Top 10 Best Educational Apps

Your smartphone is good for more than just sharing funny cat videos and sharing snaps online. Shocking, we bet. Indeed, smartphones are one of the best technological developments in history. 

Before smartphones, if you wanted to learn about something, there are free ways to go about it: 

• Check out a book from the library
• Go to school and learn what want
• Find someone who wants to teach you for free willingly
• The hard way: learn through trial and error

There was learning software long before smartphones were invented. Yet, much like textbooks, you either had to buy them or check them out from the local library. 

How thankful we are that we live in the Information Age. Now, if you want to learn something, you can download educational apps straight to your mobile phone. 

Check out these ten best educational apps available on Android and Apple devices.

Top 10 Best Educational Apps

LinkedIn Learning

Target: Teens and adults

Before it was LinkedIn Learning, it was called Lynda.com, an online platform featuring the books and classes of a special effects animator and multimedia professor Lynda Weinman. 

Lynda.com was founded in 1995, and in 2002, the company began offering online courses. A couple of years later, there were over 100 courses, and the company began producing more documentaries on creative leaders. 

In 2017, Lynda.com was merged with LinkedIn and renamed LinkedIn Learning.

Today, LinkedIn Learning has over 14,000 video courses covering a wide range of topics, including Software Development, Web Development, Design, Business, Photography, and Marketing. 

The video courses on LinkedIn Learning are from experienced and highly reputable instructors. 

Access all the video courses on LinkedIn Learning and learn in-demand skills from real-life professionals. The platform offers a one-month free trial, and the monthly subscription costs $29.99. 

Udemy

Target: Teens and adults

Udemy is one of the best educational apps aimed at professionals and students. Since its foundation in 2010, Udemy has continuously been offering courses largely for improving job-related skills. 

As of January 2020, Udemy has over 50 million students and more than 57,000 professionals teaching courses in over 65 languages. Udemy proves to be among the best educational apps in the world, having over 295 million course enrollments. 

There’s a wide range of courses available in Udemy, such as:

• Business
• Design
• Development
• Photography
• IT and Software
• Marketing
• Personal Development

Udemy is such a great platform because it allows users to watch the video courses at their own pace. Not to mention, all topics are from top instructors from all over the world. 

The courses in Udemy cost from $9 to $300. You can get up to a 90% discount using a coupon code, which the platform generously offers from time to time. 

Zoolingo

Target: Toddlers and preschoolers

Download the Zoolingo app to help your child learn ABCs, 123s, shapes, colors, measurements, and vocabulary. Zoolingo is packed with thousands of fun games and activities that keep kids engaged while learning.

It would be a big mistake not to include Zoolingo in the list of the best educational apps. There’s so much that kids can learn from this app, such as:

• Tracing and recognizing letters
• Numbers, addition, subtraction
• Shapes, sizes, measurement, and sorting
• Vocabulary, days, and months
• Body parts and emotions
• Zoo animals
• Mazes and jigsaw puzzles
• Occupations
• Nursery rhymes

Zoolingo is available in 16 languages, including German, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

The app was developed by Mafooly, a company committed to creating superior educational apps for kids. There have been over 4 million downloads of the Zoolingo app, and it continues to grow as more parents see how great of an app is Zoolingo. 

Download Zoolingo on your Apple or Android device. The app offers a 7-day free trial. 

[Related: 9 Top Free Preschool Apps For 2020]

StudyBlue

Target: Students

StudyBlue is another online studying platform and one of the best educational apps. It was founded by two students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison formerly known as The Class Connection. 

The online learning platform has joined with Chegg. Chegg is another education technology company that provides online tutoring, digital and physical textbook rentals, and other student services. 

You will find over 400 million flashcards, study guides, and notes on StudyBlue, all of which are from other students. With StudyBlue, you can create your study materials and share them with your friends or classmates. 

Searching for study content is fast and simple. You may also track your progress, set reminders, and create custom quizzes. Join the other 15 million students who are now enjoying StudyBlue. 

When you create study materials on your computer, all of them will be available on any of your devices. StudyBlue guarantees a more efficient learning experience, allowing you to maximize your free time and enjoy more leisure activities.

[Related: 8 Best Flashcard Apps To Enhance Visual Memory]

Duolingo

Target: Teens and adults

Anyone interested in learning another language should get Duolingo. We’ve got tons of reasons to say that this app is among the best educational apps in the market. 

Duolingo is a language-learning platform and a digital language-proficiency assessment tool. 

