While building several apps, these video tutorials, created by Krishnendu Roy, a CS faculty member at Valdosta State University, will teach you the basic parts of App Inventor.

Robots have proved effective in support of play-based teaching activities, especially at the primary education level. With the rapid improvement of the smart phone, we found many useful functions which robots can benefit from smart phones. ... [The authors] briefly discuss about the combination of robots and mobile phone applications in primary Education Level and as well how graphical programming environment is employed to improve students’ learning performance.

In his master's thesis Anshul Bhagi examines App Inventor game development. First he discusses the interest students have in developing graphically appealing, interactive single-player and multiplayer games using App Inventor. Bhagi then segues into a discussion of how the AppInventor team at MIT can prepare for the imminent growth of the AppInventor game development community. Accordingly, this thesis looks at where AppInventor currently stands with respect to game development and how its game development capabilities can be improved and extended.

Mental models are mental representations of how an action changes a problem state. Creating a mental model early in the learning process is a strong predictor of success in computer science classes. One major problem in computer science education, however, is that novices have difficulty creating mental models perhaps because of the cognitive overload caused by traditional teaching methods. The present study employed subgoal-labeled instructional materials to promote the creation of mental models when teaching novices to program in Android App Inventor. Utilizing this and other well-established educational tools, such as scaffolding, to reduce cognitive load in computer science education improved the performance of participants on novel tasks when learning to develop mobile applications.

This curriculum is part of a new series of Computer Science curricula for the Scottish education system. Aimed at students in middle and high school, this material provides a course in programming for mobile devices, and it explores new paradigms in Computing such as mobile technologies and new interfaces, whilst providing ample opportunity for inter-disciplinary linkage. Exercises are provided with sample answers and there are many additional activities which can be used to both broaden and deepen the topic. The materials offer suggestions for fostering computational thinking and making learning more engaging for students.

In his master's thesis Anshul Bhagi examines App Inventor game development. First he discusses the interest students have in developing graphically appealing, interactive single-player and multiplayer games using App Inventor. Bhagi then segues into a discussion of how the AppInventor team at MIT can prepare for the imminent growth of the AppInventor game development community. Accordingly, this thesis looks at where AppInventor currently stands with respect to game development and how its game development capabilities can be improved and extended.

Professors Linda Seiter and Victor Lee developed this introductory computer science course that starts with App Inventor and then transitions to Python. Visit the course website to view daily lessons, weekly 2-hour labs, and homework assignments.

Teaching a course on App Inventor? This site provides a framework for doing so. David Wolber from the University of San Francisco has taught introductory CS for non-majors (CS0), but the materials could be adapted for a CS1 course for majors as well, or for a high school course. You can also pick and choose from the seven available modules, or just give a two or three week intro to App Inventor with the introductory modules.

Three years ago, it was rare for non-professionals to implement mobile applications. Even two years ago, building a working app was an intensive semester-long project.