A Methodology of Teaching Mobile Development for Undergraduate Students in Project-Based Classes
Abstract: This paper investigated the challenges and suggested solutions for teaching a mobile development course project to undergraduate students in technology-related majors. We presented several case studies that featured three faculty members from several undergraduate focus-teaching institutions. The methodology was used successfully to guide various teams of junior and senior level students, from several universities and different technology programs, for one semester. The paper described the challenges that professors and educators have to keep up with modern coding materials for mobile development, whether it is a native programming language (i.e., iOS development, Android development) or a cross-platform programming language (i.e., PhoneGap, Titanium). We explained how the material was structured and how the mobile app development was performed from the design phase through the beta-version app as tested on mobile devices. We explored several mobile applications developed on both Apple and Android platforms as sample case studies. In the case studies, we highlighted the quality of the design (the graphical user interface) depending on the student's interest. In this paper, we emphasized the importance of the students' role for an end-product's success. The goals, methodology, logistics, lessons learned and instructors' observations of the experience were also explained at the conclusion of the paper.
Presider: Kathleen Klinger, National University