abstract: Mobile data collection (MDC) applications have been growing in the last decade especially in the field of education and research. Although many MDC applications are available, almost all of them are tailor-made for a very specific task in a very specific field (i.e. health, traffic, weather forecasts, …etc.). Since the main users of these apps are researchers, physicians or generally data collectors, it can be extremely challenging for them to make adjustments or modifications to these applications given that they have limited or no technical background in coding. Another common issue with MDC applications is that its functionalities are limited only to data collection and storing. Other functionalities such as data visualizations, data sharing, data synchronization and/or data updating are rarely found in MDC apps. This thesis tries to solve the problems mentioned above by adding the following two enhancements: (a) the ability for data collectors to customize their own applications based on the project they’re working on, (b) and introducing new tools that would help manage the collected data. This will be achieved by creating a Java standalone application where data collectors can use to design their own mobile apps in a userfriendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). Once the app has been completely designed using the Java tool, a new iOS mobile application would be automatically generated based on the user’s input. By using this tool, researchers now are able to create mobile applications that are completely tailored to their needs, in addition to enjoying new features such as visualize and analyze data, synchronize data to the remote database, share data with other data collectors and update existing data. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016

This thesis has taken part as an experimental development within the Learning Ecology through Science with Global Outcomes project. It introduces the area of cross platform mobile application development and provides a possible solution for tackling the current fragmentation of mobile devices and platforms for data collection. During the process, a mobile data collection prototype was designed, implemented and deployed on Android, iOS and Windows Mango by using standards and web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, XForms and JavaScript. The deployed prototype was then tested with users in order to collect the necessary data to help answer the questions that were formulated. The results indicate an ease of use of the prototype in relation to cross platform development and also shows potential benefits such as less code and time. Cross platform development provides a way to counteract the current fragmentation between mobile platforms.