A MOBILE APPLICATION FOR EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
Ross Hoyer, Antonette M. Logar · 2014
This paper describes an app which uses mobile, web and database technologies to reduce the time required for compiling and analyzing assessment data. Processing assessment data is the vehicle selected for discussing the broader issues of creating a mobile app to replace a manual process. The first step in converting any process to a mobile app is to map the current process to the functionality provided by the app. The second major step is to choose an operating system and a development language. These two steps are required for any conversion from a manual to an automated process. However, a unique set of constraints must be considered when making the selection for a mobile app. The availability of devices, the uniformity or diversity of the devices, the frequency of updates to the OS, the backward-compatibility of the updates, the restrictions placed on developers by the OS, and the ease of deployment are new factors that must be added to the typical list of software development considerations. This discussion merely provides a snapshot of the issues in a rapidly developing field where stan dardization is not yet on the horizon. But, using good programming practices, such as following the model-view-controller pattern, and encapsulating pieces of the app as described in the fragment discussion, improves the developer’s ability to respond to the rapidly changing mobile environment.