A systematic search and comparative analysis of commercial mobile apps for parent-teacher communication

Abstract

Background: Communication between teachers and parents has been shown to improve outcomes for students. Mobile apps are increasingly used to facilitate communication between teachers and parents in various educational contexts. However, there are a large number of apps available, and information about their intended use and quality can be difficult to find.

Objective: To improve our understanding of the landscape of mobile apps for parent-teacher communication, I performed a systematic search of commercially-available mobile apps along with a comparative analysis of their quality. The following research questions guided this work: R1: What features do commercially-available(apps available for free or apps offering a free trial) parent-teacher communication apps have? R2: What are the current strengths and weaknesses of parent-teacher communication mobile apps? The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) was used to describe and analyze the features of apps and evaluate their quality.

Methods: A search for 7 keyword pairs related to parent-teacher communication was conducted in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Marketplace. A Google search for “parent-teacher communication app recommendation” was also conducted, so that mobile apps that appeared in recommendation lists were also included in the study. Those mobile apps that have not met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were excluded. Finally, apps were reviewed and rated on quality using the MARS subscales on engagement, functionality, visual aesthetics, information quality, and subjective quality.

Results: A total of 339 apps were identified upon removing the duplicates, screening using inclusion and exclusion criteria, and including top 15 apps from the 21 editorial recommendation lists from Google search result. The final selection of apps consists of 10 that appeared in all three sources/platforms (i.e. Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the recommendation list found via Google search). The median overall MARS score on the quality measure was 4.08 (out of 5.0), which exceeded the minimum acceptable score (3.0). The ClassDojo app had the highest average score (4.75) followed by Remind (4.41). Only two apps, Bloomz(2.95), and Freshgrade(2.83), fall below the minimum acceptable score (3.0). Subjective subscales of MARS ratings are excluded from the overall MARS ratings.

Conclusions: Despite the wealth of apps targeting parent and teacher communication, only a few passed the identified screening criteria. Many of the excluded apps also require a school wide implementation and a specific access code provided by the school to use, making them somehow inaccessible for some teachers and parents to try out. Of the final 10 apps selected from the systematic search, some demonstrate a diverse offering of features aimed towards information sharing, while others have a narrower scope, including only features related to direct messaging between parents and teachers and class announcements. Furthermore, some apps that are frequently recommended in recommendation lists (i.e. in blogs, etc.) scored the lowest scores in the app quality evaluation, and only few of the 10 selected apps address communication between parents and teachers for children with special needs. Finally, the ways in which these apps measure the effectiveness of parent-teacher communication remains unknown and requires further research.