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By Edward R. Sykes, Sheridan College

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Every aspect of our daily lives has been


touched by the ubiquitous nature of mobile
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growth of mobile computinga trend that
seems to have no limit. This paper provides a
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an iPhone Application Development course at
Sheridan College, Ontario, Canada. It includes
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by analyzing student performance scores in
relation to traditional programming courses. It
also provides an overview of the development
environment, an assessment of this new
course including qualitative surveys, informal
observations and quantitative analysis including
student performance score results. Overall, it was
found that students enjoyed the iPhone course
and performed very well. The iPhone Group
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Group:F(1,81) = 4.145, p < .05.
Keywords: Mobile Computing Education;
Mobile application development; Mobile App
courses; Computer Science Education

26

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obile computing is pervasive in our


society. Virtually every aspect of our daily
lives has been touched by the ubiquitous
nature of mobile devices. The growth of mobile
computing has been quite rapid and does not have
any signs of subsiding. For instance, the number
of smartphones in use world-wide surpassed 1
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years (Yang, 2012).
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iPads along with the App Store have revolutionized
the mobile computing landscape. Since the
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have transformed the way consumers connect
with businesses and each other. From
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bank balances to updating Facebook, consumers
now rely on their phones for an astonishing
range of activitiesand their enthusiasm for
those devices is only going to intensify in the
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more creative and convenient (Bothun, 2011).
It is clear that Apple is one of the leaders in the
mobile computing arena and has already eclipsed

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Volume 58, Number 3

.JDSPTP  *OUFSOBUJPOBM #VTJOFTT .BDIJOFT


Corp. (IBM) and Intel (Satariano, 2011).
Mobile computing is a key strategic initiative
for many institutions at this time. Several
universities and colleges across Canada and
USA now include courses in mobile computing.
8IJMF UIFSF BSF OVNFSPVT EFOJUJPOT GPS smart
education (Hwang, 2010; Rothman, 2007), in
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smart education as: an educational paradigm
in which students acquire knowledge and skills
during which the following overarching factors
are considered:
a) career relevance and development,
b) societal relevance and potential impact,
c) sound pedagogy, and
d) classrooms equipped with appropriate technologies and devices that enable good instruction and facilitate the ease of rapid acquisition
and synthesis of knowledge.
Sheridan is situated in the Greater Toronto
Area and, as such, the students come from a
diverse student population. The iPhone course
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in the Computer Systems Technology program.
In previous courses in the program, students have
learned how to design and build applications
to run on conventional computing platforms.
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include the Apple iPhone.
This paper presents a review and analysis
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Development course. This review and analysis
answers the following research questions:
a) XIBUJTUIFFFDUJWFOFTTPGUIFDPVSTFJOUFSNT
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course?
a) how does the student performance scores
in this course compare with traditional
programming courses?
This paper is divided into the following
sections (a) overview of the course outline, (b)
overview of the programming environment
(Xcode, Interface Builder and the iOS Simulator),
(c) method, (d) qualitative analysis and student
performance scores and (e) recommendations
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Engineering program coordinators, faculty
and instructors) to consider when conducting
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This section presents the details of the iPhone
Application Development course. Table 1, on
Volume 58, Number 3

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portions of the course outline for the iPhone
Application Development course. The course
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has had several iterations since then. The course
JTPFSFEJOTFNFTUFSJOUIF$PNQVUFS4ZTUFNT
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Engineer advanced diploma undergraduate
program. This co-op based program has 6
academic terms and 3 paid co-op workterms.
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CFUXFFOBDBEFNJDUFSNTTUBSUJOHBFSTFNFTUFS
3. Each semester is 14 weeks in length with a
1-week break in the middle.
Prior to the iPhone course, students have had
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(e.g., Java, C, Perl, javascript, php, SQL, etc.),
and computer science topics (e.g., architecture,
operating systems, data structures, etc.).
A personal computer or laptop that runs
Mac OS X is required to develop applications
for Apple mobile devices. The majority of the
students prior to semester 5 used Windows
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Mac OS X. The college leased 13 MacBook
laptops and provided the machines to the
students at no cost to them. Students had the use
of these machines for the duration of the term
that facilitated both in- and out-of-class use of
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assignments and projects. One special feature
of the course arose as a result of the fact that
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had their own personal Apple devices (i.e.,
iPhone, iPod, etc.). These students were very
interested in learning how to develop and deploy
apps to their own devices. Furthermore, since
the college was a member of the iOS Developer
University Program, students were able to do
this quite easily.
The learning environment in this course
was similar to other programming courses
in the program. Students were taught in a
mobile-based puddle-oriented classroom that
facilitates group work activities (please see
Figure 1). Lessons were typically conducted
in an interactive fashion facilitating both
instructor-student interactions and peer-topeer interactions. Lessons typically alternated
between 15-20 minutes of lecture followed by
15-20 minutes of hands-on activities for the
duration of the class (2 hours). As the course
progressed, the degree of student collaboration
increased. In the last half of the course, when
students were working on their project, students
were working in their groups (2-3 students) and
very engaged in developing their app.

