Top 19 Learning Apps for Students

Education has always been the key to improvement and development that we seek in the world. In the early years, only the elite classes were considered to be responsible for this development that we seek and we’re the only few allowed to gain a formal education.

We have, however, arrived in an era where not only has education become a birthright for all but the definition of formal education has also become quite loose. Today an individual can gain any form of education by taking the initiative in their own hands and self-educating themselves.

In a time where technology has jumped leaps and bounds students are exposed to tools which would not have been available to them just a few years ago.

In the following article, we will be looking into some of the learning applications available and their advantages on the learning process of a student.

List of Best Learning Apps for Students to Increase the Productivity

1) DragonBox

It is very difficult to develop a love of mathematics in a child as the numbers are just ink on paper and difficult to visualise.

DragonBox is a learning app which aims to do exactly that; provide the child with the necessary visual clues to understand what is happening.

The app teaches algebra in the form of a game where they help a dragon get through obstacles by solving math problems. 

As they keep solving the dragon keeps growing.

The app offers 10 chapters with 20 levels each covering all the necessary aspects of algebra. 

While the game is quite interesting it may feel a little challenging to beginners.

DragonBox provides hints and solutions at the end of an unsuccessful try if the student wants to see.

2) Khan Academy

Khan Academy is one of the growing learning platforms which has already gained a lot of popularity with the students today.

Khan Academy is an online platform which functions as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform and provides the learning community with free and widely available courses which are designed to be subject-specific.

Mr Salman Khan, who ran a tutoring YouTube channel, created this company in 2008 and upload all subject matter in the format of YouTube videos.

The platform’s UI is specifically designed for the user and will provide its material based on whether you are a student, teacher or parent. 

The subject material on the app is divided into subjects and the grade at which you want to learn.

All this to be provided by a free app is one of the best assets a student can have.

3) Byju’s

Khan Academy is one of the growing learning platforms which has already gained a lot of popularity with the students today.

Khan Academy is an online platform which functions as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform and provides the learning community with free and widely available courses which are designed to be subject-specific.

Mr Salman Khan, who ran a tutoring YouTube channel, created this company in 2008 and upload all subject matter in the format of YouTube videos.

The platform’s UI is specifically designed for the user and will provide its material based on whether you are a student, teacher or parent.

The subject material on the app is divided into subjects and the grade at which you want to learn.

All this to be provided by a free app is one of the best assets a student can have.

4) Duolingo

Learning a new language is one of the toughest subjects that anyone could go through. 

One cannot just read a book as they need to be able to conduct a conversation with the knowledge they have gained.

Duolingo is one of the best applications out there which can help you learn a language.

Duo, the small green little owl mascot, will lead you through the exercises which help develop your language skills from beginner to advanced in no time.

The app has 11 languages to learn from and more are on the way. Keep up your streaks by visiting the application every day and within no time you will be fluent in a foreign language

5) Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an initiative taken up by the world-renowned tech organisation known as Google to create an eLearning platform.

It is a Learning Management System created to make classrooms not only more accessible and paperless, but also more effective.

The platform is right now available through Google Apps for Education and targeted to academic institutions.

The app is accessible via all electronic devices as it is delivered via Google Chrome. One can post their assignments, create Google documents, post-YouTube Videos, links and Google Drive attachments.

The app’s interface is very friendly but there have been complaints of difficult account management. 

Overall, Google Classroom is a great learning tool for both teachers and students alike.

6) Photomath

Another mathematics-based application, but instead of just teaching you standard mathematics this application solves any mathematical problem in front of you.

Photomath is a camera calculator and it is very easy to use.

Simply scan the math problem given to you, making sure it fits in the rectangle space on the screen, and the application will give you a step-by-step solution within a few moments.

The application has an in-built handwriting recognition feature where the child can simply write down the problem and take a scan of it.

The app also has a calculator installed into it where the problems can be installed manually.

7) SoloLearn

While we live in a time where technology has taken over every aspect of our life, it has made itself an integral part of the curriculum of children’s education.

Even the parents have taken a special interest in making sure their child learns how to code.

SoloLearn is an amazing application which could help a student learn a machine language.

The app was first designed in 2013 and since then has grown to have a community of 35,000,000 users. The app uses a learn-quiz-practice format and utilises small lessons which are easily digestible.

