Educators Guide to Developing an App

Developing an app for Extension and instruction use is generating interest among faculty, Extension agents, and university administrators. The University of Tennessee with partners at Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, University of Maryland, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University developed an app for professionals working with pest management and plant care of woody plants in the nursery and landscape, IPMPro, and a corresponding app, IPMLite, for the home horticulture market. The focus of this presentation is to familiarize potential educational developers and administrators with the process of developing an app from idea to testing using this development team’s experience as a model.  Determining the cost, both for software development as well as the subject matter experts’ time and any new employees who must be hired to support app development, must be considered early in the development process as well as potential funding sources. Important first steps include developing the idea; identifying the development team members; refining the concept, app appearance, and flow from screen to screen; and establishing team and computer programmer timelines.  Once the concept and team are established some of the next steps include identifying the lead institution, determining if the app will be free or fee-based, cost to end user, developing an inter-institutional agreement, as well as vetting software firms, and constructing an appropriate contract. Technical considerations from large issues such as the functionality–interactive or information presentation only and devices on which the app will operate, to smaller ones such as color scheme, font, and even how the app appears in full sun, must be made. Once the framework is built the app database must be populated. Developing an app is a dynamic process that requires detailed planning and closely coordinated collaboration. Apps can be a productive in-state or multi-state collaboration that deliver research-based information to an increasingly mobile phone-savvy clientele and reinforce that land-grant universities are a cutting edge source of information.