Misc

Android Development Being Offered as a Public College Course by NJIT

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We’ve been dying to see more Android in schools – whether it be for application development courses or devices used as companion tools for learning. We’ve seen middle schools and high schools adopt Android to teach budding programmers, and now the New Jersey Institute of Technology is offering public courses for anyone who wants to learn how to develop for Android.

Things kick off January 18th for just $1,050: I’d consider that a small price to pay, pending the quality of education. I’m actually kind of wishing there were courses like that in my area. I’m sure many of you wouldn’t travel to Jersey for this course, but if you’re in that area and you’ve been wanting to get into Android development, it sounds worth a quick shot. Press details straight ahead.

[Update]: Well would you look at that: it’s an online course. No need to travel at all. Though I must say, I’d feel 10 times more comfortable in a physical classroom environment. Worth a shot if you’re serious, regardless.

Want to learn more about creating and deploying the world’ s fastest growing mobile operating system? Then consider enrolling in NJIT’s newest non-credit, 30-hour online course offering Android applications for software simulators and hardware devices.

The Android Operating System Application Development Course, which starts Jan. 18, 2011, is open to the public and will offer the skills and tools needed for designing and implementing software using the Android 2.2 environment. The cost is $1,050: register by Jan. 17, 2010 athttp://cpe-njit.mobi/ or call 800-624-9850.

“Consider this course an excellent way to get a start on developing applications for a tablet operating system,” said instructor Tim Kellers. During the past year, Android systems have demonstrated a 35 percent increase in market share. “As new smart phones and tablet devices appear, there is a growing competitive opportunity to design and market commercial Android-based apps,” added Kellers.

The Android operating system is the marketplace’s response to Apple’s iPhone/iPad ios4 operating system. Android developers, however, are not limited to developing for only one hardware manufacturer. Android operating systems are now distributed on more than 20 brands of hardware and are available to any cell phone service provider.
Because the Android operating system is based on open source software, no proprietary restrictions or license fee payments are required to use its software and open-source development tools. There are also no charges for using the software of the development environment tools.

The Android market is the clearing house for user-designed apps, offering developers a fast and convenient way to be paid for their distributed software. The Android market already has upwards of 100,000 apps available for purchase or free download. Within two years, the projected demand for Android-based application software is expected to exceed the capacity of Apple’s highly successful AppStore. The combined annual revenues paid to developers from both platforms are annually expected to exceed $3 billion.

NJIT will award three continuing education units (CEUs) upon the successful completion of the course. Study topics will include getting started, Android controls using XML, table layout in Android, interface themes, creating background services and using the WebKit. More topics include user interfaces, programming services and investigating multi-threading. Each student will design their own final project application, a culmination of performed tasks and assignments included in each module.

To get started, you’ll need a dial-up or broad-band Internet connection in addition to a computer capable (or higher) of running the 2.2 Android Software Development Kit plus a supported operating system. Such systems include Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32- or 64-bit), or Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit); Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later (x86 only); Linux (tested on Linux Ubuntu Hardy Heron); the Eclipse development environment.

For further information on the course and syllabus, you may wish to click here.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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14 Comments

  1. Iv’e been looking for Schools in my area with no luck. I was wanting to take a few classes just to have some fun with it and maybe make a side job from learning.

  2. The course is online – no need to travel to New Jersey…

  3. I want to do it, but I just found out and its very soon…. Still will try.

  4. I’m going to look into this and see what payment opptions (if any) other then direct payment there may be. Sounds interesting enough, but it leaves me wondering if this would have any real value. I’m sure most of our Dev’s didn’t take a course and call it a day….

  5. ONLINE COURSE!

  6. I looked at the course description online, and I wouldn’t waste your money. The topics covered are overly simplistic, and you can get the same information from the FREE tutorials offered by Google. $1k is a lot of money to spend for this content.

  7. Noncredit? That turned me off. Too much money not to get credit for it

  8. They also offer this at Bergen Community College in NJ as well. It’s a series of 2 or 3 levels of classes with each set being 6 classes a piece.

  9. An awesome step for Android to take, this will open many doors in the future as more people get into making better and more versatile apps. Personally, I’d like to see Android move more into the medical fields. Apple is always bragging about that, time for a change.

  10. I just took a course in UC Berkeley that taught Android programming as well! lhttp://vis.berkeley.edu/courses/cs160-sp10/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

  11. I live in Jersey (and go to Rutgers, which is like an hour from NJIT) and I just realized at how much of a rip-off this is after talking with one of my co-workers. You’re essentially giving them a grand and theyre giving you a book and pretty much saying “learn it yourself but we’re here to help”.

    If you really want to program android apps, get a book and learn java, download eclipse, start tinkering away and ask the thousands of people on the message boards if you get stuck. That will save you about 8 or 900 bucks lol Now if it was an in-person class that would be a different story.

  12. Haha, my highschool next year is releasing an application development course for iOS and Android, and you choose which you want to develope for. Android FTW. :)

  13. If you have iTunes, do a search for Android then look at the iTunes University offerings. There is a free course on Android Development. I subscribed but didn’t check it out yet. Can’t beat the price.

    Michael

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