Higher education is all about learning.
That being said, for both students and employees, a campus is a place with dozens of distractions. If you don't have a plan of attack, it can become really easy to let things get away from you. That's why, in this day and age, apps are one of the things that enable and complement learning most effectively. What better way to maximize one's time management, productivity, and planning than from the screens you're already staring at all day, right?
There are hundreds, no, thousands of apps out there that claim to help with productivity, but which ones actually do? And which ones are best geared toward the higher ed environment?
Below is our comprehensive list of 21 must-have higher education apps. Some of these apps will be geared toward studying and test preparation. Others will help streamline the non-academic aspects of higher education. Either way, every app on this list will help you focus all your energy on the thing that matters: learning.
Let's dive right in!
1. LinkedIn
A lot of students-grads and undergrads alike-don't get their LinkedIn networks fully in gear until it's time to start looking for jobs. Start making connections and looking for future opportunities while you're in school. You'll be amazed at how helpful those connections will be later on.
2. Due
Due-the savior of procrastinators everywhere. Due repeatedly sends you notifications when your projects are due or overdue. So no more hitting the snooze button on assignments and lectures!
3. Evernote
Evernote is all about organizing and decluttering the note-taking process. Enhance your notes with links, checklists, tables, attachments, and audio recordings. You can even search your own hand-written notes.
4. CamScanner
Remember having to go to the library last time you had to sign and send a document? No need! CamScanner turns your phone into a portable scanner, so you can digitize any physical document, convert it to a pdf, and send it on its way.
5. Dominos
Let's face it: the school dining hall doesn't always cut it. Nor does it frozen pizza at 2 am. Dominos makes for perfect snacking at your next midnight study break.
6. Chegg
Chegg-saving broke students, one textbook at a time. Chegg is a book buying and selling app that lets students save big. Search for your textbooks by title or ISBN, and never pay full prices when you rent.
7. Spotify
A little-known fact-when you sign up for Spotify as a student, you don't pay full price. What's more, is Spotify allows you to download up to 3,000 songs for offline playing. No more constant worrying about using up the family data plan!
8. Duolingo
Duolingo is a fun and unintimidating way to learn a new language, whatever that language may be. It's especially useful if you're studying abroad, and want to get a leg up on the local lingo.
9. MyFitnessPal
The Freshman 15 is real, but let's be serious-we don't all have time to spend an hour or more at the gym every day. MyFitnessPal lets you count calories and track your eating patterns so you can lose weight the healthy and time-effective way.
10. Gradeproof
Gradeproof is a failsafe against plagiarism, as it allows you to search the web for originality. In addition, it helps identify grammatical and structural issues in your writing.
11. TED
The TED app lets you explore over 2,000 inspirational talks about endless topics. Whether your passion is art, psychology, or design, TED talks are a great way to get caught up on insightful ideas and get inspired to do something!
12. Venmo
If you're not sold on Venmo yet, you seriously need to give it a try. Connect your bank account, and give and receive payments directly from your smartphone. The news feed can be a particularly entertaining way of seeing how your friends have been spending their money.
13. DropBox
DropBox is a must for any doer of large projects. Save thousands of images and documents to the cloud and access them from any computer or device. Share certain folders with other project members and create a vast space of collaboration.
14. edX
Perhaps the most ed-centric app on this list, edX streams thousands of free online courses and certificate programs right to your device. If you want to do a little loan-free learning on the side, edX is a great app to try.
15. MyStudyLife
An alternative to Due that might be worth trying by way of comparison, MyStudyLife tracks all of your schedules, assignments, exams, and lectures so you don't have to.
16. OneNote
OneNote is Microsoft's spin on Evernote. It lets you take your mobile note taking to go on more than two devices-which, sadly, Evernote does not. Handwrite notes on your Ipad, collaborate with other team members and highlight important points with different shapes and colors.
17. Khan Academy
Like edX, Khan Academy is a free learning app that provides thousands of downloadable videos. Track your progress, unlock achievements, and brush up on any subject that perks your interest. Khan Academy is a great way to supplement your existing classes with some fresh voices from around the scholarly world.
18. Star Walk
If you consider yourself a head in the clouds kind of gal or guy, you might get some serious entertainment out of Star Walk. Point your device at the sky and see the movements of any celestial body in which you're interested. Star Walk is a great way to get educated on cosmic phenomena-and it's a heck of a fun time.
19. EasyBib
That's right-EasyBib your favorite citation technology now comes in an easy to use app. EasyBib makes the most tedious part of paper-writing-resource citing-a cinch by allowing you to create, copy, and paste citations in a matter of seconds.
20. Quizlet
Say goodbye to flashcards-Quizlet has fully digitized the study game. Use an existing studying template or set up one of your own. From there, a variety of games help you internalize your exam material.
21. Google Drive
Like LinkedIn, Google Drive is an app most widely used by professionals. That said, using it throughout your higher education journey will take a lot of the hassle out of composing and keeping track of papers. Never email another half-finished paper to yourself again; never save to a disc again; and never worry (too much) about your computer getting lost or stolen. Google Drive lets you access any document from any device, so long as you have your Google account credentials on hand.
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And, of course, if you happen to manage a work-study program where employee scheduling and certification tracking are part of your workweek, do not hesitate to check out SubItUp!
