Teaching Android Application Development in a Collaborative Online Environment

Online education has gained significant popularity in recent years, and this trend is set to continue. One of the reasons for the explosion of online education is the fact that Colleges and Universities need to seek out new delivery methods and to reach out to people who cannot attend College or University. Funding and diversity of courses is also another reason for the increasing popularity of online education. Learning in an online environment should be considered as the process whereby participants have to discuss, reflect, collect and analyze information and be active participants in the learning community. This paper details the design, implementation and evaluation of an Android Application Development online course, an e-tivity. This paper also highlights the issues which are of major concern in the design of an online programming course, and in particular the issue of engaging the target audience and assessment issues. A comprehensive evaluation is also provided which will be used to determine the future direction of this online course.