CQUniversity Unit Profile
COIT20269 Mobile Web Apps
Mobile Web Apps
All details in this unit profile for COIT20269 have been officially approved by CQUniversity and represent a learning partnership between the University and you (our student).
The information will not be changed unless absolutely necessary and any change will be clearly indicated by an approved correction included in the profile.
General Information

Overview

This unit is about designing and implementing a dynamic mobile web application that allows complex user interaction that builds on knowledge of responsive web design. You will examine the viability of web apps versus native apps, with particular attention being paid to cross platform considerations using Apache Cordova, implementing web middleware using nodejs and integrating these with cloud databases to store mobile data. The business drivers for mobile portals will also be discussed, as will the social impact of mobile technology. Research skills will be introduced as a means of keeping up to date with the changing mobile development landscape. Note: Students who have studied COIT20231 will not be allowed to study this unit.

Details

Career Level: Postgraduate
Unit Level: Level 9
Credit Points: 6
Student Contribution Band: 8
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load: 0.125

Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-Req: COIT20268 Responsive Web Design

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Offerings For Term 1 - 2017

Brisbane
Distance
Melbourne
Rockhampton
Sydney

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Class and Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Class Timetable

Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville
Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Assessment Overview

1. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 20%
2. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 30%
3. Written Assessment
Weighting: 20%
4. Portfolio
Weighting: 30%

Assessment Grading

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.

Previous Student Feedback

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Course evaluation report

Feedback

Assessment items deadlines need some streamlining

Recommendation

The timing of assessment items will be changed in term 2

Action

New assessment timelines for unit in 2017.

Unit Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
  1. Design, create and implement a mobile web application.
  2. Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile application, a node javascript web service, and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database.
  3. Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the application.
  4. Use an integrated IDE build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working application.
  5. Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps.
  6. Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.

Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles.

ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html

This unit contributes to the workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:

Systems Design (DESN),

Systems Integration (SINT),

Data Analysis (DATN),

Database/Repository Design (DBDS),

Testing (TEST),

Release and Deployment (RELM),

Applications Support (ASUP).

Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Graduate Attributes
N/A Level
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Professional Level
Advanced Level

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes

Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Practical Assessment - 20%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 20%
4 - Portfolio - 30%

Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes

Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
5 - Self-management
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7 - Leadership
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes

Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Practical Assessment - 20%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 20%
4 - Portfolio - 30%
Textbooks and Resources

Textbooks

Prescribed

Beginning Mobile Application Development in the Cloud

(2012)
Authors: Richard Rodger
John Wiley and Sons Inc., , .
Indianapolis, Indianapolis, , Indiana , USA
ISBN: 978 1 118 03469 9
Binding: Paperback

IT Resources

You will need access to the following IT resources:
  • CQUniversity Student Email
  • Internet
  • Unit Website (Moodle)
  • Android Developers Toolkit (2016)
  • Apache cordova from https://cordova.apache.org/
  • mongodb from http://mongodb.org
  • nodejs from http://nodejs.org
Referencing Style

All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)

For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.

Teaching Contacts
Ron Balsys Unit Coordinator
r.balsys@cqu.edu.au
Schedule
Week 1 Begin Date: 06 Mar 2017

Module/Topic

Introduction mobile computing using Javascript. Mobile application development.

Chapter

Rodger, Chapter 1, pp. 1-29.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 2 Begin Date: 13 Mar 2017

Module/Topic

Introducing cloud computing. Mobilising Your application.

Chapter

Reading 1: Singh and Jangwal, April, 2012.

Reading 2: Garrison, Kim and Wakefield, Sept., 2012.

Rodger, Chapter 2, pp. 31-67.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 3 Begin Date: 20 Mar 2017

Module/Topic

Building mobile web applications. The jQuery and JQuery Mobile JavaScript APIs.

Chapter

Reading 3. Charland and Leroux, May, 2011.

Rodger, Chapter 3, pp. 71-108

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 4 Begin Date: 27 Mar 2017

Module/Topic

Enhancing Your Apps. Context aware mobile computing.

Chapter

Reading 4. Chen and Kotz, 2000.

Rodger, Chapter 4, pp. 111-132.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 5 Begin Date: 03 Apr 2017

Module/Topic

Building Apps in the Cloud. Using the Cloud.

Chapter

Rodger, Chapter 5, pp. 136-174.