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27

Table 1
iPhone Application Development Course Outline
________________________________________________________________________
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Students learn how to develop iPhone applications using Objective-C while considering User Interface design. The
course is structured around three main foundational components: (a) Tools (Xcode, Interface Builder), (b) Frameworks (Foundation, UIKit), and (c) Programming using Objective-C. Students learn how to use iPhone SDK features,
including typical mobile resources (e.g., internet web services, location awareness, etc.), and apply design patterns to
develop iPhone applications
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To achieve the critical performance, students will have demonstrated the ability to:
1. Describe the features of the iPhone with regard to application development.
2. %FNPOTUSBUFVTJOHUIFTPXBSFUPPMT GSBNFXPSLTBOEQSPHSBNNJOHMBOHVBHFGPSJ1IPOFBQQMJDBUJPO
development.
3. &YQMBJOIPXUPEFTJHOBOJ1IPOFBQQMJDBUJPOGSPNBUIFPSFUJDBMQFSTQFDUJWF 0CKFDU0SJFOUFEEFTJHO
principles, design patterns, mobile application architectures).
4. Describe the fundamentals of User Interface Design in terms of usability, and human factors with respect to
the iPhone.
5. Demonstrate how to use the iPhone SDK and Objective-C to design and implement iPhone applications.
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Assignments (20%)
Mid Term Test (25%)
Project (20%)
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MODULE 1 (1 week):

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MODULE 2 (3 weeks):
Introduction to Objective-C:

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MODULE 3 (2 weeks):

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MODULE 4 (2 weeks):
Objective-C:


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Development environment and tools


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MODULE 5 (1 week):


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MODULE 6 (4 weeks):

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t%BUB1FSTJTUFODF

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28

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

Volume 58, Number 3

0WFSWJFXPGUIF
1SPHSBNNJOH&OWJSPONFOU
This section discusses the programming
environment that was used to design, develop
and test applications for the iPhone. Three main
tools were used: Xcode, Interface Builder and
the iOS Simulator. Figure 2 present the Xcode
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
that shows the main components of the IDE (i.e.,
Navigation pane, code editor, property and UI
object library). Figure 3 on the following page
presents the Interface Builder tool that enables
the programmer to design the User Interface
for the app. The tool provides the foundation on
which many widely accepted Human Computer
Interaction principles and guidelines might be
adopted. Figure4 on the following page presents
the simulator that emulates to a high degree how
the app would run if it were deployed onto a native
device. The simulator runs on the development Figure 1. The learning environment puddle tables in a typical mobile-based classDPNQVUFSBOEIBTTPNFMJNJUBUJPOTGPSFYBNQMF  room at Sheridan.
the accelerometer (tilt and general movement of
the device recognition) is not supported.

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The purpose of this research was to
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Application Development course by assessing the
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and by analyzing the student performance
scores in this course compared to traditional
programming courses. In order to determine the
degree and quality of learning that took place by
students in the course, a rigorous investigation
was conducted using both qualitative and
quantitative techniques.

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The methods of inquiry employed were survey designs and researcher observation for the
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designs for the quantitative component of this
study. A two-phase qualitative investigation was
conducted in the form of surveys during reguMBSMZ TDIFEVMFE DMBTT QFSJPET F STU QIBTF
surveys captured general information regardJOHUIFTUVEFOUTCBDLHSPVOETJODPNQVUJOHBOE
programming languages (e.g., Java) and initial
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was conducted near the beginning of the course.
A second survey was issued near the end of
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amount of iPhone Application Development to
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information from students on their assessment
Volume 58, Number 3

Figure 2. Xcode IDE for iOS Application Development (version 4.2.1 on OS X Lion 10.7).

