Students’ Viewpoint about Using MIT App Inventor in Education

摘要

The paper presents Ruse University students' point of view about using Android application development environment MIT App Inventor in different levels of education. The research was done via the survey method. A questionnaire was made for the purpose. It consisted of 21 questions, merged in several parts: personal information about the respondent (age, gender, speciality, year of education, mobile devices possessed, programming skills and experience), students' opinion about the qualities of the environment, its user-friendliness and which level of education it is most suitable for. The final part of the questionnaire included 2 open questions and the answers had to contain the advantages and disadvantages of MIT App Inventor compared to other programming environments. Within three consecutive years - 2016, 2017 and 2018 - a total number of 73 students (11 women and 62 men) from Computer Systems and Technologies master program were asked to answer the questions. The analysis of the results from all the three years shows that, according to Ruse University students, MIT App Inventor is most appropriate for use in a bachelor degree of education, followed by a master degree and a secondary school.