With the continuous evolution of smartphones, mobile applications have gained tremendous importance in recent days. Realizing the benefits offered by these apps, organizations in every industry, right from healthcare to retail, started spending millions in developing their own apps. 

Mobility of users and an uninterrupted engagement with their customers were the two primary factors that prompted them to adopt this strategy. 

Just like other industries, the e-learning industry too started concentrating on app-based learning to ensure that the learners can access the course anytime anywhere. 

In this post, we are going to look into some of the key advantages offered by app-based learning along with some must-have features that should be present in an e-learning app. This will help you to shortlist an LMS to kickstart your online academy.

Why should you have a mobile app for your classes?

An important offshoot of mobile learning is app-based learning. One of the biggest advantages of app-based learning is the ability to access most of the learning features offline. Mobile apps also offer a better learning experience to the students as compared to web applications.

Let us understand the importance of app-based learning with an example.

Lily was a volunteer teacher sent by an NGO to teach economically challenged students in a remote village in Tamil Nadu. Due to the absence of good schools in the vicinity, students from all the nearby villages attended her classes. Her passion for teaching had ensured that the attendance in her classes was always high. But then the pandemic struck and the children were unable to travel to her classes. 

Lily didn’t want the education of these children to come to a standstill and decided to take the classes online. She convinced her NGO to sponsor a basic smartphone and a data pack for the children’s education and tried teaching the children through a video-conferencing app. But she met with an unexpected challenge – extremely weak internet connectivity at the children’s homes. 

That’s when she opted for an LMS with its own learning app because it facilitated offline learning, which was the need of the hour for all her students. With this, all her students were able to download her lectures and study from their homes. Along with that, she could also conduct assessments and upload reading material to the application which was easily accessible in the mobile app.

Just like Lily, several others can utilize the benefits offered by app-based learning. A salesperson who is always on the move is one such example. A person who commutes long distances to his office is another example. All these people can use an e-learning app to learn on the go.

Benefits of App-based learning

Thanks to modern technology, developing an app is as simple as developing a website. On top of this, app-based learning presents plenty of benefits to the user. Here are some of them –

1. Higher Completion Rates

Most teachers who use app-based learning claim that it improves the overall completion rates of their courses. This is quite understandable because app-based learning means the students can access the courses anywhere. The students will consistently engage with the courses whenever they get time, thereby reducing any long gaps in learning. This in turn will lead to a higher completion rate of the course.

2. Better experience at a lower cost

Compared to desktops and laptops,  mobile phones of today are more user-friendly and offer better performance, that too at a fraction of the cost. This directly translates to improved performance for the e-learning application and provides a much better experience for the learners.

3. Improved flexibility for teachers

Mobile phones are handy and compact and give unending flexibility to the students. But surprisingly even teachers enjoy similar flexibility in app-based coaching because some LMSs enable the teacher to create courses or assess tests, right within the app.

4. Regular Updates

Most of us would have seen our mobile applications getting updated frequently. These updates improve the operability and performance of the apps. Offering and pushing updates to mobile apps is much easier than for a web application. This encourages e-learning app providers to regularly update the app with better features.

5. Evolving technologies

Trending technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (such as chatbots) can be easily incorporated into mobile applications(due to ease of developing apps), thereby increasing the performance of the apps and optimizing the user experience.

6. Appeal to Millenials

Millennials use apps for everything today right from ordering food to booking a cab. In fact, most millennials prefer mobile phones over laptop/desktop due to its flexibility and user-friendly operation. They can easily connect with any app and will definitely prefer it for their learning needs as well.

Must-have features of an online coaching app

Here are some mandatory features that should be part of any e-learning app –

1. User-friendly interface

The interface is the first thing that your students will evaluate in an app. If the interface is not user-friendly, then the app will not be regularly used by the students. Hence always try to choose an LMS that has a simple user interface with all the essential features easily accessible. Keep in mind there can be a scenario where some of your students would not have used an app or a smartphone in their lives before.

2. Offline accessibility 

This is probably the next most important feature that your app should offer to the students. It should have the option of downloading content and viewing it later. Many of your students will prefer this facility especially if they are in an internet-deprived zone.

3. Should support all formats and interactive elements

An engaging course is always a good mix of videos, images, animations, and texts. As a teacher, it is important that your app should support all file formats while creating the course within the app.  Your app should also let you add interactive elements like quizzes to the course.

4. Should be compatible with all the devices

Your app should work perfectly on all types of smartphones and tablets irrespective of its make, model, price, year of manufacture, etc. Also, it is ideal to have an app for both Android and IoS as there are millions of users using each of these OS.

5. Security

Security is an important factor to consider when it comes to any digital technology. An app that is not secure might inflict more harm than you can imagine. For example, an insecure app is always a soft target for hackers who will steal your content in no time.

How Learnyst helps?

Learnyst understands the importance of app-based learning and has come up with multiple features to facilitate it. Here are they – 

1. Personalized App for both IOS and Android platforms

Learnyst lets you create your own branded and personalized app without any coding. Once you have created your app with your own logo and description, it will be uploaded to IoS and Android platforms by Learnyst.

2. Highly Secure

All your course content is DRM encrypted which is one of the most powerful Digital Rights Management solutions currently available. This means, your content is secure from all forms of attacks and theft.

3. Offline Access

Your students can download videos and access them without the internet using the Learnyst app.

4. Quizzes

Your students can access quizzes and mock tests straight from their mobile devices using the Learnyst app.

5. Push notifications

You can send updates on quizzes, marketing information, or any other news related to the course through push notifications.

6. Sell-thru apps

You can directly sell your courses in Apple Store or Google Play Store through the respective platform’s payment gateway.

What’s Next?

Learnyst is a brand that always keeps its customers at the center. That’s why we have come up with a next-gen app-based learning methodology that offers all the necessary features discussed in this post plus some extra features that can boost your teaching practice. To know more about Learnyst’s app-based learning, click here.