of the course. The survey included seven openended questions to facilitate a great number of
perspectives and opinions. The researcher also
recorded observations throughout the course
in a logbook. Such observations included inforNBUJPO SFHBSEJOH JOEJWJEVBM TUVEFOUT QSPHSFTT
UISPVHI B TQFDJD )VNBO $PNQVUFS *OUFSBDUJPOEFTJHOFYFSDJTFPSEFTJHOJOHBTPMVUJPOUPB
problem using ObjectiveC.
The second component of the method was a
quantitative investigation of student performance
scores. The research method for this section inWPMWFE B RVBTJFYQFSJNFOUBM EFTJHO  "T B SFTVMU 
the researcher was able to compare pre- and postUFTUQFSGPSNBODFEJFSFODFTBTXFMMBTHSPVQEJFSences (i.e., Comparison versus iPhone Group). One
advantage of this type of analysis is that interaction
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29

Figure 3. Xcode IDE illustrating Interface Builder integration for


iOS Application Development.

In the quantitative study, the focus was on


measuring how much students learned. In support
of this objective, construct validity was achieved
by using standardized test theory and validating
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to review the tests (Trochim, 2001). Both of these
perspectives were accomplished by involving
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Science faculty members with a speciality in
undergraduate programming language teaching.
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the content and questions on the pre- and posttests
so that appropriate alterations could be made before
administering the tests to the students. All tests
were a combination of knowledge-based, skill-setbased and problem solving-based programming
problems. In support of standardized test theory,
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high-order thinking skills (i.e., analysis, synthesis
and evaluation) implemented in order to test the
students general ability to problem solve (Bloom,
1956; Furst, 1981).

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The population of this study was students
across the province taking a similar programming
course from advanced diploma program from
an Ontario College or comparable course at
a University. The sample in this study was the
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30

Figure 4. iPad Simulator (version 5 on OS X Lion 10.7).

group was the Comparison Group(C) and were


students from the Computer Systems Technology
program taking a Java programming course. The
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iPhone Group) that consisted of the students in
Computer Systems Technology program during
the winter of 2010. Students from both groups
were at the same stage in their academic program
(i.e., same prerequisite courses, knowledge and
skills, etc.). The Comparison Group consisted
of 17 students (16 males and 1 female) and the
iPhone Group consisted of 18 students (17 males
and 1 female). The iPhone Group had a median
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Two global procedures were required:
Part A: Qualitative investigation on the
iPhone Group; and
Part B: Quantitative investigation on student
performance scores.
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As previously discussed, the research procedure for this section involved a two-phase qualitative investigation that was conducted in the
form of surveys during regularly scheduled class
periods. Table 2 presents the survey that includes
seven open-ended questions to facilitate a great
number of perspectives and opinions.

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Volume 58, Number 3

Table 2
Qualitative Survey Sheet____________________________________________________________________________
This survey is used to determine the effectiveness of learning Mobile Computing principles and Application Development
for iPhones. For each question, select the most appropriate response based on the following scale:
1 = strongly favourable to the concept, 2 = somewhat favourable to the concept,
3 = undecided, 4 = somewhat unfavourable to the concept,
5 = strongly unfavourable to the concept.
1. How do you rate the Xcode Programming Environments usefulness?
Very Useful
1

Not Useful
2

Comments: _________________________________________________________________
Do you feel iPhone Development is beneficial to your studies? List and explain the advantages/disadvantages of this learning environment.
Very Beneficial
1

No Benefits
2

Comments: _________________________________________________________________
Compare the Xcode development environment with traditional programming environments (e.g., C, C++, etc.). Do you
feel this IDE is better or worse than these environments? Identify any similarities or differences between the Xcode IDE
and these other programming environments.
Xcode is better than

Xcode is worse than

other programming

other programming

environments

environments

1
Comments:

_________________________________________________________________

How do you rate the ease with which you use and understand the Objective-C style of programming?
Very easy to use

Very difficult to use

and understand

and understand

Comments: __________________________________________________________________
Have you enjoyed the Xcode development environment? Explain why or why not.
Very Enjoyable
1
Comments

Not enjoyable
2

__________________________________________________________________

6. Do you feel you learn more detailed information in Xcode or about the same as a traditional programming language?
Explain why or why not.
Learn Better
1
Comments:

