Overview
This unit shows you how to design and implement dynamic mobile web apps that allow complex user interaction and build on knowledge of responsive web design. You will examine the viability of web apps versus native apps, with particular attention being paid to cross platform considerations using tools such as Apache Cordova, implementing web middleware using server-side tools such as Node.js and integrating these with cloud databases to store mobile data. The business drivers for mobile portals will also be discussed, as will the social impact of mobile technology. Research skills will be introduced as a means of keeping up to date with the changing mobile development landscape.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-Req: COIT20268 Responsive Web Design Anti-Req: COIT20231 Mobile Computing
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator and Teaching Team Reflection
jQuery Mobile framework, popularity and usage have declined over the years. Alternative frameworks should be considered.
Explore a transition to a more widely adopted front-end development framework (for example React).
Feedback from Teaching Team's Reflection
Incorporating intuitive coding examples in lectures proves to be a valuable practice, aiding students in the development of their skills.
Continue providing intuitive coding examples in the lecture slides and tutorial materials.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator
Weekly tutorials should adopt a guided approach, furnishing students with step-by-step instructions for completing the tasks.
Revise and enrich the tutorial with detailed, step-by-step guidance. This update will not only make the material more accessible but also foster a deeper understanding and more effective task execution by the students
Feedback from Unit Coordinator and Teaching Team
Split the unit into two distinct components: one focusing on front-end development and the other addressing backend and cloud aspects.
Restructure the unit by dividing it into two distinct components. The first component should focus exclusively on front-end development (for mobile web applications) and the second component should then address back-end development and cloud computing aspects.
- Design, create and implement a mobile web app
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the app
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.
Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles.
ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html
This unit contributes to the workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:
Systems Design (DESN),
Systems Integration (SINT),
Data Analysis (DTAN),
Database/Repository Design (DBDS),
Testing (TEST),
Release and Deployment (RELM),
Applications Support (ASUP).
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | ||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | |||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | |||||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | |||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Android Studio (latest version)
- Zoom (both microphone and webcam capability)
- Visual Studio Code (latest version)
- Nodepad++ (latest version)
- Gradle (latest version)
- Node.js (latest version from https://nodejs.org/en/)
- Apache Cordova (latest version from https://cordova.apache.org/)
- Git CLI (from https://cli.github.com/)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.azad@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 04 Mar 2024Module/Topic
JavaScript: Basics. JSON
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2
Begin Date: 11 Mar 2024Module/Topic
JavaScript: Arrays. Objects. jQuery. jQueryMobile
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 18 Mar 2024Module/Topic
Single Page Application using jQueryMobile
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4
Begin Date: 25 Mar 2024Module/Topic
Asynchronous Programming
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 5
Begin Date: 01 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Node.js Basics
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 08 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Enjoy the break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 15 Apr 2024Module/Topic
API Construction using Node.js and Express
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 22 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Using MongoDB Database
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 29 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Hybrid App Development
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 06 May 2024Module/Topic
Online App Deployment
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 3 - Mobile Apps Project (Part A)
Due: Week 9 Tuesday (7 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 10
Begin Date: 13 May 2024Module/Topic
Mobile App Security: Basic
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11
Begin Date: 20 May 2024Module/Topic
Mobile App Security: Advanced
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 27 May 2024Module/Topic
Express Routing
Chapter
Lecturer created materials
Events and Submissions/Topic
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 03 Jun 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 3 - Mobile Apps Project (Part B)
Due: Review/Exam Week Tuesday (28 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week
Begin Date: 10 Jun 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Contact information for Dr Salahuddin Azad: Email: s.azad@cqu.edu.au; Office: Level 6, 120 Spencer Street, Melbourne Vic 3000; P +61 3 9616 0680 | X 50680.
If you have any queries, please email me and I will get back to you within one business day or so. For an individual discussion, please ring me during business hours (or leave a message if I am not in) and I will return your call as soon as possible.
1 Practical Assessment
This is an individual assignment.
