Watchalearning is a native iOS application that uses streaming video and chat functionality to facilitate learning. The main screen of the application shows a title, release date, and thumbnail image for each video in the series. Although the application looks for new content each time it is loaded, users can manually update the feed using pull-to refresh functionality on the main screen.

Main UI for viewing video content

Tapping on a video thumbnail plays the video in a full screen media player.

Users can also collaborate with other classmates using the built-in chat feature. Simply tap the Chat button in the navigation bar to get started. New users are asked to create an account. The account credentials are cached on the device, so users shouldn’t need to login to future sessions. Reload the chat view by tapping and dragging down on the main view.

Chat interface

 

Participate in the conversation by tapping the Compose button in the navigation bar. Type as much as you’d like in the text field and press Done.

After reloading the view, your message should appear at the top of the list! The rows in the table view automatically resize based on the length of the message.

FUTURE PLANS

While work on the Edge Challenge submission is now complete, we plan on continuing development of the app by adding new features such as push notifications, video chatting, and file sharing. We would eventually like to develop a framework that could be used by other educators to create their own mobile apps. If you’re interested in following along, feel free to add this site’s feed to your RSS reader of choice!

2012 D2L Edge Challenge Entry from Brandon Ballentine on Vimeo.