Aim/Purpose: As smartphones proliferate, many different platforms begin to emerge. The challenge to developers as well as IS educators and students is how to learn the skills to design and develop apps to run on cross-platforms. Background: For developers, the purpose of this paper is to describe an alternative to the complex native app development. For IS educators and students, the paper provides a feasible way to learn and develop fully functional mobile apps without technical burdens. Methodology: The methods used in the development of browser-based apps is prototyping. Our proposed approach is browser-based, supports cross-platforms, uses open-source standards, and takes advantage of “write-once-and-run-anywhere” (WORA) concept. Contribution: The paper illustrates the application of the browser-based approach to create a series of browser apps without high learning curve. Findings: The results show the potentials for using browser app approach to teach as well as to create new apps. Recommendations for Practitioners : Our proposed browser app development approach and example would be useful to mobile app developers/IS educators and non-technical students because the source code as well as documentations in this project are available for downloading. Future Research: For further work, we discuss the use of hybrid development framework to enhance browser apps.

As mobile devices become prevalent, there is always a need for apps. How hard is it to develop an app, especially a cross-platform app? The paper shares an experience in a project that involved the development of a student services web app that can be run on cross-platform mobile devices. The paper first describes the background of the project, the clients, and the proposed solution. Then, it focuses on the step-by-step development processes and provides the illustration of written codes and techniques used. The goal is for readers to gain an understanding on how to develop a mobile-friendly web app. The paper concludes with teaching implications and offers thoughts for further development.

As mobile devices become prevalent, there is always a need for apps.  How hard is it to develop an app especially a cross-platform app? The paper shares an experience in a project involved the development of a student services web app that can be run on cross-platform mobile devices.  The paper first describes the background of the project, the clients, and the proposed solution.  Then, it focuses on the step-by-step development processes and provides the illustration of written codes and techniques used.  The goal is for readers to gain an understanding on how to develop a mobile-friendly web app.  The paper concludes with teaching implications and offers thoughts for further development.   A revised version of this paper was published in the journal Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, Volume 14, 2015

Aim/PurposeDespite millions of apps on the market, it is still challenging to develop a mobile app that can run across platforms using the same code. Background This paper explores a potential solution for developing cross platform apps by presenting the hybrid app approach. MethodologyThe paper first describes a brief evolution of the different mobile app development approaches and then compares them with the hybrid app approach. Next, it focuses on one specific hybrid app development framework called Ionic. ContributionThe paper presents the hybrid app approach as an emerging trend in mobile app development and concludes with the highlight of its advantages and teaching implications. FindingsThe hybrid app approach reduces the learning curve and offers tools to allow the reuse of code to create apps for different mobile devices. Recommendations for Practitioners

Aim/PurposeDespite millions of apps on the market, it is still challenging to develop a mobile app that can run across platforms using the same code. Background This paper explores a potential solution for developing cross platform apps by presenting the hybrid app approach. MethodologyThe paper first describes a brief evolution of the different mobile app development approaches and then compares them with the hybrid app approach. Next, it focuses on one specific hybrid app development framework called Ionic. ContributionThe paper presents the hybrid app approach as an emerging trend in mobile app development and concludes with the highlight of its advantages and teaching implications. FindingsThe hybrid app approach reduces the learning curve and offers tools to allow the reuse of code to create apps for different mobile devices. Recommendations for Practitioners