This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen writes about online colleges at OnlineColleges.net.
Productivity has to be priority number one when you’re a student. Between class, study time, and extracurricular activities, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
That’s why free web apps exist. These no-cost products are specifically designed to make your life easier and less stressful. Some have been around for years and others are relatively new–but they will all do their part to boost your productivity.
Here are 20 free web apps that every student can use:
Zoho Office Suite – Forget dropping more than $100 on the Microsoft Office Suite. Use Zoho–it’s free and it comes with more than the student edition of Microsoft.
Bookgoo – Upload, highlight, and annotate your documents. It’s like editing on paper but better.
Diigo – This free research tool makes it easy to highlight and annotate text on the web. You can access everything you save from your phone or another PC.
MyStickies – Sticky notes for the web. Better than bookmarks because you can annotate MyStickies with reminders, ideas, and other important info.
Web-Chops – Clip any part of a web page. Save it and arrange onto a personal topic page. You can share topic pages with friends or keep them all to yourself.
Cornell Notes PDF Generator – Create fully customizable and printable note-taking pages with this simple but wonderful web app. Pages can be blank, ruled, or graphed.
OttoBib – Enter an ISBN and OttoBib will automatically create a bibliography in MLA, APA, or Chicago format.
Wesabe – Although Wesabe is more of a community than a web app, it will work for students who want to develop financial goals and save money.
Mint - Easily one of the best budgeting sites on the web. Mint automatically downloads, categorizes, and graphs your finances on a daily basis.
Meebo – This IM client lets you sign onto your IM accounts from anywhere. Meebo supports 10 different IM services.
Mikogo – This free screen sharing tool makes it easy to show your screen to someone else online. Perfect for study buddies and groups who can’t study in the same room.
Phonevite – A free phone invitation and RSVP service. Use it to send personalized phone alerts and reminders to yourself and other people.
ChaCha – ChaCha has real people on stand-by to help students who are stumped or too lazy to do their own Google search. Simply text, type, or phone in your question.
Schoolr – This site was made specifically for students. Schoolr allows you to convert units, translate text, and conduct searches on multiple search engines from one page.
Calcoolate - Great for simple calculations. And when you realize you forgot to write down the sum of 1,099+678+54+90+12, it’s no problem. You simply check your history of calculations. Calcoolate saves them for you.
Notely - This free web app has it all: a calendar, a scheduler, note-taking capabilities, and a homework planner.
Evernote - The ever popular Evernote captures entire web pages and anything else you can copy, and then synchs it across all of your computers and mobile devices.
Soshiku – There’s no reason to miss a due date when you use Soshiku. This dream app for students tracks assignments and notifies you via email or SMS when a project is due.
HipCal - This online calendar makes it a cinch to keep track of upcoming events and tasks. HipCal will even send a memo to your phone or email when there is something really important to remember.
Remember the Milk – Students (and other people with a pulse) who have not yet discovered Remember the Milk are missing out. This taskmaster can be used online and offline and is compatible with almost everything.
What applications do you use to help you learn?
For more from Karen, be sure to check out OnlineColleges.net.
Photo: kcolwell