Learn the same


2

__________________________________________________________________

7. Please add any other comments regarding the programming environment that you would like to share:
Volume 58, Number 3

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

31

1BSU#2VBOUJUBUJWF*OWFTUJHBUJPOPO 

4UVEFOU1FSGPSNBODF4DPSFT
A series of programming problems was
developed for the Comparison Group and
the iPhone Group. Students in the Comparison Group were taught in a traditional format
such as instructor-led instruction, group-work,
demonstration, etc. using the Java programming language. The iPhone Group received the
same instruction as well but using ObjectiveC
instead of Java. One professor taught both
groups for the entire term.
The quantitative investigation involved
both intragroup and intergroup comparison of
student achievement by using pre- and posttest performance tests. Performance tests were
small quizzes containing two to four programming problems and space for the student to
submit their solutions. The performance tests
were administered near the midterm (i.e., pretest) and at the end of the course (i.e., posttest).
These nonsubjective measurements quantify
the performance level of students as they progress through the course. In addition, comparisons were made between the iPhone Group and
the Comparison Group. The following section
describes the way in which this procedure was
performed.
Prepare a series of programming problems
for the Comparison Group:
1. Select a series of topics that are routinely taught
to students when learning the fundamentals
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repetition constructs, etc.);
2. develop a series of programming problems
that are based on those selected topics; and
3. ensure that they meet the requirements of
the unit or subunit of study by encouraging
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review the series of lessons developed.

Figure 5. Sample iOS project: Whack-A-Mole app during program execution.

32

Prepare a series of programming problems


for the iPhone Group:
1. Select the same topical area corresponding
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2. develop a series of problems for the iPhone
Group; and
3. ensure that they meet the requirements of
the unit or subunit of study by encouraging
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to review the series of lessons developed in
iOS.
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1. conducting the pretest for baseline data on
students in the iPhone and Comparison
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2. determining the mean and standard
deviation for the iPhone and Comparison
Groups;
3. conducting regularly scheduled lectures,
labs and tutorial sessions using iOS to the
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4. conducting traditional-form lessons for the
Comparison Group;
5. conducting the posttest given to both iPhone
and Comparison Groups;
6. computing standard statistical measures
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two groups respectively (i.e., iPhone and
Comparison Groups); and
7. computing additional statistical information
(e.g., ANOVA).

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the qualitative investigation of the iPhone
course. Students very much enjoyed the open
nature of the project where students were
encouraged to choose to design and develop
and app of their choice (e.g., game, business,
educational, etc.). Students worked in groups
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the project. A variety of apps were constructed
for the project, such as chess (as shown in
Figures 2 and 3), a real-time movie database
app, battleship, a memory matching game, a
balloon popping game, among others. As an
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of Whack-A-Mole, an app game for the
iPhone/iPad. This project used sophisticated
UI components, accelerometer, multi-touch
event handling and the Cocos2D framework
for building 2D games. The goal of the game
is to tap the moles when they pop up from
their holes before they disappear in the grass

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

Volume 58, Number 3

again. The game includes variations such as


three screen levels and multi-taps on a mole
for increased difficulty.
The culmination of surveys, observations
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UP VODPWFS DPNNPO UIFNFT JO UIF TUVEFOUT
opinion of iPhone course. The analysis yielded
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The following selected comments are from
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the iOS programming environment.
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1. I love the Xcode IDEit is so awesome!
2. Great IDE. I really like the code-completion
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every timeway better and faster app
development model.
3. I like the way in which the human interface
guidelines are represented and supported in
the Interface Builder tool in Xcode. It makes
it much easier to build a good app that is sleek
and intuitive.
4. Xcode with Interface Builder integrated
is great. I like how integrated everything
issource code to UI design to hooking
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5. At the beginning I felt that the Objective-C
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to it, it is actually very powerful and better than
other OO [object-oriented] languages such as
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6. i*N HMBE *N MFBSOJOH UIJT CFDBVTF *N
planning on building an app and putting it on
the App Store.
7. The researcher observed that some students
spent up to three times more time on the
iPhone course over other courses they were
taking. This was especially noticeable when
students were working on their project.
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1. The error messages sometimes are very
cryptic and hard for me to understand and
isolate where the problem is.
2. Too many pointers this is like the C course
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3. Memory management in Objective-C is a
pain. I wish that the iOS had garbage collection
like in Java.
4. When compared with other IDEs such as .Net
Visual Studio, Xcode is inferior, however, when

