Create Your Own App Prototype - Flex Class!

**New course - currently offered at an introductory price of $30 US**

This is a Flex Class and does not meet live or at specific times. It offers plenty of interaction, 1:1 teacher support by email, and engaging activities and collaboration with peers, with complete flexibility during the week. 

Who among us has not had an idea for an app? It’s something we can all relate to, and this course harnesses that natural interest and motivation to help students develop critical thinking skills and an innovative mindset. 

Over the course of 4 weeks, students will study the process of innovation and follow these steps in practice scenarios with partners. They’ll learn all about UX, or user experience, and how to take this into consideration when designing their app. In this course, we leave the coding and programming aspect for another time and focus exclusively on the logic and thought processes needed to design an app.

Students will experience the importance of empathizing with another person (the user), identifying a need or problem, designing a solution in the form of a prototype, and then going through the cycle of testing --- getting feedback --- modifying and testing again. The transferable skills that are embedded in this experience will benefit your child in all subject areas.

We will first plan on paper, and then create an interactive, clickable app prototype that students can test and share on Apple or Android devices, or on a desktop computer.

Each Monday morning (eastern time zone) the tasks for the week will be unlocked. These include pre-recorded video tutorials, other subject-related videos, new templates and worksheets for planning the app, collaborative brainstorming, and work to share with peers, such as images of screen designs and links to allow others to try certain functions of the app prototype they're working on.

Students are asked to choose certain parts of their portfolio to share with the class. These will be posted in the classroom. Part of our learning includes how to give effective and appropriate feedback, so each student will practice by giving feedback about their peers' work that is posted in the classroom. At the same time, each student benefits from receiving feedback on their own portfolio and the collaborative nature of that exchange.

On average, students will complete 1.5 - 3 hours of work each week. I will provide feedback on these weekly tasks and can also be reached via Outschool's messaging system for any questions. 

***Students should make their choice of the app they want to design before the end of the second week in order to have a working app prototype by the end of the course. I offer ideas for apps in the journal so that students can still create an app, in case they get stuck trying to think of an app idea. 

Course Plan:

Week 1
Types of apps and the problems they solve
Design Thinking Phase 1: Observing and Understanding
User-centred design

Week 2
Wireframes & User Flow
Design Thinking Phase 2: Ideation
Marvel Design and Prototype App

Week 3
Special functions for your app
Design Thinking Phase 3: Prototype
Giving effective feedback

Week 4
Testing methods
Phase 4: Testing and Re-design
Using and sharing your app
Other platforms for creating apps