As of this date, Duolingo offers 33 completed languages, three beta languages, and four other languages that are still in the “incubator” (courses not yet released). Three million users across the globe enjoy learning languages using Duolingo. 

Duolingo provides a beautiful, neat, and easy-to-navigate interface. The sleek user interface makes it easy to use even for the people who aren’t that much tech-savvy. 

The app is straightforward and easy to use. Set up your profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals, and off you go. Each course in Duolingo has modules grouped to form skills.

Duolingo is a freemium app. You can download it on your smartphone or access the app via your web browser. 

[Related: Top 13 Apps To Learn The Spanish Language]

Goodreads

Target: Teens and adults

Are you a book nerd? Goodreads is a must-have educational app. Use Goodreads to search books, reviews, and annotations freely. The app is straightforward; sign up and register books to generate reading lists and library catalogs. 

Plus, you can create your own groups of book suggestions, blogs, polls, discussions, and surveys. 

Tell Goodreads about the books you have read in the past — titles or genres — and the app will give you insightful recommendations. You may also see what your friends are reading on Goodreads. 

Goodreads covers a spectrum of topics, such as:

• Art
• Biography
• Business
• Comics
• Cookbooks
• Fantasy
• Fiction
• History
• Music
• Mystery
• Self-help
• Thriller 
• Travel 
• Young adult
• And so much more.

Goodreads is a completely free app. You can access Goodreads via their site or app. 

Tynker: Coding for Kids

Target: Kids

If you think only adults and professionals can learn to code, then you’re absolutely wrong. Tynker is among the best educational apps that teach kids a variety of visual programming languages. 

Tynker helps young learners to code drones and robots, and build apps and games. This educational app provides step-by-step coding tutorials, as well as over 50 free starter templates for apps, drawing, games, music, physics, and more. 

Tynker has received several awards including:

• Parents’ Choice Gold Award
• Editor’s Choice: Children’s Technology Review
• Academics’ Choice Award
• 5-Star Engagement from Common Sense Media
• Award for Excellence from Strictly Mobile

Coding, without a doubt, is a complex subject to learn. However, Tynker uses quests and courses to make the learning experience much more enjoyable and less intimidating. 

Tynker is a free-to-download educational app that offers in-app purchases. 

edX

Target: Higher education students

If you want to get access to university-level courses online, then edX got you covered. EdX is a massive open online course (MOOC) that aims to provide users unlimited participation and open access via the web. 

Some courses in EdX are offered at no charge. The Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology created edX. You can access over 2,500 online courses from 140 institutions, including:

• Harvard University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Berkeley University of California
• The University of Texas System
• The University of Queensland Australia
• University System of Maryland

You can even get a Master’s Degree through edX. For example, the University of Texas at Austin offers a Master’s Degree in Data Science. It comprises ten courses, all of which are fully online and can be completed within two to three years. 

TED

Target: Teens and adults

Widen your learning experience by downloading the TED app. TED is an American media organization that provides talks online at zero charges. 

There’s a wide range of topics you can learn in TED, including academic, scientific, economic, political, and cultural topics. The TED Talks are freely available on the website, provided by various professionals of different fields and backgrounds. 

Khan Academy

Target: Learners, teachers, and parents

You can learn anything at Khan Academy. Shocking? Not really. Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization that aims to provide online tools to help educated students. 

The platform produces short video lessons created by experts. Plus, all courses are free. No doubt, this is one of the best educational apps available. 

Learners, teachers, and parents can benefit from Khan Academy. Each user can monitor their progress, practice exercises, and access teaching tools. 

Furthermore, students can use the platform to prepare for standardized tests, such as MCAT, LSAT, and SAT. 

Khan Academy is mainly in English but also available in other languages, including Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese German, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, and Uzbek. 

You can access Khan Academy using your web browser. The app is also available on Apple and Android devices. 

Conclusion

The best educational apps allow us to widen our knowledge and continue our education despite school closures. And now that almost everyone is staying at home, we can spend our time exploring these educational apps and feed ourselves with more learning. 

Go ahead and try these best educational apps. Come back and let us know which of the apps met or exceeded your expectations. 

Related Questions

What are the best Math apps for kids?

IXL Math, Splash Math, and Zoolingo are just a few of the best math apps for kids. Check out our blog post Top 15 Best Math Apps to learn more. 

How can I teach students with disabilities?

Teaching students with disabilities comes with a set of unique challenges, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. You can teach blind, visually impaired, and students with learning disabilities using particular teaching methods. 

What other educational apps do you have in mind?

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