Using Mobile Application Development Technology to Teach Programming and SAD Concepts in MIS and CS Courses

Mobile Application Development is becoming a hot topic in both Computer Science and Information Systems programs. The popularity of the mobile phone platform has natural attractions to students, and the small form-factor provides intuitive and natural form factors and design constraints that mitigate scope-comprehension issues commonly experienced in courses that take a more traditional enterprise approach. This paper examines student and faculty perceptions of course interest and personal value in 25 elective mobile app development courses at 12 universities in the southwestern United States attended by over 250 students. Results indicate that students found an app development approach to be more interesting and personally-relevant compared to core courses taken that cover similar concepts using traditional desktop/enterprise technologies and approaches. Faculty appreciated the ability to teach the entire software develop lifecycle in a natural way, including third-party testing, assessment, distribution and marketing.