E-learning Apps’ Creation in 2022: MVP Feature and Development Cost

Technological advances caused a significant change in the educational sector. Thanks to the shift to a digital format, this field is among the few that benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, in 2019, EdTech has gained $18,66 billion in investments. Not bad unless we compare it with the estimate for 2025 that amounts to an astonishing $350 billion.

In this article, you’ll learn about types of educational apps, their MVP features, and development cost. 

Educational App: Types and Market Perspectives

E-learning has proved to be a sufficient alternative for classical education. Many universities around the world cooperate with e-learning platforms, such as Coursera. Alongside, independent specialists can monetize their knowledge on platforms like Udemy or Edx.   

But most significantly, e-learning has thrived in the mobile sector. During the first quarter of 2020, the number of educational apps’ downloads grew by 30% compared with 2019. And now, the experts claim that the educational market will exceed $46 billion by 2024.

Thus, as it’s high time for educational apps’ creation, let’s look through their main types.

Types of Educational Apps

E-learning apps are divided into two main categories depending on the user: apps for students and teachers.

Educational Apps for Students

• Language learning apps. Users learn new words in the game format, e.g., in Lingualeo, or enhance their vocabulary by watching videos with native speakers, like on Memrise.
• Apps for kids. Children spend a lot of time on their tablets, so why not use this for good? Poptropica English Islands help kids learn English while solving funny mysteries, while Fish School is all about teaching kids letters, numbers, colors, and many more, again, while playing.
• Courses for adults. Though there are many applications offering courses for adults, Coursera and Udemy brilliantly exemplify two main options of adult e-learning. The first one is participation in a course provided by a university (Coursera), while the second is learning from an independent specialist (Udemy).
• Exam preparation. Such apps as ExamPrep or BYJU’S Exam Prep assist the user with gaining confidence about upcoming exams. Practice tests, quizzes, flashcards ensure are priceless means of prep for K12 school subjects, Mick Tests, MBA/CAT, or any other exam.

Educational Apps for Teachers:

• For gamification of the learning process. Aiming at making a learning process more fun, apps for teachers can use gamification as their primary approach. Kahoot! and MathMonster are great examples here.
• For progress tracking. Teachers need to monitor learners’ progress and share it with parents. Information about grades, attendance, achievements are considered valuable to this end. SeeSaw is a great example here.
• For training materials storage. Cloud-based platforms are the best candidates to serve as a means of storing and sharing learning materials. For instance, Schoology allows sharing files, making notes, and highlighting significant pieces of learning material with the help of notes.

MVP Features + Advanced Features

There are two kinds of features: basic and advanced. Basic features typically refer to MVP or Minimal Viable Product. MVP of your educational app will help you attract first investments and understand market perspectives of the final product and reason out your business strategy accordingly.

Also, features can be classified depending on what user role is targeted: students or teachers. Once you have determined this, it’s high time to proceed to the MVP features vital for each user role.

MVP Features of an e-learning App for Students

• Signup/Login

Multiple ways of signup are essential. For example, combine phone number with email, email with a password, etc. An option of prompt password recovery is another must-have here.

• Search

Students need a flexible search with a wide range of filters to quickly and efficiently find a course or a learning material.

• User profile

This feature refers to a screen containing data about all the courses and dashboards students choose to enroll in. Students’ data, such as age and gender, is also included here.

• Course page

This is where students choose if they will participate in a course. As a rule, this section includes a curriculum, description, and the “Buy” button for optimal decision-making conditions.  

• Payments

An intuitive payment page and safe payment gateway are fundamental to ensure permanent monetization.

• Menu

This section is vital for a smooth learning flow as it organizes the content of an app into thematic blocks. Menu deals with a student’s current courses, tasks, tests, and upcoming evaluations.

• Push notifications

This feature is crucial to sustaining engagement. Notifications let students know about course updates, upcoming lessons, marks, etc. 

Must-Have Features of an Educational App for Teachers

Teachers’ mode has a shorter list of features. However, some of those features are ultimately more complex and cover more elements. Such order of things is quite natural as typically teachers create courses and manage the learning process.

• SignUp/login

The registration process for teachers is the same as for students. Several login options and the “Forgot password” option are vital elements here as well.

• Students management

This feature enables teachers to manage the learning process and learners’ mentoring efficiently. Such elements as the list of students, their details, and information about their progress are included here. 

• Course page

This feature directly correlates with the course success rate. Teachers should have an opportunity to create a course in a fast and flawless manner. This primarily implies a constant opportunity to upload necessary learning materials. 

• Tests

Test section serves the goal of proper learning progress tracking. Test creation implies adding a needed amount of questions and answers. The edit option is also essential here.

Advanced Features

These features will help your app reveal its authentic style and stand out among competitors. Here are some ideas for advanced features that come in handy with educational apps:

• Chatbot
• Personalized notifications
• Video meetings
• Smart schedule.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an Educational App?

To reason out the cost of educational app development, we need to know what features are used. Each feature demands a certain amount of hours spent on its development, and it varies depending on the end-user: a teacher or a student.

Let’s look at the development time needed for students’ apps MVP features.

Feature	Back-end	iOS	Android	Flutter
Signup/Login	47 hours	43 hours	43 hours	45 hours
Search	26 hours	23 hours	23 hours	23 hours
Profile	52 hours	41 hours	41 hours	44 hours
Course	19 hours	17 hours	17 hours	17 hours
Payments	43 hours	36 hours	36 hours	42 hours
Menu	88 hours	95 hours	95 hours	100 hours
Push notifications	14 hours	14 hours	14 hours	14 hours

Now let’s view features and time for their development in the teacher’s mode.

Feature	Back-end	iOS	Android	Flutter
Signup/Login	47 hours	43 hours	43 hours	45 hours
Students management	56 hours	56 hours	56 hours	56 hours
Course	71 hours	62 hours	62 hours	62 hours
Test	79 hours	55 hours	55 hours	55 hours
Push notifications	14 hours	14 hours	14 hours	14 hours

Plus, we should consider that other elements constitute the development process apart from MVP features. Thus, a comprehensive review of full-scale development is necessary.

Feature	Back-end	iOS	Android	Flutter
Features for students	289 hours	269 hours	269 hours	285 hours
Features for teachers	297 hours	230 hours	230 hours	232 hours
Admin panel (one for all platforms)	100 hours	–	–	–
Frameworks and libraries integration	32 hours	20 hours	20 hours	28 hours
UI/UX design	–	120 hours	120 hours	120 hours
Quality assurance	390 hours	455 hours	455 hours	500 hours
DevOps	60 hours	70 hours	70 hours	70 hours
Project management	162 hours	189 hours	189 hours	220 hours
Total time	1344 hours	1353 hours	1353 hours	1455 hours

Considering the above-mentioned development hours, we calculated development cost based on the average rate in Eastern Europe — $50 per hour. The final price of one educational app development roughly estimates $134,850 and $202,500 for two apps (on iOS or Android). Alongside, creating the app on Flutter roughly amounts to $139,950.

Of course, this is only a rough estimate. For instance, outsource app development companies need to gather all the requirements and peculiarities of a given business before making a proper evaluation. So you’ll receive a precise estimate for your app’s development cost once you start working on the project.