Rodger, Chapter 6, pp. 177-209.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Vacation Week Begin Date: 10 Apr 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 6 Begin Date: 17 Apr 2017

Module/Topic

Tab-bar interfaces, Audio and video. Working with the Cloud. Installing Java, Eclipse + SDK + ADT toolkit and Ant.

Chapter

Rodger, Chapter 7, pp. 211-232.

Rodger, Chapter 8 pp. 235-271

Events and Submissions/Topic

Practical Assessment 1 Due: Week 6 Friday (21 Apr 2017) 11:00 pm AEST
Week 7 Begin Date: 24 Apr 2017

Module/Topic

Using PhoneGap. Native hybrid Apps. Business model for location based services.

Chapter

Reading 5. Dhar and Varshney, May, 2011.

Rodger, Chapter 9 pp. 273-294.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 8 Begin Date: 01 May 2017

Module/Topic

The Phonegap API. Building a blogging App.

Chapter

Rodger, Chapter 9 pp. 294-311.

Rodger, Chapter 10, pp. 315-345.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 9 Begin Date: 08 May 2017

Module/Topic

Mobile web usability and system testing. Issues in mobile cloud computing.

Chapter

Reading 6: Frederick and Lal, 2009

Rodger, Chapter 10, pp. 345-369.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 10 Begin Date: 15 May 2017

Module/Topic

Social mobile computing. Software principals and patterns in mobile middleware.

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Practical Assessment 2 Due: Week 10 Friday (19 May 2017) 11:00 pm AEST
Week 11 Begin Date: 22 May 2017

Module/Topic

The App store and selling Apps. Introduction to the scientific philosophy of research.

Chapter

Reading 9: Stephan et al., 2012.

Rodger, Chapter 13, pp. 435-441.

Rodger, Chapter 14, pp. 455-469.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 12 Begin Date: 29 May 2017

Module/Topic

Revision.

Chapter

Sample Exam paper

Events and Submissions/Topic

Written Assessment Due: Week 12 Friday (2 June 2017) 11:00 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week Begin Date: 05 Jun 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio Due: Review/Exam Week Friday (9 June 2017) 11:00 pm AEST
Exam Week Begin Date: 12 Jun 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment Tasks

1 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Practical Assessment 1

Task Description

You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture experimental data in a mobile application that stores data in a local database. The app has fields to record data for each of five species of cattle. If a cow type is selected, a page is shown to record data values for that type. A cow entry consists of a date and log data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed these values are saved locally in the devices' localStorage. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page is shown that lists all the date/time and cow entries. More details of these pages will be given in the sections below.

We will refer to our app as CowLogs. The specification of this app will be further refined in Assignment 2. This app is to be tested using the Safari, FireFox or Chrome browser and tested on an Android or iPhone mobile device. Further details can be found by accessing the assignment 1 specification in the unit web site.


Assessment Due Date

Week 6 Friday (21 Apr 2017) 11:00 pm AEST


Return Date to Students

Week 8 Friday (5 May 2017)


Weighting
20%

Assessment Criteria

Assignment Component Criteria Marks
CowLogs.html / cow.css - The required scripts are all correct and available - The multi-page logic is correct - The home page displays and works as intended - The navigation header/footers of the cow page are correct and functions as expected - The date, latitude, longitude, weight, height, condition and age fields are displayed correctly and have the right hints - The Show log page shows all the cows' data logs, and has the required functionality - The date in the show logs page is formatted correctly 7
CowLogs.js - Click on a cow's button on home page takes you to the correct cow page - Cow values range checked and all save log entries dialogs shown based on contents of the cows' text fields - All required dialogs are displayed - The Clear button on the page header clears all fields - Clicking on the Show logs button takes you to a new page where the current logs are all listed in required form - The cows' page pageinit and pageshow methods are implemented correctly - All navigation buttons have the required effect on the page view - The cow data is saved in localStorage so when the application quits and restarts the values are retained (unless the Send logs button is used). - The user interface of the cow app meets the guidelines given in the assignment 9
Hardware/Software & commentary
Hardware / Software requirements 1
Application commentary 2
General
- Feedback given as required - Use appropriate naming conventions - Adequate commenting - Correct grammar - Citation of references, copyright use 1


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Design, create and implement a mobile web application.
  • Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the application.
  • Use an integrated IDE build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working application.