The app is equipped to teach programming languages like HTML, CSS, Python, JavaScript, SQL etc.

8) Kahoot

Using games and entertaining methods to teach a subject is not a new concept but it is being taken advantage of quite a lot in recent years.

One of the best examples of utilising games for education is Kahoot. Kahoot has taken over the US Education system and was one of the most utilised apps to quiz children.

The app was developed in 2013 as a joint project by founding members Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker and Marten Versvik when they were at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

On Kahoot, the users can develop their multiple-choice quizzes which will be available for use by all.

Students can create their quizzes on a subject and pass the link back and forth amongst their friends as a teaching/learning tool.

9) Udemy

Online courses have been all the rage for many years now. Students all over the world at varying levels of their education rely on these online courses as an extra step to better their education.

One of the leading names in the field of online courses is Udemy. 

Udemy has been around for only 10 years but in these years, they have been able to create a following of 30 million students and a pool of 100,000 courses.

The user interface is very simple where you need to register yourself and choose the type of course you want.

The registration is free but the courses need to be purchased. These courses are uploaded by individual experts in video format.

Along with videos, the instructors also upload resources which may hold PDF files or links to download pages for software necessary for the course.

They give a special discount to newcomers and keep coming out with new discount packages.

10) Spellwizards

Spelling is one of the most challenging parts of the curriculum that students have to go through. 

It is quite difficult and sometimes very overwhelming for a child when it comes to learning the spellings.

Spell Wizard aims to reduce the strain of this task not just for students but also the teachers.

The user interface is very simple where you need to register yourself and choose the type of course you want.

Spell Wizard is considered one of the best learning app tools for helping a student practice spelling and at the same time also exercise their listening and typing skills.

The spellings are divided into predetermined sections all ready for practice. 

However, if necessary, the users can move around the words based on the student’s level to create their own personalised set.

11) YouTube

There are not many platforms where people can learn and share their knowledge for free. 

The day that YouTube was created was not only a big leap for the entertainment platform but also the teaching platform.

On YouTube, students can learn about any subject that they can think of.

They can decide between multiple teachers and also how advanced they want the topic to be taught at.

Learning on YouTube is not only easy, but it is also fun. There are millions of channels to choose from based on the topic that the student wants to study.

There may be some parental concern about the other content that is available, but certain parental restrictions could easily be set up.

12) Edmodo

Learning management tools are a great help for teachers and students alike as it provides a platform for them to pursue education without the hassle of sitting in a classroom together.

Edmodo is a learning management tool which has made the lives of many teachers, students and even parents quite easy.

Its job is to create the perfect amalgam of classroom content, safe communication and student assessment. It makes things easier that the whole platform has a more social media feel to it.

Students and parents can remain current on all assignments, school events and ask questions without the restraints of a classroom.

All work can be done digitally which makes it paperless and increases the storage space.

13) News-o-Matic EDU

Reading the paper and staying up to date with the news may feel like something only the grown-ups do but the children need to be connected with what is going around them, especially as a teaching tool.

News-o-Matic is an interactive app which functions as a paid subscription-based newspaper.

The idea of the app is quite simple; five top news stories will be posted daily on the main page. The news could be from the world of politics, celebrities, science and technology etc.

The stories are re-written by experts and vetted by child psychologists to make sure the content is suitable for children.

There are many features on the app, including stories, puzzles, word games and much more.

14) Quizlet

Quiz based apps are some of the best learning tools out there which can help a student grow their knowledge pool.

Quizlet was designed to help teachers and students master whatever subject they are currently working on. The app has pre-created quizzes on any subject of your choosing.

The idea of the app is quite simple; five top news stories will be posted daily on the main page. 

The news could be from the world of politics, celebrities, science and technology etc.

Though the whole quizzing platform may feel a little too playful to some, the application takes learning quite seriously.

The app provides the students and teachers with flashcards for practising and practice tests with adaptive questions which will be very useful for individual practice.

Modern teaching tech like text-to-speech audio, images and interactive diagrams are integrated into the app for a better learning experience.

15) Popplet

Creating a mind map has been an age-old learning tool which was used by some of the most revered minds.

Leonard Da Vinci and Sherlock Holmes were both known to rely on mind mapping techniques to store information in their heads.

It is such a great tool that mind mapping can be made on a piece of paper too. Popplet helps it, user, by creating a map of the information that you would like to categorise.