Volume 58, Number 3

compared with other mobile app development


platforms such as Eclipse for Blackberry and
Android, Xcode is far better.
5. I am disappointed that this is the only iOS
course in the curriculum. I wish there was a
sequel course to this onean advanced iOS
Application Development course.
6. The integration with Subversion is very slow
BU UJNFT *N OPU TVSF XIBU UIF QSPCMFN JT 
Xcode or Subversion, but it is very frustrating
at times.
Beyond the comments gathered from
students, statistical analysis based on the survey
was also performed. Table2 depicts the summary
statistics of the qualitative survey from the
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interesting observations that result from the
analysis of this data. The following are the most
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the students (47%) stated that they found the
Xcode programming environment to be very
useful. 80% of the students said that they feel the
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This could be attributed to the rapid market
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to be entrepreneurs in marketing and generating
revenue from their apps.
The response to question 4 (How do you
rate the ease with which you use and understand
the Objective-C?) is noteworthy. Only 33% of
the students felt Objective-C is easy to use and
understand. This is understandable considering
that the students in this program have had only
one C programming course and it was delivered
nearly 2 years earlier in their studies. The impact
of re-learning pointers, and having to be careful
with memory allocation and deallocation may
have resulted in this low score with regard to the
Objective-C programming language.
Table 1. iPhone Course Qualitative Summary Results

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1.

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2.

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4.

Ease of use and understanding of Objective-C... 33%

6.

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5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

33

Figure 6 shows a pictorial summary of


performance scores between C and the iPhone
Group using the mean grades as the data.
It is evident that the iPhone Group posttest
QFSGPSNBODF XBT TJHOJDBOUMZ IJHIFS UIBO UIF
Comparison Group.

$PODMVTJPOT

1BSU#2VBOUJUBUJWF*OWFTUJHBUJPOPO4UVEFOU
  1FSGPSNBODF4DPSFT
JT TFDUJPO QSFTFOUT UIF OEJOHT PG UIF
quantitative investigation of this study. Table4
presents a summary of the descriptive statistical
OEJOHT PO UIF QFSGPSNBODF TDPSFT GPS UIF
Comparison Group and the iPhone Group. In
order to determine the relationship between
the performance scores in C and the iPhone
Groups, a two-way ANOVA was conducted.
Table 5 presents the results from the
"/07"GPSCFUXFFOTVCKFDUTFFDUTGPSUIF$
and the iPhone Group. There was a statistically
TJHOJDBOUEJFSFODFCFUXFFO$BOEUIFJ1IPOF
Group, F(1,81) = 4.145, p < .05. The students in
the iPhone Group outperformed students in the
comparison group by nearly 8% at posttest.

This study provided an overview of the iOS


development environment and an assessment
of this new course including qualitative surveys,
informal observations and a quantitative analysis
involving student performance score results.
Overall, it was found that students enjoyed
the iPhone course and performed very well. It
XBT GPVOE UIBU UIF J1IPOF (SPVQ FYDFFEFE UIF
performance of a Comparison Group: F(1,81) =
4.145, p = 0.046.
In order to determine the degree and quality
of learning that took place by students in the
iPhone course, a rigorous investigation involving
qualitative and quantitative techniques was
DPOEVDUFE F SFTVMUT GSPN UIF STU TFDUJPO PG
the study investigated the iPhone course from a
student perspective using qualitative instruments.
The results from this section of the study indicate
that the majority of students feel the iPhone course
JTCFOFDJBMUPUIFJSTUVEJFT 
IPXFWFS UIFSF
are areas for improvement. This section presents
TPNFPGUIFMFTTPOTMFBSOFEJOPFSJOHUIFJ1IPOF
DPVSTF BOE FYQMPSFT TPNF PG UIF CFOFUT BOE
disadvantages.
F CFOFUT PG UFBDIJOH UIF J1IPOF DPVSTF
are described below. The iPhone course:
tEFNPOTUSBUFTIPXJ04 BNBUVSF QPMJTIFEBOE
highly consistent set of APIs based on Cocoa,
is used,
t TIPXT SFBMXPSME JNQMFNFOUBUJPOT PG 0CKFDU
Oriented design patterns (e.g., Model-ViewController),
t JOUSPEVDFT TUVEFOUT UP OFX B DPNQVUJOH
paradigm and programming language (i.e.,
Objective-C),
tQSFTFOUTWBSJPVTUPQJDTPOTPXBSFEFTJHOBOE
TPXBSFFOHJOFFSJOHJODMVEJOHPCKFDUPSJFOUFE
architectures,
tJMMVTUSBUFTIPXEFTJHOTMFBSOFEPOUIFJ1IPOF
iPad translate directly to Mac OS X,
t FNQPXFST TUVEFOUT UP QBSUJDJQBUF JO UIF
entrepreneurial spirit created by Apple and the
App Store,
t SFTPOBUFT XJUI TUVEFOUT XIP QFSDFJWFE UIF
course as being timely and valuable given the
current marketplace. They felt that the course
was important to their studies and by gaining

Figure 6. iPhone Group versus Comparison Group performance results using pretest and posttest means as data.

