Course Syllabus

Android App Development Certificate

Prerequisite(s): Java or object-oriented programming experience.
Required Materials/Texts:
Beginning Android 4 Application Development

ISBN:
978-1-1181-9954-1

Web access required. Lecture power point decks and other resources will be posted to KSUs
Moodle web site for download. Class participants may either print hard copies for class or bring
personal laptops in order to work with soft copies. KSU will not provide printed materials for
class. Wireless Internet is available in all classrooms.
Course Description: According to NBCNews.com Technology, Google's Android operating
system was on 70.1 percent of phones shipped in the last quarter of 2012. Learn to develop
your own apps for your Android device. Let us introduce you to Android app programming by
giving you a solid foundation so you can imagine, design, create and deploy your own apps onto
the Google Play Store. This class will cover the major Android topics such as Views, Activities,
Intents, Broadcast Receivers, and Content Providers. It will also cover Location-based services,
Sensors and App Deployment.
Course Length:
The Android App Development Certificate course is scheduled to meet on Saturdays from
9:00AM to 4:00PM for 4 weeks.
Criteria for Successful Completion: Students must attend 100% of the class meetings (4
classes) and actively participate in order to earn CEUs and a certificate of completion.
Instructor: Dr. Humayun Zafar
Learning Outcome(s):
Upon successful completion of this class, the learner will be able to:

Use the development tools in the Android development environment

Use the major components of Android API set to develop their own apps
Describe the life cycles of Activities, Applications and Fragments
Use the Java programming language to build Android apps
Make UI-rich apps using all the major UI components
Know UI best-practices
Be familiar with new UI components like Fragments and the Action Bar
Store and manipulate data using Content Providers, Shared Preferences and Notifications
Do background processing with Services and AsyncTasks

Learning Outcome(s) continued:

Utilize Sensors like Gyroscopes, Accelerometers and GPS to add orientation and location
to their apps
Send and receive SMS messages programmatically
Package and prepare their apps for distribution on the Google Play Store
Assessment of Learning Outcomes:
Through in-class app development lectures and activities, each student will learn to develop
Android apps using all the major components of the Android API at the beginning level.
Methodology:
Short lecture, class exercises and app development, class discussion, reading assignments,
quizzes.
Course Outline:
Session 1 Getting Started
Topic A: Introductions
Topic B: Tools/environment setup & troubleshooting
Topic C: Create 1st Android App HelloWorld
Topic D: Introduction to Java
A) Creating, compiling, & running a Java Program
B) Variables, constants, data types, output and comments
C) Operations: math, assignment, comparison, precedence, escape characters
D) If, switch, for, while, do-while, break/continue
E) Arrays
F) Strings
G) OO: properties + methods, inheritance, containment, class vs. object,
interfaces
Topic E: Revisit First Android App HelloWorld
A) Manifest
B) Resources
C) Views
D) Debugging
E) DDMS
F) Logcat
Session 2 Working with the User Interface
Topic A: Development tools
Topic B: Applications
A) App manifest
B) Resources
C) Application types
Topic C: Activities
A) Activity Life Cycle
Topic D: Introduction to UI
A) Layouts
B) Fragments
C) Adapters
D) Action bar

E) Dialogs
F) Notifications
Topic E: UI best practices
Session 3 Data and App interaction
Topic A: Intents and Broadcast Receivers
A) Intents
B) Pending intents
C) Intent resolution
D) Native broadcast intents
Topic B: Preferences and saving state
Topic C: Content Providers
Topic D: Background processing
A) Services
B) IntentService
C) AsyncTask
D) Alarms
Session 4 Sensors, Deployment and more
Topic A: Sensors
A) Finding sensors
B) Accelerometers
C) Gyroscopes
D) Other types
Topic B: Orientation and Movement
A) Pitch, roll and yaw
B) Natural device orientation
C) Reference frame remapping
Topic C: SMS
A) Sending
B) Receiving
Topic D: App Distribution
A) Signing
B) Google Play requirements
C) Needed assets
D) Monetization
E) Tips on becoming a top app
F) Google analytics