Great Apps for Online Students
Taking an online course — or enrolling in an online degree program — requires a lot of self-motivation and time management to complete assignments and tasks, meet deadlines, and plan for exams.
Enlist the help of desktop and phone apps to get organized, connect with other students, and stay focused.
Of course, the essential app for any University of Louisiana at Lafayette online student is the UL Lafayette app, available through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Through the app, students can connect to Moodle, online program Success Hubs, email, ULink, and more.
Everything else is just lagniappe.
Get organized.
Asana
Asana is one of the dozens of project and task management platforms professionals and organizations use to stay on track. The perks of this particular program are its multiple view options — list, board, calendar, files, and tasks, among others — and that it allows users to collaborate with up to 15 people for free. There are apps for iOS, iPad, and Android and integration options for programs like Microsoft 365 and Gmail.
AirTable
Airtable is another option for organizing your assignments, schedule, or group projects. The company is now giving students a free two-year pro account to access the full suite of features. Pull from a handy bank of templates for managing group projects, tracking your goals, creating study guides, and more.
Evernote
Evernote offers apps and browser plug-ins to let users create to-do lists, capture different types of content and documents, and share files while syncing across devices.
You can also easily search for your notes or an article you’ve saved in the app and take advantage of integrations with other programs, like Google Drive or Microsoft Teams.
Mendeley
When you’re collecting peer-reviewed studies and articles for a research project, Mendeley is a great resource for managing your references.
Create folders for different papers, projects, or topics, and then save articles using Mendeley’s Chrome or Firefox plugins. You can also upload documents manually to build a library you can access from any device.
The platform also offers citation guides and a handy citation export function that’ll make compiling your reference section a breeze.
Connect with other students.
Microsoft Teams
As a UL Lafayette student, you have access to Office 365 for free by logging in through your browser or downloading the applications to your device. In addition to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, students can access Microsoft Teams.
Teams is a platform for group chats, web conferencing, calls, file sharing, and collaboration. It also integrates with other programs, like Asana and Evernote.
GroupMe
Keep in touch with classmates or groupmates with a free messaging service like GroupMe. Receive and send messages through the app or SMS to collaborate on group projects, ask questions about class assignments, and build connections.
Increase your productivity.
Focus To-Do
The Pomodoro method has a cult following of students at all levels.
The concept is simple enough:
- Identify a task (or series of tasks).
- Work for 25 minutes.
- Take a 3-5-minute break.
- Repeat three more cycles.
- Celebrate with a 15-30-minute break.
- Repeat full cycle.
While you can use a simple timer to keep track, an app like Focus To-Do can help you track time as well as tasks, whether you’re working in a browser or completing an assignment on your phone.
Forest
If you need more incentives or accountability to focus on the tasks at hand, Forest lets you grow a virtual tree for every half hour you stay focused. The more you practice good productivity habits, the more trees you’ll grow!
The app and browser extension lets you personalize your experience by blacklisting websites that are your productivity busters. Navigate to those sites and your adorable virtual tree withers away along with your hopes for a higher GPA.
Improve your grades.
Quizlet
If you’re a fan of using index cards as a study tool, but you’re not a fan of trying to keep bundles of notecards handy, give your test prep an upgrade.
Quizlet lets you make your own digital flashcards and take practice tests either in your browser or in the Quizlet app. The platform also allows you to set study goals to create a custom plan, based on how familiar you are with the information.
Tutoring
OK, OK. These technically aren’t apps, but they are great online resources for UL Lafayette students.
Online Program students
Both NetTutor and TutorMe are online tutoring services that connect online students with live tutors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Students enrolled in fully online degree programs must access the services through Moodle for free access.
For more support and student resources, visit the Student Support section of the Online Programs website. If you’re interested in enrolling in one of UL Lafayette’s online programs, connect with an enrollment specialist at online@louisiana.edu.