It would create small squares known as popples which would hold the information in them.

Each Poppel is then connected to the other most relevant to the flow of information.

This eventually creates a web of information which acts as an amazing visual tool which can be used to teach or keep any subject well memorised.

16) Memrise

It is great to have a tool created to teach you a skill or a subject. What’s even better is being able to create your course material.

Though Memrise has been particularly famous with students trying to learn a language it has also found its way into the hands of people trying to memorise other subjects like science, social studies and mathematics.

Not only does this app help you create flashcards, but it also can provide quizzing tools which can be used to create a pool of good questions.

Along with creating your material students can also dive into the large number of quizzes created by other users of the app.

17) Mathletics

Though learning in the confines of a classroom is a great way to learn, nothing helps a person learn than the pressure of performing in a competition.

This pressure of being the best is exactly what Mathletics provides its users with.

Mathletics is considered to be a great source of learning by many teaching communities. The app offers 1000s of learning activities that help a student grow into a math wizard.

The users compete with each other based on the level that they have risen to and results are put up on a leader board for everyone to see.

18) Bee-Bot

It has already been established that in this day and age anyone looking to become a more rounded professional should understand some level of coding.

Keeping this in mind the Bee-Bot programmable floor robot was created.

The user was supposed to make the robot maneuver by entering a set number of instructions in the correct order, giving a basic understanding of writing an algorithm.

Bee-Bot app is a digital version of this bot and provides the same feel but on a virtual platform.

The student is provided with 12 levels, each more difficult than the one before.

As the student keeps raising these levels their understanding of algorithm writing keeps becoming better.

19) Skyview

We teach our children to keep their feet on the ground and their heads in the stars.

Gazing at a starry sky has always been one of the key reasons that humans have asked questions.

With an app like Skyview, most of those questions can finally be answered.

Skyview is categorised as a free augmented reality application which uses the camera of one’s smartphone to create a virtual map of the celestial bodies which are in the night sky.

The app will show the location of constellations, planets, stars and star clusters. 

The app also tells you facts and information on any particular celestial body you feel like.

Advantages of Learning Apps

All forms of learning have their advantages which make it attractive to the masses. Following are some of the advantages of utilising a learning app

1) Learn on the go

In the early times when children were sent away to Gurukul’s to study they did not have a fixed setting where the education would take place.

Their teacher would teach them wherever the student could be found. The education today has become very static, confined only to the four walls of a classroom.

Education needs to be available whenever and wherever they want to learn may strike.

Using a learning app can provide this, as an electronic device like a smartphone, tablet or laptop is always on the student’s person. They can run the app no matter where they and whenever they feel like it.

2) Learn out of the box

School’s need to follow a set syllabus, based on a curriculum provided by the board that they are affiliated with. Their duty to the child is to provide them with the basic foundation on top of which they can build a career afterwards.

At the same time, the teachers have a duty to the school to educate the children to create a good result at the end of the year examinations. This does not leave much space for a student who would like to learn a little more out of the syllabus.

Not only do learning apps help a student in covering all that they have learned in their curriculum but also helps them go above and beyond by providing subject matter which would be considered too advanced by the school’s syllabus.

3) Using a different method to study

School’s today use a methodology of teaching which has been perfected over the years and will still keep going through many levels of improvements over the years to come.

 The prime objective is to be able to teach a large number of students in the most optimum way possible. Though effective and responsible for having created many success stories, these methods do fail in places when it comes to a certain type of student.

Utilising a learning app with a different approach to education will help students understand the subject matter better and improve their grasp over it.

4) Part of a Large Community

When in school a student is exposed to a plethora of resources available to them in the form of teachers, fellow students and study material.

Though immense, these resources may seem less or unsatisfactory to the questions that a student wants to be answered. Registering oneself on a learning app exposes you to a large community of people all focused towards the goal of learning and gaining knowledge.

 Being part of such a community expands your resource pool and you will be able to access knowledge from someone who may be sitting hundreds of miles away.

5) No time-table

When the school ends and children come back to their home the learning doesn’t finish. While the syllabus will keep moving forward from the next day onwards, a student may feel that the day’s curriculum has not been grasped to its full extent.

But now at home, they can’t exactly approach the teacher anymore. Learning apps provide education at any time without the restraints of school hours or a time-table.