Introduction

The seminar "Introduction to Android Application Development" is organized by the specialized high-tech company Digital Academy created by the Team of Lecturers of the NTUA Multimedia Technology Laboratory. It is an intensive seminar that is carried out exclusively with the method of Distance Learning (e-learning), allowing the learner to follow a high-level scientific training program from his home, his office, or from the place of his choice and at the time of his choice, via Internet. The program has been designed in such a way by the laboratory, so that it combines high-level theoretical knowledge but also practical practice in the ways of designing and implementing applications for smartphones with Android operating system, which are increasingly popular due to the unlimited possibilities they offer.

The duration is 12-15 weeks and corresponds to 140-160 lesson hours.

Topics

1. Introduction, Getting to know Android for the first time
2. Android Apps & GUIs
3. Graphical User Interfaces Part 2
4. Permanent data storage
5. Multimedia support
6. Telephony and connectivity (calls, sms, wifi, bluetooth, web, nfc, email)
7. Threading & Services
8. Location Based Services and Sensors
9. Web Services
10. Final exam

Methodology

According to our training program, the material is divided into 10 training units corresponding to 10 teaching weeks and the program is completed with a final assignment. The program uses the latest version of the free software (open source) Moodle, which is based on the PHP programming platform. The online courses are hosted on private servers incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as:

Processor 2 x Intel Pentium XEON hyperthreading, Memory 6GB DDR RAM, Hard Disks IBM SCSI U320 HDDs@ 15000 rpm Raptors Hardware RAID 10. The central interface with the internet is carried out through EDET (National Research and Technology Network) and is of the order of 1 Gbps (EDET has 2 x 622 Mbps internet connection – Pan-European Research Internet GEANT).

After the seminar

At the end of the seminar, the trainee should:

• Be able to and install the required components for developing applications for the Android platform.
• To know the operation and basic features of the Android platform.
• To know the most important Android SDK classes and their correct usage to achieve desired functionality.
• Implement, debug and publish complete Android applications.

Critical thinking, design initiative and the ability to implement Android applications will be developed thanks to the ready-made programs provided by the instructors as well as the weekly assignments.

Purpose of the seminar

The purpose of the course is to teach learners the basic capabilities of the Android SDK through a series of 10 training modules that cover everything one should know to start developing integrated applications for the popular platform.

The seminar in question belongs to the advanced ones provided by Digital Academy and in order to be able to attend it successfully, the prospective student should first of all have experience in programming in Java and additional knowledge of writing XML texts. The material provided and the teaching modules have been designed with this in mind and therefore prospective learners will need to certify their knowledge of Java programming in one of the following two ways in order to be selected:

They have successfully attended the 'Introduction to Java Programming Language' course also provided by Digital Academy.

They work as Software Engineers in some private company or as freelancers.

For those who have no programming experience in Java and still want to work on Android application implementation, we recommend that they first attend the "Introduction to Java Programming Language" course and then the "Introduction to Android Application Development" course by taking advantage of the discount provided by Digital Academy.

During the tutorial, software for the Windows platform is used and provided on the accompanying CD, however, users of other operating systems (Unix, Linux) can also follow the tutorial by installing the software themselves for the platform of their choice.

The training is designed for immediate learning of the platform's capabilities and key features while focusing on analyzing the most basic features of the Android SDK and the correct methodology for developing applications for the popular platform.