includes, the platform and the technologies used to build it, the extent of customization needed, etc. Therefore, choosing the right technologies to invest in is crucial, and deciding on the best processes to follow for custom e-learning software development maximizes your potential. E-learning Solution experts can give a proper estimate to you after quickly understanding your goals and needs.
A talented team can ensure that you get powerful solutions while keeping the return on investment at the maximum.
A development team consisting of the following specialists is required to build educational apps for Android and iOS:
- Business Analyst
- Project Manager
- UI/UX designer
- iOS developer
- Android developer
- Flutter developer (if you go for Flutter development)
- Back-end developer
- Front-end developer
- Q.A. engineer
There are two main ways to develop an app: hire or have an in-house team or hire a team from an agency or an eLearning App Development Company.
Both options have their pros and cons.
Hiring dedicated developers come with benefits such as on-demand scalability, maximum cost savings, high ROI, and future-ready solutions with quick time-to-market. In addition, it enables companies to focus more on their core business and hire developers with specialized skill sets. Finally, it gives the flexibility to choose the kind of talent they need and manage it in a way that best suits their goals.
The practice of hiring new in-house talent one by one and making an in-house team is long and tiring, and expensive.
Research suggests that using the Dedicated Software Development Model can bring down project costs by around 60%.
Considering the following aspects will lead to a mutually beneficial collaboration:
- Good Portfolio: Make sure that the developer or digital agency you select has a track record of successful educational app development projects.
- A Complete Team: It would be a good idea to hire a team that has all the specialists you need or augments your in-house team with the required specialized skill sets.
- Quality and Pricing: It is often a good idea to hire the services of an app development company that has proven expertise in helping organizations worldwide grow and succeed with futuristic as well as cost-effective solutions.
Curious about the possibilities, or do you have any questions?
i-Verve is a leading mobile, web, and software development company. Our dedicated developers have helped create the most suitable, future-ready, on-time, secure, and cost-effective Education and eLearning Solutions with a high return on investment for individuals and organizations worldwide.
