4 types of educational apps & digital tools for success at university

Do you feel overwhelmed when tracking deadlines, remembering exam dates, organizing lecture notes, finding time to study, or managing assignments?

Imagine a university experience where every day you feel prepared, organized, and confident. With the right digital tools and academic resources, you can create a system that will keep you productive and organized throughout your university journey.

Note: Some of the apps featured in this Byte are free, while others offer paid plans for premium features. Many are available for desktop, tablet, and mobile. Check the links for specific details.

Taking notes is essential for university success because it helps you to better engage with the material and improve your understanding of important concepts.

While course notes can be taken by hand, it's more efficient to type them out. Digital notes are easy to edit since you can freely copy, paste, and rearrange text. And because typing is generally faster than handwriting, taking digital notes helps you keep up during lectures.

• Microsoft OneNote lets you create a digital binder by combining typed notes, images, audio clips, and hand-drawn elements.

• Obsidian is great for creating structured notes using Markdown, which is useful for programming students.

• Joplin is a secure, open-source tool that supports text, images, PDFs, and audio files.

• UpNote is a complete note editor that offers a clean design and advanced formatting.

Helpful Tips 💡

• Before class, prepare your notes by adding the lecture title, date, and a topic tag to keep your them organized and easy to find.

• Shortly after class, revise and review your notes. Fill in any missing information and note down definitions for unclear terms. Once your notes are ready, review them regularly to reinforce your learning.

• Enhance your notes by bolding, highlighting and underlining important text, and adding visuals like diagrams, pictures, and helpful links to videos and articles to better understand the topic.

Did you know that the average person checks their phone nearly 200 times a day? While a smartphone can be a major distraction, it can also be used as a tool to achieve good grades. You can use focus apps to help you concentrate while studying.

• Forest is both a Pomodoro timer and a distraction blocker that lets you grow a virtual tree while studying. The Pomodoro timer is based on a time management method where you work for short sessions with regular breaks in between.

• Pomofocus is a simple Pomodoro timer.

• Portal helps you stay focused while studying by playing immersive nature sounds with matching visuals.

Helpful Tips 💡

• Try the Pomodoro method to minimize distractions by starting with 25-minute intervals of focused work followed by a short, 5-minute break.

• If you plan to use the Forest app, you can incorporate it into your study routine by using its app blocking feature to temporarily restrict access to your most distracting mobile apps, so that you can focus on your coursework.

• If you go with the Portal app, you can set up your study environment by exploring the different nature sounds and choosing one that will help you concentrate most effectively while studying.

As a university student, balancing the demands of school, work, extracurricular activities, home responsibilities, and a social life can be very challenging. A good way to manage each of these activities is by using a task management app.

• Google Calendar is digital tool that students can use for scheduling classes, project deadlines, and group meetings.

• Microsoft To Do lets you create and organize to-do lists to manage daily responsibilities.

• Sunsama is a digital daily planner that helps you to plan out your day using time blocking.

Helpful Tips 💡

• Plan your schedule by using 15–20 minutes at the beginning of each week to add lecture meetings, assignment due dates, exam dates, and personal commitments into your task management app.

• Use color coding to organize classes, meetings, assignments, exams, and personal tasks. This makes it easier to identify each item in your schedule at a glance.

• Enable push notifications to receive reminders about deadlines, upcoming events, and important appointments.

As a busy university student, Maya is looking for ways to stay on top of her studies. After discovering two study apps, she has to decide which one to download.

App A

• Create study schedules

• Manage deadlines

• Simple design

• Quick to set up

App B

• Create study schedules

• Manage deadlines

• Advanced search and filtering

• Customizable home page

You'll need to consider using educational resources to support your university learning. They allow you to review concepts, explore topics in more depth and practice your skills.

• Khan Academy offers video lessons and practice exercises in a wide variety of subjects, such as math, science, and social studies.

• Quizlet is a tool that helps students prepare for exams by creating materials such as flashcards, practice tests, and learning games.

• Coursera is a platform where you can take additional courses and earn certificates.

Helpful Tips 💡

• Strengthen your understanding of coursework material by using multiple online resources that explain the same concept using different explanations and examples.

• Take advantage of Khan Academy to prepare for exams by working through practice quizzes and sample problems to reinforce concepts.

• Create a resources folder on your computer to save helpful blog articles, diagrams, and educational tutorials to revisit when working on assignments or preparing for exams.

Are you ready to build your digital toolkit for your studies?