Educational software

Key factors for the selection of partners for educational software development
Educational software is software that is intended for use in teaching and self-learning environments. Any knowledge, from text books to test materials, can be presented in the form of software and spread online in order to make education more and more accessible to everyone.
What is important when selecting a software development company for educational software development?
To answer this question, we should first have a look at the different types of educational software. They are:
Classroom aids
As the name implies, this kind of software is intended to be used in schools, or more precisely in classrooms. This software can be projected onto classroom whiteboards and, if desired, be run on student computers at the same time, using a classroom local network. The actual products in this category vary greatly depending on their intended purpose – be it test-taking software, learning materials, or online conference software.
Our recommendations for selecting a partner for the development of your classroom aids are similar to our suggestions in the previous section on Courseware: The partner should be capable of using technologies for building Rich UI applications.
If the educational materials are to be spread using classroom computers and they include multimedia content (video, audio), the software development partner should be an expert in multimedia content streaming since this represents a separate and very specific set of software development skills.
If it is online conference software, the partner should have experience in video streaming, a subfield of multimedia content streaming.
Reference software
The goal of reference software is to present large collections of information (such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference books) in the suitable electronic form. This field originated as CD-based software, though as the use of the internet progressed, educational materials were increasingly made available online. Technically, this kind of software is quite similar to courseware because it often includes interconnected texts with different multimedia content, such as video, audio, and images. For this reason, our advice is similar to the recommendations we made for courseware: to choose partners that are experienced in the development of Rich UI applications.
Mobile educational software
Many makers of online educational resources like reference software, courseware, and others would like their products to be available online as well. It is important to remember that today’s mobile devices and technologies have progressed so far that the applications should be developed separately for mobile use so that the mobile version can be used comfortably and effortlessly. Large versions intended for use on computers will not automatically be easy to use, displayed properly, or quickly downloadable on a mobile device. Since there are many competing mobile devices, they all are run on different mobile platforms – with the most famous and wide-spread being Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android. Mobile versions should be tested separately for each platform and improved in a way that requires little additional effort further down the line.
Virtual learning environments
As a combination of the above-mentioned types of educational software, virtual learning environments deserve a separate mention. They represent large and complex educational systems which can include a wide set of educational tools: lesson materials, assessment tools, content uploading, questionnaires, student grade management, student group administration, tracking tools, and anything else the client may desire. These systems require a large amount of time for development. Depending on the number of tools, their level of difficulty, and the availability of readily customizable third-party components, a team of multiple developers generally needs at least several months to develop these environments. Iterative software development methodologies are ideal for this purpose since the tools are mostly independent and can easily be delivered by development partners as separate working pieces of software.
Yumasoft has gained extensive experience in educational desktop and web application development in the eight years of its operation. Considering that this industry includes largely specialized subfields, we urge you to only work with partners who have previous experience in the development of the particular field you need.