The Map Of Educational App Development In 2017
The system of education is changing immensely today and traditional education may well disappear pretty soon. The importance of independent studying as well as resources and new technologies to get it become more and more in demand. If you want to break a new ground in educational app development, direct your attention to the educational sphere.
Educational Apps: Where To Start?
If you have decided to become a part of the innovative educational system and create an outstanding educational app, you should give yourself answers to the following questions before the development process will start:
- Who is your target audience, what is its segmentation?
- What are the main trends and which technologies should be used to make your eLearning app peerless?
- How are your going to monetize your educational app?
These are not very simple questions, but this article will help you to resolve them.
eLearning Apps Markets And Target Audience
Popularity or different categories of educational apps varies greatly depending on geographical and cultural peculiarities. It will be definitely a kind of self-restriction to concentrate on the USA market only.
China
Chinese market deserves much attention. Education is valued in this culture a lot. Children start studying much earlier here, than in the USA or European countries and devote much more time to it. Although the English language is very much in demand in Chin,a and apps which can help with its studying will find their users in this country. Other kinds of educational apps which are loved here are those which can help master musical instruments and develop creativity.
Latin America
For Latin America audience, among educational apps, English language learning apps are number one. It’s up to you, whether you create a language learning app or another type of educational app. Anyway, this market worths your attention: According to Statista, there are 415.2 million mobile users in Latin America now. Isn’t this fascinating?
Scandinavian Countries
These countries are very famous for their outstanding, child-oriented educational system and it’s the most cybernated in the world. The personal approach is highly appreciated here and eLearning can improve this experience a lot.
Surely, other countries are worth your attention too. These 3 markets we wanted to stop on to draw your attention to the geographical aspect and demonstrate that localization is extremely important in this sphere of mobile app development.
Besides cultural and geographical aspects, you may divide the audience according to their age and professional status. Although, educational apps can be for those who study and for those, who teach. So, let’s see what are the trends according to the audience.
3 Main Trends In Educational App Development For Students And Children
The most important thing in teaching children is that they are happy when it’s bright and captivating. Great examples are apps by Toca Boca and Swift for studying programming for the youngest by Apple.
1. Gamification
It doesn’t mean that a child will just play another game. But we all, not just children, are much likely to do some tasks if they are similar to a game or a quest than to do some boring time-sapping tasks.
2. Microlearning
Children are not able to be concentrated for a long time, so break the activities into smaller parts so that a child can do them step by step. It also works for students, who have a lot to study and limited in time.
3. Implementation Of More Videos
Videos can put to work all our senses and this can guarantee a better result in studying. Make them short, but demonstrative and moderately emotional to stay longer in the users’ mind.
Making an app for children under 13, follow COPPA’s requirements, which regulate the usage of information received from younger users.
5 Main Trends And Technologies For Applications For Adult Learners
All the trends for children’s educational apps can be used in apps for the older audience. Grownups also love to be entertained and use such apps to save their time and get results in studying faster. Here are some more trends and technologies to supplement your educational products.
1. Cloud-Based Learning
This feature will be apparently useful both for students and teachers. It may be used for remote access to teaching and studying materials, to test your knowledge of the learned material, communicate with a teacher in a chat-room and many other features - let your imagination run free!
2. Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality
These technologies will assist your app to engage users thanks to it bright visibility and ability to connect many people in a three-dimensional environment. Here it’s vitally important to take care of the following things:
- Gesture and head position tracking.
- High-quality VR videos, at least 60 fps.
- Barrel Distortion (the effect which occurs when the light passes through the lens of VR glasses).
- Real stereo images to create a feeling of presence in a 3D world.
3. Brain Training Apps
Routine tasks make our brain slower and less flexible. So all kinds of apps which make us think, train our logic, imagination, and memory are really in demand among those, who wants their brain to be fit.
4. Language Learning Apps
These apps are probably number one among eLearning apps. They are extremely popular because they allow us to study on the run in an entertaining way and evolve all our senses. Here you may implement chatbots and speech-recognition to train speaking and listening skills. Look for the newest and the best methodologies to stand out among such popular apps as LinguaLeo, Duolingo, and others.
5. Apps For eLearning Platforms And Online Courses
Online education is changing the educational system greatly today. Many people have tried it at least once or use it on the regular basis to study something new. You surely know such famous platforms Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, and others. If you already have or going to make an educational platform, make an app for it as well. Also, your content and the courses should stand out to engage a wider audience. Good quality audios and videos are a must for such apps and platforms and you will surely need a team of professional developers (as for any educational good quality product though)
Educational App Monetization
You can find many free educational apps in Google play or App Store. But statistics shows that the popularity of free or paid apps is pretty equal. So it’s all in your hands if you want to earn a lot with your educational app. And here are some advice how to do it:
- Paid subscription - start with a smaller price and range it according to a variety of available courses and materials, the functionality of your app.
- Partnership models - sell your products to other institutions or propose them to place their materials on your platform/app.
- Advertising - the easiest way for monetization of any product, just don’t make it very annoying.
- In-app purchases - just be careful with this if your app is for younger users.
But remember the better is the quality of your app and its content, the more chances you have to earn with it.
