At EdPlace, we want to give you the best tools to learn whenever, and wherever, you want to. For this reason, you can choose to access your EdPlace student account via our website, iOS app or Android app - or, perhaps even, a combination of these options!
The great news is that every single one of our activities can be completed in either the web or app versions, and all the essential features (question types, timings, etc.) will be exactly the same.
However, there will be small differences between working on the website or one of the apps which are important for you to understand. These differences may lead to you finding it easier to work in one over the other, or you may find that you are more successful with certain types of activities in one of these mediums.
Read on to find out more about these differences, so that you can make the best choice for you based on your own learning preferences and the activity you will be working on.
Account differences
When you log into your student account, the dashboard will vary slightly depending on how you access it. All the same information will be displayed but, because of the smaller screen size for the apps, the presentation will vary. For example, the app only shows 'Recommended activities' on your homepage with your full To Do List only visible in the 'Activities' tab; whereas on the web, there is space to show a full version of your To Do List on the homepage.
We hope that these small differences will have very little effect on your overall experience, but there are some things you can only do on the web-based student account. They are:
- Request a reward (for more information on this, please click here);
- Set preferences for, and use, your accessibility toolbar (for more information on this, please click here);
- View previous scores in 'Browse' to make assigning work to yourself easier (for more information on this, please click here);
- Access the 'Timeline' feature (for more information on this, please click here);
- Report an error in an activity (for more information on this, please click here).
So when you are planning to do one of these things, the best bet is to log into your student account on the EdPlace website instead.
User experience differences
There are also some small, but important, differences in how you will answer questions. For example, if you are asked to 'Match' up correct answers on the web, this will use a drag-and-drop approach; whereas on the apps, you will click once and then 'Move here' buttons will appear for you to click for a second time on where you would like to place each option. These differences have to occur because of the varied screen sizes and based on whether you are using a mouse pointer or a finger. Here's an example that shows the different presentations of the same question:
Website: Apps:
When you complete an activity on the apps, your score will be shown 'out of' (e.g. 4/10) whereas it will be shown as a percentage on the web (e.g. 40%).
As we mentioned before, most of our accessibility features will not be available on our apps because they cannot operate on a small screen. You can still return to the Introduction if you get stuck during an activity, but you cannot enable audio on the apps. For this reason, if these features help you learn and are important to you, we would recommend that you try to work on the website when you can.
There will also be some types of activities which will be easier to complete on a larger screen and you may prefer to try in more of a school set-up (i.e. sat at a desk with a pen and paper handy). We recommend that you consider the website as the preferred option for:
- Activities where you need to type extended answers (mostly in English);
- Revision activities (which use a timer and may require extended working out);
- Assessments (which use a timer and may require extended working out);
- Any activity which suggests that you need a pen, paper, calculator or other resources to complete successfully.
We hope that this information will enable you to choose the best learning option on EdPlace for the activity you are planning to work on and your own preferences - if you don't have to sweat the small stuff, then you can really give 100% to your learning!
If you need any help with this or have any more questions or suggestions, please contact our friendly Customer Support Team at help@edplace.com.