Educational Application: Development, Features and Cost

Consider creating an educational software similar to YouTube Kids, Edx, or Khan Academy. This article takes you through each step of creating an educational app from a technical and business standpoint. This article also provides you with cost estimating and monetization strategies that will help you maintain an advantage in the edtech sector's fierce competition.

The COVID-19 epidemic unquestionably changed the way traditional education is delivered. The most educational apps were downloaded this quarter (466 million on Google Play and 470 million on Apple's App Store, respectively). Indeed, the need for educational app development is growing as the Edtech sector emerges as the most attractive market to invest in. Some well-known names in the Edtech sector, such as Google Classroom, edX, Khan Academy, and DuoLingo, have demonstrated their marketability with their e-learning offerings.

If you are a business or an educational institution seeking to transform your idea into a successful educational software, then you are at the perfect place. We'll go over every aspect of developing an educational app. The individual should expect to pay between $10,000 and $60,000 in general for an educational application with basic capabilities. Intriguingly, we will also go into detail in this blog about how much an edtech device can cost you, based on different criteria and characteristics.

How To Build An Educational Application?

The creation of instructional apps follows a similar pattern to that of most cutting-edge software. However, with their exceptional skill sets, only seasoned mobile app developers and designers can transform an app idea into a reality. Learn about the four straightforward steps that make up the complete application development cycle.

Phase 1: Research & Planning

Business analysts, marketers, and project managers evaluate your application vision throughout this phase and offer recommendations accordingly.

• Carry Out Market Analysis - In this scenario, good market awareness of edtech is essential for better app development. Business analysts and marketers are obliged to conduct a SWOT analysis of their competitors' products to assess their strengths and weaknesses and discover opportunities and threats. To determine users' needs and expectations for an e-learning platform, market research is also crucial. You may more accurately detect market trends and create relevant user personas for your product with the aid of thorough market research.

• Identify The Project's Scope - A future product's scope and specification must be defined as part of business development. In this stage, tasks, deliverables, timelines, and costs are properly identified and documented.

• What Is A Business Model? - You should make a decision in advance regarding the type of eLearning app you want or the type of admin you want for your application. Early business model conception gives developers and designers more direction throughout the entire development process. Let's take a peek at the popular app categories right now:

• Educational Apps for Kids: Ease the process of learning for kids through engaging songs, content, videos, rhymes, and educational games. 

• Classroom Apps: Provides a virtual environment that is classroom-like with the option of sharing images, videos, and written content.

• Online Course Apps: Interactive training courses with the multimedia material course.

• Test Preparation Apps: Online training tests and programs with easy-to-access study material, including practice papers, quizzes, etc. 

• Language Learning Apps: A platform for native speakers and language experts to share their proficiency with pupils.  

• Brain Teasing Apps: To enhance logical memory, skills, brain functioning, and concentration through mini-games.

• Corporate LMS (Learning Management System) Apps: Organizations and Companies use such applications to offer their trainees and employees corporate training programs.

Phase 2:  Requirement Collection & Analysis

A prototype is then made in accordance with the features that have been identified and documented as being necessary to design an application. It aids in the understanding of the functional architecture of each screen in the app by developers and designers.

• Choose the components that a learning application must have. - It is wise to take into account the particulars of the application and the requirements of all stakeholders before designing the advanced features of any educational app. To build an MVP, an individual need to have the following features:

FeaturesPurposeSignup/LoginSecure login for logged-in users and secure registration for new users.User Profileto enter and display user personal, academic, and professional data. (Lesson lists and visited/scheduled classes can be seen here.)Searchto easily find a portion or a specified amount of information on a page or course.Multiple Payment Modeto provide a variety of payment alternatives for things like in-app purchases and coursesScreen Sharingto share the screen during breaks in order to improve learningSession Recordingto capture online sessions so that you can watch or listen to them later, even when offline.File-sharingto give tests, assignments, or homework to a tutor or student.Push Notificationsto inform users of upcoming sessions, deadlines for submitting assignments, etc.Live-streamingto generate and view live streaming of lessons in order to facilitate learning.Course MaterialYou can choose from a variety of digital learning resources, including video/audio lessons, live lectures, online tests, and interactive practice exams.Multi-lingualto offer users a variety of language options they can choose from for simple learning.Cloud Integrationfor cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Office Online, etc., to enable several users to collaborate on the same file.In-Session Chatsfor effective communication during the lesson between the instructor and the student.Social Networkenabling students to post information from their classes on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.App Rating & Feedbackto gather accurate user feedback that can be used to improve an app.

• Identify cutting-edge technologies to satisfy future requirements - Core features may not always be sufficient to meet user expectations. Therefore, cutting-edge features and technology unquestionably have a big impact on how successful an educational app is. We've mentioned a few more features below that can increase the usefulness and appeal of your product to customers.

