The pandemic has spurred new trends in many areas, and for those interested in building apps, a must-watch trend is in online learning. Social distancing measures and shut down schools forced “Zoom University” to become a norm, and while all students and professors are eager to get back to in-person learning, the online learning trend has proved its efficacy. Beyond the realms of a college curriculum or another type of institutionalized learning, many individuals are motivated to take their learning into their own hands, whether they’re brushing up on a foreign language for an upcoming vacation or hoping to expand their skill sets before they enter the job market. The scope of online learning apps expands to include apps for math, languages, and more.
The technologies behind online learning apps have expanded to create a teacher-student dynamic because of machine learning (ML), and this new frontier is just getting started. As an iOS developer with an ML background, I open-sourced my ML models in the hope of making it easier for fellow developers to take their apps to the next level with the advantages of ML in 10 minutes instead of weeks or months. Large companies such as Google also made their sophisticated, well-trained ML models accessible to their developer community. Alongside these exciting developments, here are some additional reasons why your attention should be on online learning apps.
1. It provides students with the ability to learn at their own pace.
Every student learns at their own pace, which can make a classroom environment where a group of students are learning more frustrating. If a learning pace is too fast, students can fall behind and begin to feel discouraged very quickly. On the other hand, if the learning pace is too slow, students can quickly become bored and disconnect from the curriculum. Online learning apps that allow students to be self-directed can help them take full autonomy for their education and retain more information. It also helps them to enjoy their learning experience more by focusing on the material they wish to make progress on.
This is a major reason that some individuals look into online learning apps alongside in-person classes, if they’re taking them. I learned through creating my Japanese language learning app Nukon. A great deal of Nukon users were actually students who were in Japanese in-person classes. However, they used Nukon alongside a written curriculum to supplement their learning of writing and speaking in Japanese.
One of the most loved features of Nukon voted by users was the real-time feedback which made their learning spontaneous. Whether they were commuting or had short breaks, they could easily practice Japanese on the fly with the app telling them how accurate their writing or pronunciation was. Underneath this popular feature, there’re on-device ML models trained on large datasets with 98 percent accuracy to power it. As you can see, apps with machine intelligence can be powerful and easy to make sure a student is understanding concepts via personalized feedback. This enables students to study for a deeper level of comprehension gained from hands-on learning so when they are in the classroom environment, they feel confident to participate and contribute.
2. Personalized learning can be achieved via in-app chatbot.
However, one drawback of self-directed learning can be the lack of mentorship when a student is using the app on their own. The ability to immediately ask an instructor and get help or detailed explanation on a challenging problem is typically a vote for in-person learning, and can greatly enhance a student’s level of understanding and their feeling of support. To make up for this gap in online learning, apps have been able to meet this need thanks to machine learning algorithms which gave birth to chatbots created and implemented in many online learning platforms. These chatbots are not only able to answer students’ questions with personal dialogues in real-time 24/7, but they’re also able to observe, track, and then adapt to each student’s unique learning pace by suggesting new content or learned skills to brush up on.
These cutting-edge developments of chatbots illuminate a bright future guided by machine intelligence. The more that apps integrate these ML algorithms, the more students will feel supported in their online learning endeavors. Additionally, apps powered by ML unlock potential to reach users of different needs and markets due to adaptability.
3. Virtual classrooms have become the trend.
From a consumer standpoint, there are a number of reasons why students are preferring a virtual classroom. In addition to the ability to be self-directed, online learning provides a great deal of flexibility, supporting students who want to learn remotely or on their own time. This flexibility also enables non-traditional students - such as adults with full-time jobs or entrepreneurs - to add in elements of learning into their day-to-day life by taking a few quick lessons on a daily basis.
For these reasons, apps that make online learning easy and accessible will continue to be on the rise. As more language and math apps become available, consumers are likely to start to look for online learning apps for a wide range of curriculum types, which creates immense opportunity for app developers and entrepreneurs in search of their next big idea. It’s my hope that the machine learning algorithms that have been developed by other founders and engineers with machine learning expertise like me will continue to be iterated, forging a powerful future of online learning capabilities for students of all ages and backgrounds.
Author BIo:
Melody Yang is an entrepreneur and iOS engineer with a background in machine learning and mobile app development. An iOS developer at Apple, her side projects include 5 apps published on the app store.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.