# LessonNote — Classroom lesson observation

> Classroom lesson observation tool for documenting student engagement and learning flow. (iPhone/iPad app by Lesson Study Alliance.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lessonnote/id507466065 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Lesson Study Alliance](https://appshunter.io/developer/507466068)
- Category: Education, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 10 App Store ratings · 23 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.6 · 62 MB
- Languages: American English, Khmer, French (France), Japanese, Chinese (Simplified, China), Thai
- Released: 2012-03-16
- Data updated: 2026-09-13
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lessonnote/id507466065/reviews.md

## What is LessonNote?

LessonNote is an innovative classroom observation tool for documenting the flow of a lesson and its impact on students. Capture both quantitative and qualitative data:

• Track who is talking to whom, when, and for how long.
• Jot handwritten, time-stamped notes about what is being said and what students are doing.
• Take photos of student work.
• Capture time spent in different modalities: whole-class, individual work, group work.

Begin by creating a seating chart with icons representing the teacher, students, groups, and display areas such as blackboards or projection screens. 
Record observations by selecting an icon, or linking two icons for a note about an interaction. Take photos of student work. 

After a lesson, efficiently review your data for a student-focused conversation that improves teaching and learning. A small seating chart shows exactly who or what a note is about, so you don't need to know the names of the students. A timeline shows how much time was spent in whole-class lecture or discussion, individual work time, and group work time.

LessonNote helps you create a fact-based and non-judgemental record of the lesson and its impact on students. LessonNote is ideal for peer observation, coaching, instructional rounds, and of course for Lesson Study. For administrators, LessonNote improves on simple checklists or rating scales by helping document how lessons affect students—which is, ultimately, what teaching is all about.

Work with your colleagues and use LessonNote to improve teaching and learning!

Read the Terms of Service at: https://LSAlliance.org/LessonNote/terms-of-service.html.

## Key features

- Track student interactions and conversation duration
- Record handwritten notes and observations
- Capture photos of student work
- Measure time spent in different learning modalities
- Review data for student-focused discussions
- Ideal for peer observation and coaching

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 3 Months of Pro | $29.99 | per 3 months |
| 6 Months of Pro | $44.99 | per 6 months |
| 1 Year Pro | $64.99 | per year |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 6-month LessonNote Pro subscription | $89.99 | one-time |
| 1-year LessonNote Pro subscription | $149.99 | one-time |
| 2-year LessonNote Pro subscription | $249.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (10 of 23)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lessonnote/id507466065/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Invaluable for Teacher Feedback

*2022-03-12*

I am an education consultant and author that works with schools on personalized learning through learning labs. This app is invaluable for observation and feedback in learning labs. It is absolutely worth the investment, even if you’re not doing Lesson Study or Learning Labs. You can keep track of lesson observations and link student work with them directly. Do not hesitate—try it out and you will be hooked.

### 2/5 — No typing function

*2019-12-28, version 3.8.1*

Please could this be added? I won’t be using it without this function.

### 5/5 — nothing touches it

*2018-06-28*

I have seen nothing else like this for classroom observation. Instead of a bunch of checkboxes, sliders, and the like, this app invites you to focus on what is most important: the students and how the lesson is impacting them. Based on a seating chart (which you can set up really fast), you take handwritten notes about what students (and the teacher) are saying and doing. You can insert photos of student work. You notate changes in modality (e.g. whole-group vs small-group or individual work). After the lesson, the app makes it easy to talk about what happened and when – every note is time-stamped and linked to the seating chart so you know whom it is about. And yes, there are some statistics if you want those: how long each segment of the lesson was, how many notes you have for each person, and the total duration of those notes. Some things could make it better: "undo" is so slow as to be unusable, and there is no eraser. But this app has really improved the quality of my post-lesson conversations with teachers. This free (FREE!) app blows everything else away. Thank you!