The objective of this assignment is to develop, test and maintain a client-side mobile web app using an integrated suite of mobile software development tools. More specifically, you will work on the client-side using jQuery, jQuery Mobile, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS.
You will be given partially completed source code of a client-side mobile web app as a starting point for development. The mobile app will be a JQueryMobile SPA (Single Page Application). You are required to complete the mobile web app to achieve the desired functionalities by:
- adding necessary jQuery pages
- adding HTML code to jQuery pages
- adding JavaScript code to .js files, and
- adding styles to .css files
Further detail about the assignment will be provided on the Moodle unit website and in the assignment specification document.
Week 6 Tuesday (16 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
You must submit your assignment electronically by the above due date and time.
Week 8 Tuesday (30 Apr 2024)
The marks and feedback will be returned within 2 weeks after the submission due date.
The assignment specification document along with the marking criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
2 Practical Assessment
This is an individual assignment.
The main outcome of this assignment is to create a three-tier Hybrid Mobile App running on a smart device.
The objectives of this assignment are:
- Database - Create and maintain a MongoDB document database using the Atlas cloud service for online storage of mobile app data.
- Client - Develop, test and maintain a hybrid mobile app using an integrated suite of mobile software development tools. More specifically on the client-side, jQuery, jQuery Mobile, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS.
- Server - Develop, test and maintain an Express web server and API using JavaScript and Node.js with various Node.js packages. Data is stored locally on the mobile device and in the cloud (MongoDB). The API facilitates access to a MongoDB Atlas cloud service using Node Express middleware.
You will be given partially completed source code of a mobile web app as the starting point for development. You are required to complete the Hybrid Mobile App to achieve the desired functionalities.
Further detail about the assignment will be provided on the Moodle unit website and in the assignment specification document.
Week 10 Tuesday (14 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
You must submit your assignment electronically by the above due date and time.
Week 12 Tuesday (28 May 2024)
The marks and feedback will be returned within 2 weeks after the submission due date.
The assignment specification document along with the marking criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Design, create and implement a mobile web app
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Project (applied)
This is a group assignment.
You should work in a group of three (3) members. The overall objective of this assignment is to specify, design, implement, and test a Hybrid App. More specifically, the tasks that need to be accomplished are:
Part A: Project Proposal (15 marks)
You will generate a semi-original idea for a mobile app. The proposal will contain:
- A brief description of what the app is about and what it does
- A brief discussion of who will use the app and why they will use the app (target audience)
- A list of high-level user requirements
- Software architecture, clearly depicting all components
- Wireframes of all user interfaces
- A brief outline of the testing plan
- A summary of the major tasks and who is doing which task
Part B: Application and Report (35 marks)
- Database - Create and maintain a MongoDB document database using the Atlas cloud service for online storage of mobile app data.
- Client - Develop, test, and maintain a mobile client app using an integrated suite of mobile software development tools. More specifically on the client-side, jQuery, jQuery Mobile, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS.
- Hybrid App - Deploy the mobile client app as a Hybrid App to smart devices (e.g., Android smartphone) using the Cordova platform.
- Server - Develop, test, and maintain an Express web server and API using JavaScript and Node.js with various Node.js packages. Data is stored locally on the mobile device and in the cloud (MongoDB). The API facilitates access to a MongoDB Atlas cloud service for online storage and retrieval using Node Express middleware.
- Server Deployment - Deploy the API server using an online service (e.g., Render).
- Report – Briefly illustrate run instructions, problem resolution, app testing, and vulnerability analysis.
Further detail about the assignment will be provided on the Moodle unit website and in the assignment specification document.
Please note: This assessment task is selected to be included in your course-wide portfolio. The outcomes/artifacts of this assessment must be uploaded to Portfolium (https://portfolium.com/activity) by the submission due date in addition to your submission to Moodle for marking.
Part A Due: Week 9 Tuesday (7 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST, and Part B Due: Review/Exam Week Tuesday (28 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
The marks and feedback will be returned on the date of certificatation of grades.
The assignment specification document along with the marking criteria will be provided on the Moodle unit website.
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Self-management
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
