New Course: Android App Development with Java

CBT Nuggets trainer Ben Finkel recently completed his Android App Development with Java course, giving you the skills and knowledge you need to successfully apply Java to app development. Bens' new course picks up where his Java Essentials course left off, helping you to advance your skill set.

In this 14-video course, Ben guides you through the steps to building a functional Android app using Java, one of the most prevalent programming languages available. Java is nearly omnipresent across the industry, making it incredibly stable and scalable. So, Ben created a course to help you apply your Java skills in the real world, setting you up with skills to hone your programming and Java skills while developing an app to boost your resume.

We asked Ben about his new course and what you can expect during your CBT Nuggets Learning Experience.

Q: Why should companies train their IT professionals on Android App Development with Java? What value do the skills you teach in your new course bring to an organization and the IT pro?

I can think of about 2 billion reasons to train your professionals on Android App development. There are roughly 2 billion Android-powered devices in the world today, more than any other single operating system. Android is found on phones, tablets, phablets, HVAC systems, cars, and even refrigerators. Regardless of the industry you're in, you should be focusing on ensuring you are meeting any demand that might arise from customers using Android devices.

Q: From a learner perspective, what did you keep in mind when creating this course?

I had two key ideas about the learners when creating this course. 1) I assumed that the learner had never written a single Android app before and this was their very first exposure to the development tools and methodology. 2) I made sure to leverage and reinforce the concepts taught in my Java Essentials course, applying those concepts in a real-world usage scenario.

Q: Any out-of-the-box tips for learners to get the most out of your course?

The same as always: Practice hands on. Either in your own development environment or on our awesome Virtual Lab environment, make sure you are putting fingers-to-keyboard and not just passively watching the videos.

Q: How does this real-world training connect to certifications our learners might be pursuing?

Android App development is a very practical use-case scenario for the Java programming language. Any learners interested in expanding their programming knowledge with Java or pursuing Oracle's Java Essentials certification would do well to follow this course and try their hand at writing a functioning Java app.

Q: What was your favorite Nugget to create in this course?

In the final Nugget (Android Notifications), we tie together many disparate pieces of the Android platform to schedule notifications for future dates that will pop up on the user's device. It was a blast to lay out and organize this functionality into something very practical and useful.

Q: What's the most important thing you hope learners take away from this course?

The ease with which you can get up and running creating an Android app, but also the complexity that comes from the Android platform. Android is a powerful system and consequently, there is a lot to learn about its features and libraries.

Q: What course(s) or certification(s) should learners complete before diving into your Android App Development with Java course?

Learners will need to be familiar with the features and concepts laid out in our Java Essentials course here at CBT Nuggets. This course takes many of those ideas and reinforces them through practical application, but assumes that this is not the first time the learner has seen them.

Q: What course(s) or certification(s) should learners look to jump into after they complete your Android App Development with Java course?

Our CPD200: Developing Solutions for Google Cloud Platform course is another real-world application of Java programming skills, this time on a web-based cloud platform. Learners may also be interested in moving onto Python programming or one of the DevOps courses such as Docker, Chef Fundamentals, or Puppet Fundamentals.

Q: Some of our learners find it difficult to sustain their training momentum. What advice would you offer learners who hit that particular obstacle? How can they keep their motivation to train?

Structure. Find the schedule and training structure that works for you and establish it. Whether that's 20 minutes every morning before work, or an hour three nights a week after dinner, or whatever else works for you, make sure you have one. It should be easy to just "fall into" training when the time comes, and having a space in your life carved out for it is an important step.

Q: Some argue that as a programming language, Java is omnipresent, which makes it stable and scalable. If that's true, we could extrapolate that due to its omnipresence, Java is god not THE God, but A god. What kind of sacrifice would the Java god expect from its followers?

Followers of Java are required to be strict adherents to the tenets and philosophies of Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Our Lord Java does not abide any of its flock straying from the path of OOP, such as you might find in the heathen religions of Python or C++ whose members praise the Path of OOP while partaking of the sin of functional programming, or even worse: scripting.

Java would not care what animal was sacrificed, as long as the sacrificial chamber was produced by a factory class with properly encapsulated code. Java would not dictate the altar upon which to make the sacrifice, as Java is platform independent. The weapon would not matter as long as it derived from an appropriately abstracted weapon class and implemented the necessary interface to perform the sacrifice. And, of course, Java would not care if you cleaned up the mess when you were done because Java has really great automatic garbage collection.

Take your programming skills to the next level with Ben Finkel's Android App Development with Java today!

Learn more about the CBT Nuggets Learning Experience.