Overview
This unit is devoted to the design and implementation of applications for mobile platforms. A native mobile programming language will form the basis upon which programming techniques and design patterns will be developed for creating standalone applications. Commonly used mobile tools and frameworks for mobile application development are used. All stages of software development from the initial idea, through to development and testing will be covered. Consideration will be given to the business case from the developers point of view. Some examination of how to market mobile apps is also undertaken. Research skills will be introduced as a means of keeping up to date with the changing mobile development landscape.
Details
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 - 2018
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).
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
Assessment Overview
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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 Unit evaluation
Students gave positive feedback on all items of the unit.
Continue the high standard in next offering.
- Design and implement native mobile applications
- Describe and be able to develop critical parts of a native mobile system programming interface
- Use an integrated IDE to build, debug and test native mobile applications
- Determine the business impact of a given mobile solution and critically assess the implementation of an app and its likely marketability and profitability
- Critically analyse a research issue in mobile computing.
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 following workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:
- Systems Design (DESN)
- System Integration (SINT)
- Program ming/Software Development (PROG)
- Data Analysis (DTAN)
- Database/Repository Design (DBDS)
- Testing (TEST)
- Network Support (NTAS)
- Release and Deployment (RELM)
- Applications Support (ASUP)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Portfolio - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 4 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 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 - Portfolio - 20% | ||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||||
| 4 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||||||
Textbooks
Beginning Android Programming with Android Studio
4th Edition (2016)
Authors: J.F. DiMarzio
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Indianapolis Indianapolis , IN , USA
ISBN: 978-1-118-70559-9
Binding: Other
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Android Studio (with Marshmallow API 23) + 1 working AVD (virtual phone)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
r.balsys@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introducing the Mobile Web and Android Application Development.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 1 and 2.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Android Activities, Fragments and Intents.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 3.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The Android User Interface.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 4.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
User Interfaces with Views.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 5.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Displaying Pictures and Menus. Data persistence.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 6 and 7.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Content Providers.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 8.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 1 due
Practical Assessment 1 Due: Week 6 Friday (20 Apr 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
SMS and email Messaging. Location-based Services.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 9 and 10.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Networking.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Developing Android Services. Mobile App Testing.
Chapter
DiMarzio, chapter 12.
Reading 1: Mobile Testing - Quick Guide
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The App store and selling Apps.
Chapter
Reading 2: Rodgers, Chapter 14, 2012.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 2 due
Practical Assessment 2 Due: Week 10 Friday (18 May 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Introduction to the scientific philosophy of research.
Chapter
Reading 3: Stephan et al., 2012.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Revision.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Portfolio due
Portfolio Due: Week 12 Friday (1 June 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Written assessment due
Written Assessment Due: Review/Exam Week Friday (8 June 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Portfolio
You are to submit a weekly portfolio submission, using Mahara, for weeks 2 to 11 inclusive. To access Mahara, click the "CQU Portfolio" link in the Network Services block on the left-hand side of the Moodle site. The weekly portfolios will describe your understanding of the topic for the week, with relevant references and resources providing evidence of your understanding.
You are to conduct a search of the internet on the topic for the week. You should review the items you find and select a minimum of 5 items and link them to your portfolio. You are not to upload files from the internet, as you do not own copyright, and if you do, this will be plagiarism. You are to use links to your items only. You may include items from YouTube, clips from lectures and/or tutorials, and your own work that you produce in the tutorials. Your portfolio should capture rich ideas, resources and innovative practice around mobile app development within the frame of the weekly topics.
You are to write a brief discussion for each week as to why you chose the items you did, and why you thought the items chosen are appropriate. Harvard referencing format and citations are to be used to substantiate your discussion.
Week 12 Friday (1 June 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week Friday (8 June 2018)
Approximately one week after the completion of portfolio
| Criteria | Marks/week |
| Summary of weekly topic | 0.5 |
| Resource descriptions | 0.75 |
| Number and justification/quality of resources | 0.75 |
| Penalties | |
| Total | 2 |
- Describe and be able to develop critical parts of a native mobile system programming interface
- Determine the business impact of a given mobile solution and critically assess the implementation of an app and its likely marketability and profitability
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Self-management
2 Practical Assessment
You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture inventory location data in a mobile application that stores the data in a local database. The app has fields to record data for items owned by the company were the app is employed to capture time, location and condition data for items in the companies’ inventory. After the name of the staff member entering the data is given, a page (fragment) is shown to record data values for the items in the inventory. An entry consists of inventory data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed this data is saved locally in an application SQLDatabase. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page (fragment) is shown that list all the date/time, location and data entries made for that item. We will refer to our app as InventoryLogs.
