Mobile vs. Desktop Programming Projects: The Effect on Students

Programming projects are a common component of computer science curricula. In this paper we investigate how the decision of using a mobile and touch versus a desktop platform affected students. We ran two sets of programming projects, one developing desktop applications, the other developing mobile apps. Several months after the conclusion of the projects, we interviewed the students about their experiences. We found that our initial expectations regarding an increased student motivation were not completely met. We discuss the specific issues we uncovered, and the lessons we learned.