The best online learning tools and apps
You can't go wrong with online learning tools and apps to make academic life easier and more efficient. These run the gauntlet from revision aids to mind map creators, citation helpers, and tools that help you collaborate with peers and experts. Whatever your academic goals for 2025, here is our pick of the best.
Canva is a versatile, user-friendly tool that empowers students to improve academic 0projects and create appealing presentations, CVs, and more. There's a free version with design templates and tools, so for students on a budget, this is your opportunity to access high-quality design tools without paying for expensive software.
There is also an array of resume templates and portfolio designs, making it easy to create professional resumes, CVs, and portfolios that stand out. This can help when applying for internships and jobs with resumes that showcase your skills, experience, and accomplishments in an appealing way.
This is one of the most powerful tools for students. It can significantly improve a student's writing by highlighting errors, improving clarity, and offering suggestions for improvement. Its combination of grammar and style suggestions, along with plagiarism and AI detection, makes it a must-have for anyone looking to enhance their writing and academic performance.
A free version also offers basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation checks. It's a great starting point for students who want to catch simple errors in their writing.
RefME is a free Referencing app made easy. This app allows you to create, edit, and manage your citations in one place. Not only does the app automate the citation by accurately matching your citation style with bibliographic data, metadata, and much more, but it also allows you to create citations in over 6,500 styles and for over 30 sources.
You can save your citations straight to Evernote to keep your research organised.
Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens)
Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens) trims, enhances and makes pictures of whiteboards and documents readable. You can use Microsoft Lens to scan printed text or handwritten meeting notes to edit and share later. Or convert images to PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, digitise printed or handwritten text, and save to OneNote, OneDrive, or your local device.
It's great for students at any level, as it allows you to scan classroom handouts and annotate them in Word and OneNote. You can also take a picture of the whiteboard or blackboard to reference later, even offline.
This note-taking tool is free for university and college students and allows users to create, organise, and store notes in a digital notebook format. OneNote is part of the Microsoft Office suite, but it is also available as a standalone app for various platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
OneNote organises notes into notebooks, which can be divided into sections and pages. You can also add various types of content to your notes, such as text, images, audio, video, and files.
Notes are stored in the cloud (via OneDrive), so they are accessible from any device with an internet connection. Any changes made on one device are synced automatically to others. Overall, it's a versatile tool that's great for personal note-taking, academic use, and professional collaboration.
Brainscape is a flashcard-based learning app designed to help users study and retain information more effectively through a scientifically proven method called "paced repetition". The app is used by students, professionals, and anyone looking to learn or memorise information more efficiently.
Better still, Brainscape'salgorithm adjusts to your learning style. The more often you correctly answer a card, the less frequently you will need to review it. If you struggle with a particular card, it will appear more often until you master it.
Coggle is a free collaborative mind-mapping tool designed to help you visualise and organise ideas, thoughts, and concepts.
To make detailed study notes, you can create mind maps and flow diagrams, add branches and nodes, and connect ideas using lines and arrows. Coggle also lets you collaborate with others simultaneously so they can add comments and create mind maps together.
Further reading