Week 6 Friday (20 Apr 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Week 8 Friday (4 May 2018)
| Assignment Component | Criteria | Marks |
| MainActivity file | - The onBackPressed() method display the Save dialog - Pressing "OK" in the onBackPressed() method saves the SQLite database and exits - The ArrayList values are initialised from the SQLite database entries on startup (2 marks) | 4 |
| Fragment files | - The time/date is added as required - The spinner works as required - The inventory log entries are saved by Add ITEM button - Errors are caught and appropriate messages displayed - The profile page checks that the passwords match, no items are null and returns to the inventory fragment - Show items button works and shows all entries for that inventory and returns to the correct page (3 marks) | 11 |
| res/layout/xml and other files | - Items on fragments are in the correct positions w.r.t. each other - EditText items have the correct hints - Labels are all as given in the specifications - The inventory class exists and is correct - The spinner has the values stored in the strings.xml file | 5 |
| Menu options | - The Profile menu is present and works as specified - The Save entries menu saves the correct values to the database (2 marks) - The Send entries menu option clears the SQLite database and the inventory ArrayList | 4 |
| SQLite database | - The DBAdapter class is present and works correctly | 2 |
| 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 |
- Design and implement native mobile applications
- Use an integrated IDE to build, debug and test native mobile applications
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Practical Assessment
You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture package location data in a mobile application that stores the data in a local database. The app has fields to record data for each of five cities were the app is employed. If a city is selected, a page (fragment) is shown to record data values for that city. An entry consists of city data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed this data is saved locally in an application SQLDatabase. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page (fragment) is shown that list all the date/time and data entries made for that city. We will refer to our app as CityLogs.
More details of these pages will be given in the specification document found on the moodle course website. You should also consult the weekly lecture/tutorials on the Moodle website for help and more information on completing the assignment. The tutorials contain step-by-step procedures for working through the assignment as well as some tips and extra help.
Week 10 Friday (18 May 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Week 12 Friday (1 June 2018)
| App development | - TrackGPS class implemented correctly - Inventory_fragment uses TrackGPS to obtain and display the latitude and longitude - Inventory logger data copied to email - Message sent asynchronously using thread - ProgressDialog displayed and email received | 15 |
| Testing Strategy | - Discuss the selection of mobile models and Android versions for your testing process - Discussion of whether testing is required on actual devices and what part emulators/simulators play your testing plan - Documentation of test plan | 3 |
| Sending App data | - Discussion of using SMS messaging and advantages/disadvantages of SMS vs. eMail | 1 |
| Financial Case & Commentary | - Discussion of the economic/financial case for the proposed app - Identification of potential costs - Estimation of technical development costs in hours - Discussion of how you would promote and market your app - Discussion of ethical issues | 10 |
| General | - Feedback given as required - Use appropriate naming conventions - Adequate commenting - Correct grammar - Citation of references, copyright use | 1 |
| Penalties | ||
| Total | 30 |
- Design and implement native mobile applications
- Use an integrated IDE to build, debug and test native mobile applications
- Determine the business impact of a given mobile solution and critically assess the implementation of an app and its likely marketability and profitability
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
4 Written Assessment
You are to write a scholarly essay that critically evaluates findings from at least two journal publications in one of the following research areas;
· The impact of location awareness on mobile applications
· Mobile application security
· Social implications of mobile applications
· The impact of cloud computing on mobile applications
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 given in the work.
Review/Exam Week Friday (8 June 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (15 June 2018)
Results of this assignment will be available to students after certification date
This assignment will be assessed against the following criteria:
| Presentation - 2. Structure, grammar, spelling, referencing |
| Introductory arguments - 3. Well defined introduction to what critique is about |
| Critique body - 10. For the 2 journal papers: - Research questions identified - Methodology described - Analysis of conclusion discussed - Reflections on paper Synthesis of works into a critique of research area |
| Conclusion - 5. Summary well presented Logical conclusions derived Interpretation of scholarly works correct Argument presented within length guideline |
- Describe and be able to develop critical parts of a native mobile system programming interface
- Critically analyse a research issue in mobile computing.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
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?
