LessonNote
Classroom lesson observation
Free · In-App Purchases · Designed for iPad
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 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.
After a lesson, efficiently review your data for a student-focused conversation that improves teaching and learning.
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.
Read the End User License Agreement at http://lsalliance.org/LessonNote/LessonNote_End_User_License_Agreement.pdf
more • 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.
5.2 10 Jun
• 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.
5.0.4 22 May
5.0.3:
• Support landscape orientation – let us know what you think, and send your ideas for what this should look like!
• Removed labels from the seating chart thumbnail on the review screen, for a cleaner look.
• More tips clearer UI to help new users. To experience this, if you are new, delete & reinstall the app. (You can
• Fixed a bug in naming/renaming a classroom.
• Fixed: statistics didn't distinguish male/female/generic student events.
• More translations for Japanese language users.
Forgot to mention previously:
• Import/export of lesson archives for pro subscribers, much improved.
5.0.1:
• Improved scaling of note thumbnails. PDFs look much better and more compact now.
• Fixed a bug that crept in affecting importing lesson archives.
5.0:
This is a major update with great new features and improvements!
• NEW: eraser tool in the notepad
• NEW: Edit the seating chart from the review screen.
• NEW: Modality durations are shown directly in the timeline.
• NEW: Insert/move start & end markers after the lesson is over.
• FIXED: Lots of bugs.
• FIXED: Page view works properly. Thumbnails are consistently scaled.
• IMPROVED Streamlined process for creating a new lesson.
• IMPROVED More intuitive process for inserting transitions after the lesson is over.
• IMPROVED Help screens and tips for new users.
• IMPROVED New clean look for iOS 17 and iOS 26.
5.0.3 11 May
5.0.1:
• Improved scaling of note thumbnails. PDFs look much better and more compact now.
• Fixed a bug that crept in affecting importing lesson archives.
5.0:
This is a major update with great new features and improvements!
• NEW: eraser tool in the notepad
• NEW: Edit the seating chart from the review screen.
• NEW: Modality durations are shown directly in the timeline.
• NEW: Insert/move start & end markers after the lesson is over.
• FIXED: Lots of bugs.
• FIXED: Page view works properly
• IMPROVED Streamlined process for creating a new lesson.
• IMPROVED More intuitive process for inserting transitions after the lesson is over.
• IMPROVED Help screens and tips for new users.
• IMPROVED New clean look for iOS 17 and iOS 26.
5.0.1 5 May
This is a major update with great new features and improvements!
• NEW: eraser tool in the notepad
• NEW: Edit the seating chart from the review screen.
• NEW: Modality durations are shown directly in the timeline.
• NEW: Insert/move start & end markers after the lesson is over.
• FIXED: Lots of bugs.
• FIXED: Page view works properly
• IMPROVED Streamlined process for creating a new lesson.
• IMPROVED More intuitive process for inserting transitions after the lesson is over.
• IMPROVED Help screens and tips for new users.
• IMPROVED New clean look for iOS 17 and iOS 26.
5.0 4 May
This update fixes the availability of some Pro features for existing subscribers.
4.2.3 12 Jan
This update fixes the availability of some Pro features for existing subscribers.
4.2.2 19/12/2025
This update includes critical bug fixes for Pro subscriptions and accounts.
4.2.1 15/12/2025
Thanks for choosing LessonNote to observe and document your classroom lessons! In this update we've added new features, improved the look and feel of the app, and fixed a lot of bugs.
NEW FEATURES
You'll find new ways to export lessons including by batch exporting all lesson photos*, printing and saving lessons as PDFs*, and exporting lesson archives to your Files (or other file storage) app. Just tap the share button in the lesson review toolbar.
Download lessons from your Pro account after signing in. LessonNote Pro syncing is going away in the near future, so if you have lessons which you have not yet downloaded or exported and that are not backed up elsewhere, we strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to download and backup your lessons.
Set school names for lessons. When you create a new lesson, specify the name of the school so it's easier to organize and search for your lessons at a particular school later. Alternatively, change or add a school name from lesson review by tapping on the name of your lesson.
*Requires a Pro subscription (available as an in-app purchase)
IMPROVED DESIGN
LessonNote is subtly and slightly refreshed to take advantage of newer versions of iPadOS and new iPad models. Your lessons have more room to breathe, stand out more clearly with cleaner colors, and have improved animations. We've also taken time to improve the behavior and reliability of the lesson timeline, filtering, transition management, and more. For those of you already upgraded to iPadOS 26, you'll enjoy a refreshed design that takes advantage of Liquid Glass.
BUG FIXES
This update includes a lot of bug fixes. There are too many to list here, but know that we're working on fixing even more to make LessonNote a smoother, faster, and more reliable tool.
If you enjoy using LessonNote or have found it useful in your research or classroom observations please consider leaving a review on the App Store. It really helps! And, if you really love LessonNote, consider sharing it with your colleagues or reaching out to Lesson Study Alliance to learn how you can get involved.
4.2.0 29/09/2025
Fixed: Notes can now be deleted without a Pro subscription.
Fixed: "Contact us" in settings creates a correctly-addressed email message.
Previously fixed: A bug in the creation of a LessonNote Pro account.
4.0.2 28/02/2022
This update fixes an intermittent crash and may resolve issues that some customers were having when trying to subscribe to LessonNote Pro.