34

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

Volume 58, Number 3

the skills in iOS programming would enhance


their career opportunities, and
t TIPXT UIBU PWFSBMM  TUVEFOUT GPVOE UIF J1IPOF
course to be enjoyable (73%), useful (73%) and
CFOFDJBM 

F EJTBEWBOUBHFT FYQFSJFODFE CZ TUVEFOUT
in the iPhone course are described below.
t  /PU BMM PG UIF TUVEFOUT XFSF IBQQZ XJUI UIF
Apple environment. A number of students said
they would have been happier developing apps
for the Android platform instead.
t F NFTTBHF QBTTJOH QBSBEJHN VTFE JO
Objective-C was initially quite strange for
many students. None of the students involved
in this study were introduced to Smalltalk or
Objective-C or any other message passing
programming language in their academic
program thus farso it was new for all of the
students. Consequently, it was difficult and
frustrating for some at the beginning of the
course. Soon however, most of the students
PWFSDBNF UIF TZOUBDUJD EJFSFODFT CFUXFFO
what they had learned before (e.g., Java,
C++, etc.) and this new language. In fact, by
the end of the course 1/3 of the students said
that Objective-C is either easy or very easy to
use. Furthermore, 73% said they found the
environment enjoyable(please seeTable3).
tFWFSTJPOPGJ04EFWFMPQNFOUUIBUXBTVTFE
EVSJOH UIF PFSJOH PG UIF J1IPOF DPVSTF EJE
OPU PFS B HBSCBHF DPMMFDUJPO NFDIBOJTN
for memory management (as in Java for
JOTUBODF
 4JODF UIBU DPVSTF PFSJOH  UIF
iOS has been updated to include Automatic
Reference Counting (ARC). ARC makes
memory management the job of the compiler
BOE ESBNBUJDBMMZ TJNQMJFT UIF EFWFMPQNFOU
process, while reducing crashes and memory
leaks (Apple, 2012). The compiler has a
DPNQMFUF VOEFSTUBOEJOH PG UIF BQQT PCKFDUT
and releases each object the instant it is no
longer used. Apple claims that apps that use
ARC run with the same predictable and
smooth performance as in previous versions
of the iOS (Apple, 2012). Future studies
TIPVMEFYQMPSFUIFJNQBDUPGJODMVEJOH"3$JO
subsequent iPhone courses.
t F WFSTJPO PG 9DPEF UIBU XBT VTFE JO UIF
iPhone course was not as comprehensive
nor well-integrated with common tools as
in subsequent versions of Xcode. The latest
SFMFBTFPG9DPEF DVSSFOUMZWFSTJPO
PFST
much more seamless integration with the
various tools that are common in popular
IDEs such as Eclipse, .NET Visual Studio and
others (Apple, 2012).

