This course is for students with no prior programming experience. Students will gain hands-on experience developing Android apps using the MIT App Inventor 2 environment. Students will also learn some relevant context, such as information about the history of computing and user experience design.
I welcome visitors to my office (Olin Hall 306) on a drop-in basis as well as by appointment. You may send me electronic mail at max@gustavus.edu.
All course materials will be available at https://gustavus.edu/+max/courses/J2015/MCS-148/.
The textbook for the course is App Inventor 2: Create Your Own Android Apps, by David Wolber, Hal Abelson, Ellen Spertus, and Liz Looney.
We have class meetings scheduled from 10:30am to 2:30pm each weekday, except that on Martin Luther King Day, January 19, the time block is shifted one hour later by college policy so that we can all attend the memorial lecture that Dr. Jamie Washington will be giving in the chapel from 10am to 11am.
I expect that you will treat these class meetings the same way I do: as a commitment entered into when signing up for the course. Commitment isn't the same as a guarantee of 100% attendance. For example, I may get sick, I may have a family member who gets sick, or I may need to attend an important meeting that I can't reschedule. If any of those happens, I'll send you an email so that you aren't wondering where I am. Except under such circumstances, you can count on me to be there. That is the same kind of commitment I expect from you.
I don't expect any of us to stay in the room for four hours straight. I want you to be responsible for taking appropriate breaks so that you stay healthy and comfortable. If we are engaged in an activity that takes place in lockstep for the whole class, such as watching a video, there may be some particularly natural points at which to take a break, but on the whole, you should just leave whenever suits you.
You will use two different web-based software applications in this course: MIT App Inventor for developing apps and Google Sites for building a web site where you make your apps available and describe what you've done in the course.
Both of these web applications require you to login with an account that Google knows about. If you happen to have a personal Google account, such as for GMail, you are welcome to use that. However, as a Gustavus student, you can also login using your Gustavus account. I'll demonstrate this in class the first day.
If you just want to try out the apps you develop on an "emulated" Android phone that shows up as a window on the computer, you'll be all set on the college computers in our classroom; we've got the emulator installed. If you want to use your own computer, instructions for downloading and installing the emulator are available within App Inventor.
If you own (or can borrow) the appropriate hardware, you'll find it more appealing to try your apps out on a real Android device, such as a phone or tablet. I'll demonstrate this in class as well. In order to try out your apps incrementally as you are developing them (rather than only once complete), you'll want to download the free MIT AI2 Companion from the Google Play store.
This course is graded pass/fail so that you can focus on learning rather than earning a grade. The more you do, the more you'll learn, so I expect you to do more than the bare minimum. Still, passing is important enough that you ought to know what the minimum is.
Within the first week, you must set up a web site for recording your accomplishments. (I suggest you do this using Google Sites.) In addition to letting me see whether you've accomplished enough to pass the course, this site could be useful for showing what you've done to anyone else, such as your friends, family, and potential employers. Within the first week, please send the URL (address) of the site to me by email to max@gustavus.edu. That way, I can keep checking back all month to see your progress.
Each week you must add a page to your site listing your accomplishments for that week. You can add more than one page, for example putting each app that you develop on a page of its own. I describe in more detail below what I expect for each app. However, your accomplishments for each week will include more than just apps:
Week 1: You should develop at least two apps. Neither of them should just be an unchanged copy of one of the tutorial examples, but each of them can be a variation of a tutorial example. There are tutorial examples in the textbook as well as on the MIT and AppInventor.org web sites. The tutorials include suggested variations or you can think of your own.
In the course of developing the apps, you will be learning about programming using App Inventor. I expect you to write at least one paragraph on your web page for the week in which you summarize something that you learned about programming.
I'm also going to be using some class time to talk about related topics that aren't specific to programming with App Inventor. For example, I may talk about some aspect of computing history, show a video about user experience design, or answer general questions about computer technology. I also encourage you to read web sites or watch videos on your own. Out of all this, I expect that you will write at least one paragraph on your web page for the week in which you summarize something that you learned that isn't specifically about App Inventor programming.
Finally, I want you to demo at least one app you developed this week to at least one other person and write a paragraph on your web page summarizing what you showed and what reaction you got, including any suggestions for changes.
Week 2: You should meet all the same expectations as in Week 1: two apps, something learned about programming, something else learned, and feedback from a demo. You can again develop variations on tutorial examples, but I expect that you will advance into some of the later, more sophisticated tutorials. Your paragraphs should be about new things you've learned the second week.
Week 3: This week, I expect you to at least start work on a more creative app of your own, something that isn't just a variant on a tutorial. You should write at least one paragraph describing your goal. You should also include the app itself, even if you haven't finished work on it, and should explain what the current status is. (For example, you might have all the screen design done but only some of the actions.)
Regardless how far along you are in developing your app, I expect you to talk with somene else about it. If you have a working or partially working app to demo, great. If not, you can show the screen design and just talk about what you plan for it to do. I expect you to write at least one paragraph on your web page describing what you showed and what reaction you got, including any suggestions for changes.
In addition to information about the app, you should again include at least one paragraph describing something you learned not specifically related to App Inventor programming.
Week 4: You should meet all the same expectations as in Week 3: your own app, feedback on it, and something else you learned. If in Week 3 you didn't complete work on your app, you should try to do so this week. (If along the way you've made any changes in your goal, be sure to write about that.) Alternatively, if you've completed work in Week 3, then you can use Week 4 to develop a new app with its own goal.
For each app that you develop and include on your web site, you must at a minimum provide a textual description, an indication of any source materials you drew from, and a downloadable copy of the "source code" for your app, that is, the .aia file you can export from App Inventor which another user could import in order to see all the internal workings of your app. Beyond these minimum items, you may also want to provide a "built" copy of the app (an .apk file) that someone who isn't an App Inventor user could install onto their Android device to run the app. You may also want to include other helpful information, such as screen shots showing what the app looks like.
In writing your web pages for this course, you must include information on the source of any material you did not produce yourself. In particular, I anticipate that many of your apps will be simple variations of apps that other people have written; in other cases, you may write a new app of your own that incorporates pieces of several other apps. You must indicate the sources your work is based on as well as the origin of any images or sounds you included. Failure to do so is plagiarism and will necessitate disciplinary action in accordance with college policies. If you have any questions, please ask.
Gustavus Adolphus College is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs. If you have a documented disability (or you think you may have a disability of any nature) and, as a result, need reasonable academic accommodation to participate in class, take tests or benefit from the College's services, then you should speak with the Disability Services Coordinator, for a confidential discussion of your needs and appropriate plans. Course requirements cannot be waived, but reasonable accommodations may be provided based on disability documentation and course outcomes. Accommodations cannot be made retroactively; therefore, to maximize your academic success at Gustavus, please contact Disability Services as early as possible. Disability Services (https://gustavus.edu/advising/disability/) is located in the Academic Support Center.
Support for English learners and multilingual students is available through the Academic Support Center's English Learning Specialist (ELS). The ELS can meet individually with students for tutoring in writing, consulting about academic tasks, and helping students connect with the College's support systems. Please let me know if there is any accommodation in the course that would enable you to more fully show your abilities; for example, I would consider allowing extra time on tests, as well as allowing a dictionary in an otherwise closed-book test. In addition, English learners and multilingual students can seek help from peer tutors in the Writing Center.
Course web site: https://gustavus.edu/+max/courses/J2015/MCS-148/