Phase 3: Design & Development

During this stage, a mockup is made for the app to finalize the user interface (UI) before defining the app architecture and tech stacks to develop an MVP or a complete application. In this stage of development, frontend and backend development are the main areas of focus for coders.

• Design UI - Wireframes and mockups are designed by UX/UI specialists to depict an application's functional architecture. For each screen, UX designers independently produce mockups while taking into account potential use cases, logical breaks, and technical constraints. The final user interface is produced by designers with any proposed adjustments made after receiving approval for the prototype. Although UI might vary depending on the goal of the app, it is created to enhance user engagement and experience. Only a strong UX/UI can capture users' interest and keep them using your edtech product.

  
  

• Define the architectural and technological framework for the educational application. - Making a high-quality edtech product that can scale easily with future requirements requires more than just writing high-performing code. When it comes to future-proofing your product and speeding app development, the right architecture is crucial. The tech team determines all the technical specifications needed to create an educational app in order to achieve the app's goal. The tech stacks you might use in your app architecture to develop Edtch products for Android, iOS, or make a cross-platform app are as follows.

Depending on the application's complexity, platform, and type, the technological stack may change. Therefore, it is usually preferable to organise all of the components of your instructional app into a logical framework, or by creating an architecture. The development team can identify the components, sub-applications, cloud infrastructure, database solution,  and the interactions between these pieces with the aid of an application architecture. Additionally, it gives the programme the ability to be very scalable.

Let's use EdX as an example, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform with two applications: course authoring application (Studio) and a learning management system (LMS). For edX, course authors can build and update their courses using Studio. LMS is a platform used for teaching and learning, respectively, by instructors and students. In addition, EdX offers mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow you to view course videos. Take a peek look at the EdX architecture:

Python is used to create the backend, and Django is used as the web application framework. Elasticsearch is also utilised for searching courses and comments.

Key Components of LMS & Studio Architecture

• Courses and learner data are stored using MongoDB and MySQL. Uninterrupted video streaming is done using Amazon S3.

• The client-side code is written in JavaScript and Backbone.js, while the server-side code is written in Django and Mako.

• Modeled after Open edX courses are the API-enabled XModules and XBlocks.

• It includes LTI capabilities that can be used to add additional learning resources to an Open edX course.

• The course's JavaScript components are integrated via JS Input.

• Comments is a Ruby IDA that makes use of the Sinatra framework to manage the course conversation.

In essence, each e-learning model interacts with the learner, the learning content, and the educator through an e-learning platform. This e-learning model has an application framework layer, a component library layer, and an application layer, as shown in the basic architecture diagram that is provided below.

Additionally, there are three layers in the business application layer: the infrastructure layer, the content layer, and the application layer, which, respectively, contain cloud e-learning resources, e-learning content like web file systems, web services, database systems, and services from the e-learning system.

• Establish a minimum viable product (MVP) - The architecture and user interface are complete. The tech stack has been completed. Everything is now prepared for building the MVP. Put all of the MVP's critical features in order of importance based on user and market demand, then arrange them in a product backlog. In order to produce a better version of the app to satisfy consumers' future requirements, MVP uses a build-measure-learn method that enables you to continuously enhance the product.

Phase 4: Testing & Deployment

• Test the application - Several tests are carried out once the educational app is developed to minimise coding and functionality issues. To detect issues in the app's functionality, user experience, server performance, and integration, the QA team runs tests using automated testing technologies like Appium and Selenium. Before the programme is made available on the market, such flaws are then fixed. To release a faultless educational app, it's a good idea to carry out regression testing, load testing, device testing, stress testing, usability testing, and security testing throughout the development lifecycle.

• Deploy the application - DevOps professionals use DevOps tools like AWS CodeDeploy and Jenkins to deploy the software on the app store and Google Play after addressing all bugs and issues. However, after placing instructional apps on app stores, make sure to regularly release updates.

How To Make An Educational Application Profitable?

Monetization Techniques

You should take into account the monetization strategies listed below if you want to make money with the edtech product you've developed:

• Freemium: This strategy provides temporary free access to an educational app. Users must pay a fee to purchase monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions after their free access has ended.

• Subscription Fee: Users must pay a monthly or annual membership price in order to access the educational content provided by the app, such as lectures, courses, and video tutorials. This is another effective method of generating revenue from an educational app.

• Advertisements: With this business model, you may make money by giving other pertinent companies screen space on your instructional app. For subscribers/users accessing the free version of the software, pop-up advertisements show on the screen. For access to app data without advertisements, users must upgrade to the premium version.

• Paid applications: One of the fundamental business strategies for generating income by charging users for access to applications. A fair price for an app is chosen based on the app's features and the pricing matrix of the market.

• Course Fee: Some e-learning applications are made to serve as a marketplace for copyrighted and exclusive courses. These apps can generate income by collecting a fee, depending on market demand for the particular course.

We believe that after reading this, you have a clearer idea of what is needed to create educational apps, how much it can cost, and how to get started. In this blog, we even went into detail on how to successfully monetize your app.