Design and Implementation of an Android GIS Data Collection Application for Students with Non-Programming Experience Using the MIT App Inventor: A Case Study on a Tick Data Collection APP

Abstract

Learning programming can be a daunting task, especially for students without a programming background or non-computer science students. Most Geographic Information Science (GIS) experts and students come from a non-programming background and the development of applications has mostly been perceived to be a field for computer science students and has mostly been shunned by other non-programming students and courses. Compounded by the availability of Open-Source Data collection tools like the Open Data Kit (ODK), learning programming and android application development is often overlooked by Geo Spatial Scientists. Many studies have been done to identify a suitable application development kit to introduce application development to students in non-programming classes. MIT App inventor is a user-friendly drag-and-drop application development platform that is ideal for introducing application development to students with a non-programming background. In this paper, students doing an undergraduate honors degree in spatial sciences were introduced to the MIT App inventor for the development of a Geo-App capable of collecting spatial data that can be exported into a GIS system like Arc GIS, and QGIS after the data has been collected. The paper investigates the suitability of MIT App Inventor in the development of Geo-Spatial Applications. The application was developed for collaborative mapping of tick species for Mashonaland Central Province in Zimbabwe. The main purpose of the application developed is to act as a tool for veterinary extension workers under the Veterinary Services Department of Mashonaland Central Province allowing them to collect location information for tick monitoring. The application helps expansion workers to moreover outwardly communicate the circumstance at the tick controlling focuses such as plunge tanks by collaboratively making an outline and uploading multimedia records subsequently with an alternative of making calls straight to the veterinary call center in near real-time.