In times of digitalization, students have a decisive advantage compared to older generations – at least when it comes to technical support! Numerous digital tools cannot completely take over your learning, but they can definitely make the general organization of your studies easier. In this article, we present you with the best digital tools for students.
Are you looking for apps with artificial intelligence? We present you with a detailed article about the best AI tools for studying.
- Organization & Notes
- Studies & Research
- Research & Library Services
- Literature & Citation Management
- Writing & Proofreading
- Presentation & Visualization
Note: In this article, the listed tools are linked. When you click on the links, you will automatically be forwarded to the software provider.
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Comprehensive program with many practical features and countless templates to create any seminar notes, appointments, to-do lists, visual boards, brainstorming ideas, mind maps, etc. For group work, you can use the sharing function. When you register with your student email address, the Pro version is also free.
With this smartphone app, you can manage your hourly and seminar schedule in a calendar as well as receive your university emails. To do this, you only need to log in once via your university portal in the app, then all the data and appointments stored there are synchronized.
Uncomplicated minimalist application for saving and sharing digital sticky notes. Ideal for a quick note on the go.
2. Studies & Research
With us, you can create surveys for your empirical seminar or thesis work quickly, effectively, and for free. Thanks to our unique smart survey tool, you can create even complex scientific surveys within minutes.
Pro tip: Additionally, you learn in the section empirio Knowledge how to successfully implement an empirical research project for an essay, bachelor thesis, or master thesis – with a step-by-step guide that is easy to understand even for first-year students.
In this learning app, you can automatically generate flashcards from your study materials and share them with others. You can also better structure your learning content (e.g. as mind maps) and create your personal learning goals.
scribbr (Tip!)
This learning portal has a large knowledge database that is well suited for looking up important scientific terms and methods. The paid proofreading function is especially useful for correcting theses and has also performed very well in many online comparisons.
Pro tip: Use the free scribbr plagiarism check to search your work for unintended plagiarism.
Bachelorprint (Tip!)
For printing and binding your thesis as well as for paid plagiarism checking, this reliable provider is your first point of contact. In the large knowledge magazine, you will also find many good articles and guides on scientific work.
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3. Research & Library Services
With GoThesis, you can find the perfect topic for your bachelor thesis or master thesis in just a few steps. 10,000+ topic suggestions serve as inspiration, exciting theses from companies, and an AI tool with which you can generate your own personal topic, table of contents, and abstract. Furthermore, the software offers an online plagiarism check and a comprehensive thesis guide where you receive a personal (tailored to your topic) step-by-step guide for your thesis.
A cross-platform search engine that searches the global catalog inventory for books, essays, and journals. You will find not only where you can borrow the book you are looking for, but also many online sources in full text.
Access to this online library for academic journals and articles is free from the campus network. When you register there for free, you get free access to 100 articles per month even outside your university.
Pro tip: Also use the comprehensive image search when you are looking for good and legal images for a presentation or your slides. In addition to classical artworks, you will also find posters, illustrations, old magazine covers, vintage postcards, etc. (also available outside the campus network).
This academic search engine is still underestimated by many, but it is very well suited for academic research. There you will find scientific books (excerpts as well as in full text), academic journals, academic articles, and even published theses.
Pro tip: With the advanced search, you can narrow your research by a specific time period, for example if you are only looking for current literature
The interdisciplinary database for scientific books and articles from the Springer publishing house allows free previews for the book you are looking for. Often you can use this preview to decide whether this source is interesting for you at all. From your university network or via library checkout, you can also download many publications for free as e-books.
In these networks for scientists, many current publications by academic authors are published as free downloads. Pro tip: There you can contact different scientists directly if you cannot find a specific article by the author elsewhere or if you need an expert opinion for your own research.
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The best alternative to the paid Citavi. With Zotero, you can easily manage all your sources for seminar, bachelor, or master work and create bibliographies from them. The citation plug-in for Microsoft Word is also recommended.
Management software for research papers with which all metadata is extracted directly from a loaded PDF. Otherwise, similar functionality to Zotero, but the free version of Mendeley has a storage limit of 500 MB.
A bookmarking application for all browsers to save web pages, tag them with individual notes and tags, and share them with others. Group work & brainstorming Mural: On this virtual real-time whiteboard, information can be collected together in the form of sticky notes, images, web links, and files. Perfect for various group projects.
This whiteboard has fewer functions in the free version than Mural, but you can use it to create different diagrams and tables with your team members. Concept Board: Simple collaboration tool to share sticky notes, comments, links, etc. on an infinite canvas in real time.
5. Writing & Proofreading
This text editing software is not only free when you log in with your Google account, but it is also perfect for group work. You can share any document with others as needed and even edit it together at the same time.
Whether as a discounted student version or in the free online version (Office.com) – this program is popular for a reason. You will not find so many functions, including plug-ins for example for citing or creating bibliographies, in any other editing program.
With this synonym database, you can avoid frequent word repetitions in your essays and papers. Good texts always bring a certain linguistic variety. LanguageTool: This writing assistant can be installed as an extension in your browser and checks your texts for any grammar, style, or spelling errors. Also works as a plug-in for Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
In the free version, you can simply paste short texts (up to 800 characters) into the text field and perform a quick Duden spelling analysis. Wortliga: This tool, which is very popular with professional writers, checks your texts for comprehensibility, readability, and word repetition.
6. Presentation & Visualization
User-friendly and free PowerPoint alternative with an uncomplicated editor and modern, visually appealing templates. Thanks to integrated Google plug-ins, you can access additional graphic elements as needed. Simultaneous editing of slides with comment and chat functions works flawlessly.
This app allows you to add an interactive component to your presentation. This allows your audience to vote anonymously in real time during your presentation, take a quiz, or ask questions.
With this, you can create a dynamic, non-linear, and unconventional presentation with camera movements and zoom effects, which is especially useful for creative and audiovisual topics. If you want to take your audience on a journey, Prezi is a good choice.
With this tool, you can calculate how much time you will need for your presentation or talk. This allows you to prevent yourself from exceeding the specified time: simply copy your prepared text into the window - and you can better estimate your speaking time.
This classic presentation software is usually offered to you at a discount through your university. But the free online version also gives you all the functions you need for a typical presentation. Numerous Microsoft templates are also available for free.
Create a survey for free
With empirio.ai you can create a modern online survey in minutes — with 100% data protection from Germany.
Start for free