### 2/5 — Even better if...

*2017-03-02, version 3.6.2*

A clever app but seems to be missing an obvious feature...add in the option to type notes with the keyboard. This would make it a full observation tool!

### 3/5 — Innovative, but poor quality writing

*2017-02-02*

I was really excited about this app because I've been looking for a free (or at least non-subscription based) app for observations within classrooms. I love the concept of the app, and the structure of capturing information tied to a student, teacher, etc. 

Tapping on a student and entering individual notes is a great idea and prevents the issues I've had running out of space to write notes near a student's name. 

That being said, the responsiveness of the app to input leaves a LOT to be desired. Writing with an Apple Pencil results in blocky and largely unreadable text - the app just doesn't track the stylus with enough (or much of any) precision, which renders it basically unusable. 

Hoping for an improvement - would love to use the app, but can't currently!

**Developer response:** Hi danlang,

I know it's been quite a while since you wrote this review, but we've just released LessonNote 4 which makes serious improvements to the note taking and writing system. Particular to your comments, LessonNote now officially supports Apple Pencil®! We'd love for you to give LessonNote another try if it still fits into your needs.

Thank you!
The LessonNote Team

### 5/5 — Powerful app

*2014-01-08, version 2.1.1*

I used this in my ITT training when observing other teachers. Seasoned teachers were amazed at how much information I had about their lessons. The hardest part was the setting up of the classroom and if they changed around a lot during the lesson.
One colleague used it to monitor who he spoke to during the lesson so he could ensure everyone had the equal amount of attention

### 4/5 — Very good app

*2013-05-21, version 2.1*

I am a university tutor and do a lot of observations. This is a really convenient way to record interactions between participants in class. It would be great if there was an option to use the iPad keyboard, as it is much easier to type than it is to write. Also, not all classrooms lend themselves to a 'portrait' orientation, so using the auto-rotate feature would be good as well.

### 5/5 — An invaluable app for a math specialist

*2013-04-22*

This app has provided focused and timely conversations with teachers about the time they spend talking vs. their students, the types of questions they are asking and how their students answer and documenting key visuals needed for deep collaboration.

### 5/5 — Great for observations

*2013-02-14*

I am a teacher educator and use this for classroom observations. It is a great way to illustrate what is happening in the classroom. Would like option to type notes while observing.

**Developer response:** This is a frequent request. We believe that carefully observing students usually requires standing up, where one can easily see what they are doing/writing. Using a keyboard usually requires sitting down. We will, however, continue to consider providing keyboard support as an option. Thank you for your feedback.

### 5/5 — Great tool

*2013-01-31*

An excellent tool that serves the goal of documenting the structure and dynamics of a classroom. A chief goal I have is to be able to provide a lot of objective data from a classroom observation. Once I learn to deliver this data via email or other means, to the teacher, I'm sure I will employ this app quite often.

## Frequently asked questions about LessonNote

### What is LessonNote used for?

LessonNote is an educational tool designed for documenting classroom lessons. It helps educators track student interactions, record observations, and analyze learning flow to improve teaching methods.

### What kind of data can I collect with LessonNote?

You can collect quantitative data like who is talking to whom and for how long, and qualitative data such as handwritten notes and photos of student work. It also tracks time spent in different learning modalities.

### Is LessonNote free to use?

LessonNote is free to download and use. However, it offers in-app purchases for Pro subscription plans that unlock advanced features for extended use.

### What are the subscription options for LessonNote Pro?

LessonNote Pro offers subscription plans for 3 months at $29.99, 6 months at $44.99, and 1 year at $64.99, providing access to enhanced functionalities.

### What devices does LessonNote support?

LessonNote is currently supported on iPads, making it a convenient tool for educators in tablet-based classroom environments.

### How often is LessonNote updated?

The latest version, 4.2.3, was last updated on January 12, 2026, indicating a commitment to ongoing development and improvements for users.

### What is the age rating for LessonNote?

LessonNote has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for use by educators across various educational levels.