Volume 58, Number 3

The second section of this study involved


an investigation of student performance scores.
Two classes were involved in this study, the
iPhone Group and a Comparison Group. In all of
UIFFYQFSJNFOUT UIFJ1IPOF(SPVQTJHOJDBOUMZ
FYDFFEFE UIF QFSGPSNBODF PG UIF $PNQBSJTPO
Group. A two-way ANOVA was conducted that
DPOSN UIFTF SFTVMUT F(1,81) = 4.145, p < .05.
These results, coupled with the generally positive
qualitative feedback from students, indicate that
students perform well in the iOS programming
environment.
As presented earlier, some students spent up
to three times more time on the iPhone course
over other courses they were taking in the same
semester. This was particularly evident during the
time when students were working on the project.
This is most likely due to several factors:
tTUVEFOUTIBEBHSFBUBNPVOUPGMBUJUVEFUPEFvelop an app of their choice (providing it met
the overarching goals of the course outcomes),
tUIF9DPEFEFWFMPQNFOUFOWJSPONFOUBOEJ04
frameworks are mature and very rich with features,
t UIF J04 "1*T PFS NBOZ IBSEXBSF TQFDJD
functionalities that students used in the design
and implementation of their app (e.g., GPS for
DPOUFYUBXBSF BQQT  BDDFMFSPNFUFS  QIPUP MJbrary, map kit, etc.),
tUIF*OUFSGBDF#VJMEFSUPPMJO9DPEFJTGBSTVperior to competitor application development
environments (e.g., Android, etc.),
tUIFJ04QSPWJEFTTJHOJDBOUTVQQPSUGPSUIJSE
party frameworks such as Cocos2D, Sparrow,
0QFO(-&4 FUD XIJDIXFSFVTFEFYUFOTJWFMZ
in many apps developed in the course (Apple,
2012; Heald, 2012; Sparrow, 2012),
t UIF QSPTQFDU PG EFQMPZJOH UIFJS OBM BQQ UP
"QQMFT"QQ4UPSFXBTBQQFBMJOHUPTFWFSBMTUVdents,
t NPTU TUVEFOUT CFDBNF FOHSPTTFE JO EFWFMPQJOHUIFJSOBMQSPKFDUBQQoUIFTFTUVEFOUTFYQSFTTFEUIBUJUXBTWFSZFOKPZBCMFBOEGVMMMJOH

%JTDVTTJPOBOE'VUVSF3FTFBSDI
Educators in all disciplines should acknowledge the impact of mobile computing. Mobile
DPNQVUJOHJTBOBSFBUIBUIBTHSPXJOHFYQPOFOtially and is continuing to grow at an intense rate.
Educators should acknowledge this growth and
plan appropriately in terms of determining the
potential impact to their own area of research
and/or area of teaching (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu,
1FUUFZ 
'PSFYBNQMF NPCJMFDPNQVUing has a strong presence in the following sectors
(and they are all growing):

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

35

tDPNQVUFSTDJFODF 
tCJPJOGPSNBUJDT 
tFOHJOFFSJOH
tIFBMUI
tCVTJOFTT
tNFEJB
tDPNNVOJDBUJPO 
tTPDJBMOFUXPSLJOH BOE
tFEVDBUJPO GSPNHSBEFTDIPPM 
through to higher education).
.PCJMF$PNQVUJOHJTBFMEUIBUJTpermeating all avenues in our society. Despite the tremenEPVTHSPXUI UIFDVSSFOUSFBMJUZJTUIBUUIJTFMEJT
a fragmented one and has all signs of continuing
to be so in the foreseeable future (Bothun, 2011;
Cisco, 2013). The main platforms at this time are
iOS, and Android, followed by BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian (Bothun, 2011; Meeker et al., 2010; Pettey, 2011). This reality makes it
difficult for educators to make decisions on curricula. Nonetheless, since graduates of computer
TDJFODFEFHSFFTNBZOEUIFNTFMWFTJOBOVNCFS
PGEJFSFOUXPSLQMBDFFOWJSPONFOUT JUJTJNQPStant that educators strive to achieve balance in
the curriculum. The suggestion here is that as the
FMETBCPWFHSPXJOOFFEGPSNPCJMFBQQT DPNputer science programs should therefore include
this type of instruction in their curriculum.
Apple is currently the leader in Mobile
Computing (Satariano, 2011). It appears that the
combination of iOS, Xcode (with integrated UI
design tool), and iOS Simulator will continue to
be the dominate development platform for mobile
BQQT JT JT EVF JO QBSU UP "QQMFT BTUPOJTIJOH
CVTJOFTTQSFTFODF UIFFYQPOFOUJBMHSPXUIPGJ04
EFWJDFT BOEUIFOVNCFSPGBQQTPO"QQMFT"QQ
Store (currently over 700,000) (Costello, 2013).
The following section presents some areas for
GVUVSFSFTFBSDIBTJUSFMBUFTUPDPVSTFPFSJOHTGPS
iOS device application development.
As discussed in the previous section, memory
NBOBHFNFOU XBT B TJHOJDBOU TUVNCMJOH CMPDL
for students in the course. However, since that
DPVSTF PFSJOH  UIF J04 IBT CFFO VQEBUFE
to include Automatic Reference Counting
(ARC). ARC essentially eliminates the role of
programmer to manage memory as is required in
C or C++ for instance. With ARC, Objective-C is
more akin to Java by alleviating that huge burden
of memory management responsibility from the
developer (Apple, 2012). With this enhanced
feature, further gains may be realized in student
satisfaction and ease of application development
may be forthcoming. Future research studies are
QMBOOFEUPFYQMPSFIPXTUVEFOUTXJMMSFTQPOEUP
this enhancement of the iOS framework in terms

