Course overview
Mobile devices are increasingly becoming a large part of our work and daily lives with an associated increasing demand and marketplace for mobile apps. Improvements in wireless networks, hardware technology, and protocols for the provision of distributed services have rapidly increased the capability and popularity of personal ICT, including mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and mobile PCs. The enabling technologies provide both technical and user-interface challenges for the software developer. This module explores key underlying technologies used to support mobile applications and extends development skills to produce software for mobile devices, along with skills to understand how to design successful mobile applications.
Participants in piloting
The course is compulsory for students on the Software Engineering Degree and is an option in BSc Computer Science and BSc Games Development. The following groups of students were engaged:
- 27 students in academic year 2019 – 2020.
- 34 students in academic year 2020 – 2021.
Timeframe
academic year 2019 – 2020
academic year 2020 – 2021
Use of ALIEN services and tools
Students were required to develop a mobile based application and evaluate the product. They were tasked with evaluating an existing mobile application, having to select an appropriate method, they then had to try and establish how to use the method and report their findings. This use of problem-based learning challenges the students to think about what data they need to capture and on how they will then analyse the data and infer conclusions.
The learning from course activities was applied to the assessment for the module.