### How does LessonNote help improve teaching?

By providing detailed, data-driven insights into lesson flow and student engagement, LessonNote facilitates student-focused conversations that can lead to more effective teaching strategies and improved learning outcomes.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 6.1.1 — 2026-09-10

Fixes a critical bug in the core data migration that affected some users and blocked the migration.

### 6.1 — 2026-09-01

• Support for multiple seating charts per lesson.
• LessonNote now works on iPhones, with keyboard support.
• If you need to see your data on a bigger screen, choose from two export options: (1) Export the lesson as a web archive and view it in any browser; (2) Export the lesson as a LessonNote archive and view in LessonNote on a Mac.
• Button in the home screen toolbar to go to the new LessonNote forum or to send us email.
• Pro subscribers can now add and edit tags directly from the notepad.
• Modality timer: See when a note was created relative to the start of the current instructional modality. Easily know, for example, how long students were working independently before a certain student completed the task.

### 5.4 — 2026-07-11

• Modality timer! See when a note was taken relative to the last modality transition – for example, to see how long a student worked independently before completing a task.
• Fixed: Tags work again. Edit them in settings; can be more efficient for common observations (e.g. "disengaged", "misconception", "confused", "good idea").
• Notepad toolbar is more space-efficient.
• From review, tapping on the seating chart is now a third way to open the recorder for taking notes.
• Eraser tool automatically reverts to pen tool after you stroke.
• Lots of user-interface tweaks to make it look better and be more intuitive for new users.
• Opening a lesson is MUCH faster now; expanding notes from review is also much faster.

### 5.2 — 2026-06-10

• Rotate the seating chart to match your point of view
• Note headers show elapsed time since the last modality transition
* Supports landscape orientation and windowing
• Improved grid view - see more of your notes at once
• Improved PDFs
• FIXED: Notes created in dark mode display properly in light mode and vice-versa
• Importing a lesson from an archive, the progress indicator now shows progress
• FIXED: Seating charts can now be imported from a export file.
• Entity icon sizes are larger. Removed labels from the seating chart thumbnail in session review.
 • Workaround for a past bug – which was finally fixed in v 5.0 – that left lessons with no stroke data. When there is no stroke data, the app will use the saved composite raster image.
 • Improved help for new users. On-line user guide has been updated.
 • Free users are warned when a lesson approaches 15 notes.
 • FIXED: Deleting an entity attached to notes – if you cancelled when warned, it *appeared* as though the entity was deleted (even though it was not).
 • Lots of under-the-hood code cleanup.

### 5.0.4 — 2026-05-22

• French, Thai, and Khmer localizations – machine translated. Please help us improve them!
 • Complete (?) Japanese translations
 • Timeline buttons to quickly jump to the first note and last note.
 • Show an alert if the user applies filters and nothing matches.
 • Edit the name of a lesson & its school/event from the home screen.
 • Non-pro users get a warning when they get to 14 notes, so casual experimentation doesn't lead them to use up their quota of free lessons. This warning can be temporarily or permanently dismissed.
 • FIXED: Support for landscape orientation got broken in the previous release.
 • FIXED: The timeline for Japanese users was shifted partly off-screen, so the scroll position indicator wasn't visible.
 • FIXED Eliminated the extra refresh sometimes seen when going from the recorder back to review, and the list always scrolls to the "Add more notes" footer at the end.
 • More help for new users: An onboarding screen explaining the four colors and additional tips: pointer to the help button on home screen; drag for an interaction; tap on entity to save current note and start a new one; tip when user first places a group icon in the seating chart editor.
 • Onboarding video is more visible and plays full screen, much clearer.
 • Additional seating chart template, "Sample with names", to demonstrate that entities can have student names. Only visible on fresh installs (new users). Preview images for the templates are now generated at first run rather than retrieved as jpeg images.
 • Aesthetic changes to the first page of PDFs.
 • A lot of under-the-hood code cleanup.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-13.*