Graduate Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Self-management

2 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Practical Assessment 2

Task Description

You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture experimental data in a mobile application that stores data in a local database. The app has fields to record scientific data for each of five species of cattle. If a cow species is selected, a page is shown to record data values for that species. A cow entry consists of a date and log data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed these values are saved locally in the devices' localStorage. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page is shown that lists all the date/time and cow entries. More details of these pages will be given in the sections below.

We will refer to our app as CowLogs. The specification of this app extends that given in Assignment 1. This app is to be tested using the Safari, FireFox or Chrome browser and tested on an Android or iPhone mobile device.

Further details can be found by accessing the assignment 1 specification in the unit web site.


Assessment Due Date

Week 10 Friday (19 May 2017) 11:00 pm AEST


Return Date to Students

Week 12 Friday (2 June 2017)


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria


Task Marks
Cordova integration 2
Client side app 6
Server side app 9
Testing regime and commentary 6
Financial case and marketing plan 6
General 1
Total 30


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile application, a node javascript web service, and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database.
  • Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the application.
  • Use an integrated IDE build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working application.
  • Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps.


Graduate Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Self-management

3 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Written Assessment

Task Description

You are to write a scholarly essay that critically evaluates findings from at least two journal publications in one of the following research areas;

· Location based services and mobile platforms

· Mobile security

· Social implications of mobile computing

You are not to write an essay on one of these topics. You are to critically reflect on the papers and then explain whether the papers did an adequate job of explaining what the purpose of the work was, collected sufficient evidence, and reached the right conclusions based on the evidence.

Further guidance of questions that can be used as a guide for critically evaluating the research papers is given in the written assessment specification found on the Moodle unit website.


Assessment Due Date

Week 12 Friday (2 June 2017) 11:00 pm AEST


Return Date to Students

Review/Exam Week Friday (9 June 2017)


Weighting
20%

Assessment Criteria

Task Criteria Marks
Presentation Structure, grammar, spelling, referencing 3
Introductory arguments Well defined introduction to what essay is about 2
Essay body For 2 journal papers: Research questions identified - Methodology described - Analysis of paper conclusions intelligently discussed - Good reflections on papers - Overall synthesis of works into a critique of research area 12
Conclusions Summary well presented - Logical conclusions derived - Interpretation of scholarly works correct - Arguments well presented within length guideline 3
Total 20


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.


Graduate Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Communication
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Research
  • Self-management

4 Portfolio

Assessment Title
Portfolio

Task Description

For your complete portfolio you are going to design, specify, implement and test a prototype of a simple web application. You are to come up with your own idea for the app you wish to prototype. Keep it simple as you have only a small amount of time during term to develop this idea. Do not try to create a complete app (unless its simple), but develop enough of it so that the essential tasks are prototyped.

Details will be provided on the moodle unit website.


Assessment Due Date

Review/Exam Week Friday (9 June 2017) 11:00 pm AEST


Return Date to Students

Exam Week Friday (16 June 2017)


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

App design and specification

Task Criteria Mark
Written description of app Well defined description of what the app is intended to be and do 1
Motivation for app Well reasoned choice of target audience and likely interest 1
Summary of app tasks A reasonable choice of tasks to be completed in producing the app is given 1
User interface prototypes Prototypes for the main user interfaces/pages in the app presented 1
Specification of data structures The likely main variables and data structures in the app are given 1
Total 5
App development

Task Criteria Mark
CSS file development Appropriate use of css style elements 2
HTML file development Structure and content of HTML appropriate 6
Javascript file development As required 10
Application development As required 2
Total 20
App testing, business and marketing plan

Task Criteria Marks
App testing App testing plan, discussion of emulator vs real devices, documentation of testing results 2
Business plan Estimating costs, estimating revenue, conclusions 2
Marketing plan As required 1
Total 5

Portfolio result

App design and specification
App development
App testing, business and marketing plan
Total: 30 maximum


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile application, a node javascript web service, and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database.
  • Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the application.
  • Use an integrated IDE build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working application.
  • Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps.


Graduate Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Communication
  • Self-management

Academic Integrity Statement

As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.

Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.

When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.

Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.

As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.

What is a breach of academic integrity?

A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.

Why is academic integrity important?

A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.

Where can I get assistance?

For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.

What can you do to act with integrity?