Identifying quality educational apps: Lessons from ‘top’ mathematics apps in the Apple App store

Adam Kenneth Dubé; Gulsah Kacmaz; Run Wen; Sabrina Shajeen Alam; Chu Xu

doi:10.1007/s10639-020-10234-z

Identifying quality educational apps: Lessons from ‘top’ mathematics apps in the Apple App store

Adam Kenneth Dubé^*, Gulsah Kacmaz, Run Wen, Sabrina Shajeen Alam, Chu Xu

^*Corresponding author for this work

McGill University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There are 80,000+ educational apps in the Apple App Store and math apps are the most common. We searched for ‘math’ in the education category and selected the top 10 apps for each of the 3 filters provided by Apple (Relevance, Popularity, Rating) and 3 age categories (0–5, 6–8, 9–11). Using these top 90 apps, we examined the basic information (e.g., price), educational content, and user ratings to see whether the information provided in app stores helps parents and educators find quality educational apps. There was a surprising lack of transparency and meaningful information. The Apple App store needs to explain how it selects ‘top’ apps and developers need to provide benchmarks of educational quality in their app descriptions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5389-5404
Number of pages	16
Journal	Education and Information Technologies
Volume	25
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10234-z
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2020
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

App store
Educational apps
Educational technology
Mathematics education
Mobile
Tablet computers

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10.1007/s10639-020-10234-z

Cite this

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abstract = "There are 80,000+ educational apps in the Apple App Store and math apps are the most common. We searched for {\textquoteleft}math{\textquoteright} in the education category and selected the top 10 apps for each of the 3 filters provided by Apple (Relevance, Popularity, Rating) and 3 age categories (0–5, 6–8, 9–11). Using these top 90 apps, we examined the basic information (e.g., price), educational content, and user ratings to see whether the information provided in app stores helps parents and educators find quality educational apps. There was a surprising lack of transparency and meaningful information. The Apple App store needs to explain how it selects {\textquoteleft}top{\textquoteright} apps and developers need to provide benchmarks of educational quality in their app descriptions.",

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Identifying quality educational apps: Lessons from ‘top’ mathematics apps in the Apple App store

Abstract

Keywords

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