36

of student satisfaction and the process of iOS


application development.
Another area for consideration for future
research is determining the direction of various
UPQJDT UIBU DPVME CF FYUFOEFE JO J04 DPVSTFT
For instance, the iPhone course presented in
this study was essentially a foundational course
in iOS development and involved a substantial
amount of teaching principles of Human
Computer Interaction for mobile devices and the
fundamentals of the Objective-C programming
MBOHVBHF0UIFSDPVSTFPFSJOHTNBZJODMVEFUIF
new features that the recent iOS includes such
as better integration of the Interface Builder tool
with the editor, impact of the iCloud, Newsstand
,JU  $PSF *NBHF  (-,JU  5XJUUFS  /PUJDBUJPO
Center, and/or new Game Center APIs (Sykes,
 ;BU[ 
8JUITPNBOZGFBUVSFT 
educators have a lot of choice on which direction
to pursue and where to place emphasis. One area
that is gaining considerable attention is Cloud
$PNQVUJOH "SNCSVTU FU BM     $PY 
2011; Kovachev, Cao, & Klamma, 2011). In fact,
IBM predicts that by 2015, there will be 1 trillion
DMPVESFBEZ NPCJMF EFWJDFT $PY  
 $MPVE
integrated mobile computing opens a variety of
new research questions, and will be a source of
challenging research problems in information
and communication technology for many years
to come (Kovachev et al., 2011). Solving these
problems will require interdisciplinary research
from systems, networks, and Human Computer
Interaction. (Kovachev et al., 2011). The areas in
cloud integrated mobile computing that need to
CFFYQMPSFEJODMVEF
a) determining the appropriate balance of
EZOBNJDBMMZTIJJOHSFTQPOTJCJMJUJFTCFUXFFO
mobile device and cloud (e.g., offloading
computation and information to a remote
data center, nearby computer or cluster of
computers, or even to nearby mobile devices)
(Sykes, Pham, Stoica, & Stacey, 2013);
b) analyzing avenues of integration as
XFMM BT UIF TZOFSHJFT UIBU FYJTU CFUXFFO
mobile computing, cloud computing and
virtualization, and
c) FYQMPSJOH QSJWBDZ BOE TFDVSJUZ GPS NPCJMF
applications that use cloud services(Sykes et
al., 2013; Sykes & Skoczen, 2013).
Other areas that educators may wish to
FYQMPSF JODMVEF FYQBOEJOH PS FOIBODJOH UIF
topics presented in this course such as Quartz
2D, Cocos2D, Web service integration (e.g.,
SOAP, RESTful services, etc.), and database
programming (Core Data & SQLite).

5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

Volume 58, Number 3

4VNNBSZ
In summary, this project has
shown that, in the area of mobile
DPNQVUJOH  UIFSF BSF TJHOJDBOU
opportunities for computer science
students. Furthermore, these students
may be quite fortunate to have such an
FYQFSJFODFBOEPUIFSDPNQVUFSTDJFODF
QSPHSBNTNBZCFOFUCZJODPSQPSBUJOH
the ideas presented in this paper. Those
responsible for computer science
programs and instruction may wish to
adapt the curriculum to provide similar
opportunities for their own institution.
Correspondence in regard to this paper should be addressed to: Edward R. Sykes,
Sheridan College, School of Applied Computing, Faculty of Applied Science and Technology,
1430 Trafalgar Rd., Oakville, Ontario, Canada, (email) ed.sykes@sheridanc.on.ca. (phone)
+1 (905) 845 9430 Ext 2490

3FGFSFODFT
ACM computing curricula 2001. (2001). ACM
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%  ,BU[  3  ,POXJOTLJ  "     ;BIBSJB 
M. (2009). Above the Clouds: A Berkeley
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M. (2010). A view of cloud computing.
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us/en/industry/entertainment-media/
publications/assets/consumer-researchseries-smartphones.pdf
$JTDP 
$JTDP7JTVBM/FUXPSLJOH*OEFY
Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast
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html
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;BU[  % 
 3FEFTJHOJOH "QQMFT J04 
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5FDI5SFOETt.BZ+VOF

37

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