Educational apps are becoming more prevalent with each passing day. Apple Inc. reported in January that more than 20,000 apps specifically geared toward education are available in its App Store. And with more students than ever having access to smartphones, growth in the educational app market may continue to rise.
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Many of these apps could benefit college students who struggle to manage a full academic and social schedule. Brad Monroe, a senior at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who has experimented sparingly with scheduling and organizational apps for educational purposes, says that some students may find advantages to using these tools.
"I think these would be a huge benefit for students who fail to meet deadlines," Monroe says.
For students who may need extra help setting up and organizing their academic workload, here are five educational apps to consider:
1. iStudiez Pro: For college students who are attempting to successfully manage a full schedule, iStudiez Pro can act as the digital hub for a student's academic life. Originally available in 2009 for the iPhone, the app is now in use on the Mac and iPad, and can be easily synced among all three devices. Separating its functions into five areas—Overview, Assignments, Planner, Instructors, and Holidays—students can include course schedules, plan study sessions, and prioritize assignments based on importance, among other uses. The app can also track grades and GPA, helping students keep tabs on their academic progress.
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2. Quizlet: With more than 10 million free sets of digital flashcards, Quizlet offers students a variety of ways to study course materials. After choosing a flashcard set or creating a new set, students have the option of four study styles, along with two varieties of flashcard games that strive to bring an entertainment factor to studying. Quizlet is available to students through the Web as well as via more than 50 mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android-powered devices.
3. inClass: This free iPhone and iPad app provides students with the tools to keep up with material in the classroom without missing out on their professors' lectures. Using inClass, students can record audio, take text or video notes, and create images of slides or handouts. Students can also use the app to share materials with friends through Facebook and iTunes.
4. iProcrastinate: Available for the Mac and the iPhone, this app allows students to organize to-do lists and tasks by listing the steps it will take to complete them. Users can set priority levels for each task, and iProcrastinate prompts students to break them down into parts—making projects more manageable. For group projects, task lists can be shared and managed by multiple users. Along with the Web-based and iPhone version of the app, an iPad version is also in the works.
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5. Outliner: Students can organize notes, tasks, and projects, and create and edit outlines with Outliner. Available on the iPhone and iPad, the app includes an editor tool, which enables users to make quick changes to documents created in Outliner. Outliner uses the cloud service Dropbox, so students can easily share their outlines, task lists, and projects from any computer or Web-enabled device.
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