And, in case you missed it, LessonNote 4 is a big update. Here's all that's new:
This is a major rewrite, 2 years in the making, with many performance and user-interface improvements! It is, however, no longer completely free. To help us afford to continue developing LessonNote, a subscription is required for recording more than 5 lessons per 12-month period (lessons with fewer than 15 notes don't count). The 5-lesson limit should be adequate for most teachers involved in Lesson Study, but a subscription allows unlimited use and includes a LessonNote Pro account, which in turn allows you to back up lessons, share seating charts, export lessons as PDFs, export photos, and search for notes across multiple lessons. Read more at https://LSAlliance.org/LNPro .
What's new:
• The handwriting engine has been completely redone; handwriting capture is beautiful and undo is instantaneous.
• Move directly between note-taking and notes review, permitting quick editing of recent notes.
• Enhanced filtering of your notes: show notes that are flagged, that have a seating chart, a photo, a typed annotation, or that relate to selected entities from the seating chart.
• Includes a new photo manipulation tool for moving/resizing photos.
• Support for Apple Pencil® when drawing, using undo / redo, switching note-taking tools and colors.
• Other UI tweaks and refinements.
4.0.1 10/01/2022
PLEASE READ BEFORE UPGRADING
This is a major rewrite, 2 years in the making, with many performance and user-interface improvements! It is, however, no longer completely free. To help us afford to continue developing LessonNote, a subscription is required for recording more than 5 lessons per 12-month period (lessons with fewer than 15 notes don't count). The 5-lesson limit should be adequate for most teachers involved in Lesson Study, but a subscription allows unlimited use and includes a LessonNote Pro account, which in turn allows you to back up lessons, share seating charts, export lessons as PDFs, export photos, and search for notes across multiple lessons. Read more at https://LSAlliance.org/LNPro .
What's new:
• The handwriting engine has been completely redone; handwriting capture is beautiful and undo is instantaneous.
• Move directly between note-taking and notes review, permitting quick editing of recent notes.
• Enhanced filtering of your notes: show notes that are flagged, that have a seating chart, a photo, a typed annotation, or that relate to selected entities from the seating chart.
• Includes a new photo manipulation tool for moving/resizing photos.
• Support for Apple Pencil® when drawing, using undo / redo, switching note-taking tools and colors.
• Other UI tweaks and refinements.
4.0 14/12/2021
This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included.
- Additional fixes to prevent reported crashes
3.8.1 12/01/2018
- Improved image deletion - selecting an image (two-finger tap) now enables the trash can button; tap trash can button to delete the selected image
- Fixed issues with creating a new lesson, creating a new seating chart, creating a lesson from a seating chart
- Preserve active filters if user taps timeline in review mode
- Show a spinner and dim the background when user deletes a lesson
- Additional fixes to prevent reported crashes
3.8 05/12/2017
- Bug fixes
3.7.3 24/08/2017
- More bug fixes and performance improvements
3.7.2 28/06/2017
- Subscribe to LessonNote Pro via in-app purchase - backup, export, share lessons and seating charts with others, and more! (A free trial is available.)
- Handwriting improvements
- Other bug fixes and performance improvements
3.7.1 27/06/2017
- Subscribe to LessonNote Pro via in-app purchase - backup, export, share lessons and seating charts with others, and more! (A free trial is available.)
- More bug fixes and performance improvements
3.7 12/06/2017
Bug fixes and performance improvements,
French language support (thanks to Stéphane Clivaz & team at HEPL!)
New in 3.6:
• Tags!
3.6.2 20/12/2016
• Fixed: a spurious line would sometimes get drawn in a note.
New in version 3.6:
• edit notes from review mode by tapping the expand note icon;
• TAGS! tag notes, then filter notes by tags in review mode
• bug fixes.
This version comes preloaded with a set of tags based on the “Teaching for Robust Understanding” framework developed by Alan Schoenfeld (see http://map.mathshell.org/trumath.php). If you prefer, you can turn those off and create your own custom tags.
3.6.1 16/11/2016
New in 3.6:
• edit notes from review mode by tapping the expand note icon;
• Tags! Tag notes, then filter notes by tags in review mode;
• Dutch localization (thanks to Henk Logtenberg!)
• bug fixes.
This version comes preloaded with a set of tags based on the “Teaching for Robust Understanding” framework developed by Alan Schoenfeld (see http://map.mathshell.org/trumath.php). If you prefer, you can turn those off and create your own custom tags.
3.6 28/10/2016
Bug fixes and improvements to 'Undo' drawing stroke performance.
3.5.3 22/06/2016
Drawing improvements, including improved capture of the beginning of a stroke.
3.5.1 20/05/2016
Additional bug fixes and performance improvements. Note new photo manipulation techniques: 2-finger tap to select, 1-finger drag to move, 2-finger pinch-zoom, tap out OR 2-finger tap to deselect – that way you can enlarge a photo to fill the note area and still deselect in order to draw on it.
3.5 16/04/2016
Improved responsiveness and important bug fixes, including the following:
- Improved memory use associated with taking photos.
- Fixed a bug that prevented statistics from being correctly displayed under certain conditions.
Improved image manipulation:
- 2-finger tap to select an image
- pinch to resize the selected image
- 1-finger to move the selected image
- Tap out of the selected image to deselect it.
New:
- Entity name is now displayed in the filter list when filtering by entity. (Tap on an entity name in the statistics list.)
NOTE: You may see the message "Updating data" for a long time on first launch. Be patient, it does eventually finish. The eraser will return soon. Thank you for your patience!
3.3 29/03/2016
• 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.
more Version 5.2 10 Jun
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