Creative Ways Online Courses' Students Can Use Productivity Apps

Online courses' students can choose from a variety of apps to help them study and stay on track.

File sharing and storage apps allow online courses' students to share their files with group members and organize them as they wish.

Earning a degree can be challenging enough for students who have the luxury of going to school fulltime.

But for online courses' students, many of whom have family and work added to the mix, academic responsibilities can seem downright overwhelming. 

The good news is there is no shortage of mobile apps that can help online courses' students stay productive.

"We’re seeing a shift in general on the public accessing information anytime, anywhere and the online folks are following suit," says Jean Marrapodi, professor and director of eLearning at New England College of Business and Finance.

Whether students want to spend time between work meetings studying on their cellphones or reading an e-book on tablets, experts say these apps should make it easier to stay on track.

Note-taking apps: Gina Schreck, founder of social media marketing firm SocialKNX, says an app called Evernote is the one tool online courses' students should not live without. The free program allows students to take and organize their notes, share documents with group members and track due dates.

"It’s truly the Swiss Army knife of apps out there," she says of the program, available both on Android and iOS. 

Other note-taking options include Microsoft's OneNote, a free tool which allows users to take, share and archive notes, and Notability, a $2.99 app for iOS that allows students to write, illustrate and annotate. 

Learning management system apps: Now that learning management systems are making their own apps, students don’t have to sit in front of their computer to participate in discussion boards, turn in assignments or track due dates, Marrapodi says. Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle all have free apps for iOS and Android that allow students to access their courses and stay on top of their work.

File-sharing and storage apps: Professors have long urged students to back up their files – and the same holds true today.

"This is huge for online students," Marrapodi says. "We have dealt with students who have a computer that crashes, and if their computer crashes, they lose all of their data." 

Marrapodi’s favorite file-sharing and storage app is Dropbox, a tool that allows students to store their files on the cloud, making them accessible from multiple devices. Students can share their files with teammates and organize them as they wish. The app, which can sync with Notability, is free for less than two gigabytes of storage.

“This is huge for online students,” Marrapodi says. “We have dealt with students who have a computer that crashes, and if their computer crashes, they lose all of their data.”

Similar apps include SkyDrop.it and Box, she says.

News aggregation apps: One great way for online courses' students to stay ahead in class is to download a social magazine app called Flipboard, Schreck and Marrapodi say. The app, free and available for both Android and iOS, allows people to search for articles, photos and videos and create digital magazines they can share with friends. 

"It finds really targeted articles," Marrapodi says. "So the online student who has to come up with discussion board posts can say, 'Well, according to the blah blah blah blog posted today.' It's a way with connecting with the world around them.”

Project management apps: Online courses' students not only have to deal with their own time management challenges, but often have to focus on how their peers are doing in group projects. Fortunately, a variety of apps aim to help keep students more on task.

Marrapodi suggests students check out Smartsheet, an app that allows you to create task lists and assign deadlines to share with remote team members. She also recommends Tom’s Planner, a Gantt chart-based, online planning tool which uses color coded charts showing how much work has been completed.

Other free organization tools include Trello, which helps team members stay organized and manage projects, and Wunderlist, a list-making and management tool.