An Interactive Learning System with Automated Assistance for Self-Learning User Interface Design on Android Applications

Abstract

The popularity of smartphone device usage has triggered the increasing demand for Android application developers in recent years. To master Android application development, students must learn various programming languages, including XML for designing the user interface (UI). However, many related courses do not offer learning topics in Android application UI design specifically. Moreover, the major issue in programming courses is the teacher's difficulties in checking and verifying the source codes from students. This study proposes a novel approach to support students' self-learning interactively by developing a self-learning system for designing Android application UI using XML code. To realize the comprehensive learning process, the pedagogical model is applied and consists of studying and assignments for exercise to make it ready for blended learning. The learning materials to study UI layout, widgets, string resources, color resources, and drawable resources were distributed into 20 learning topics to guide the studying process. In the assignment process of writing XML code, integration testing mechanism on Android applications is adopted to provide the features of automatic source code verification and automated learning assistance for students getting instant feedback, suggestion, and assistance to correct the source code. For a comprehensive evaluation, system usability and students' experiences have been assessed by appointing 80 IT students from two universities in Indonesia to use this system. The results have confirmed the system's effectiveness to support students' self-learning process, learning materials appropriateness, and the high grade of user satisfaction and enthusiasm. Also, this system has successfully led all students to master UI design skills on Android applications using XML code after completing the 20 learning topics, even though at the beginning of the learning, the students have a poor coding experience.