Getting Corona going in the classroom

General (non-technical) K-12 / University
#1

I’m instructor and am working with my school to start a class in mobile app design. I’d like to use Corona. But the cost and licensing are getting in the way. Corona doesn’t seem to have any alternatives to the standard licenses. It’s either $250 per seat per year or the demo version for free.

If we want to have registered copies of Corona in our lab on each computer it’s $10K, or we pay $0 and use the demo.

Of course the demo copies need to be registered with an email for each machine. The computer tech seems to think that this is sort of a “bailing wire and chewing gum” approach. Alternately students can create their own registration. But this makes it difficult to test with a device.

I wish there was some sort of in between method. Like a site license.

At this point I think we’re going to go with the demo version. What exactly are missing by not using the registered version?

We don’t need to have multiple licenses to publish.

We would like to test on multiple test devices. Using the demo copy this will mean that each demo copy will need an email and so each test device will need to be matched up to the email. Students may not check out the same device each time.

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#2

http://developer.anscamobile.com/forms/educators-and-students/?ref=nav [import]uid: 16142 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 73989[/import]

#3

I use the free version and just created some email addresses just for the course (Corona-1 thru Corona-13). No problems. With the Android devices it is possible to download directly to the device so the kids can run what they built on their own device. They got a kick out of the simple things they built. [import]uid: 23256 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 73992[/import]

#4

I’m aware of the educational pricing. The problem is 50*$250 is still $12,500 per year. Which goes way outside the budget for 1 class.

We’d really only be testing on a dozen devices and probably only a handful of students might even attempt to actually publish an app. Of those only a few would publish for both Android and IOS. We’d be buying full copies but really not using them fully.

Imagine if we have 20 computers in a classroom. Students would be using these 3 hours per week. Outside of class if students wanted to use Corona in our lab we’d need to buy some more seats but these would only be used a few hours per week also.

And of course we’d have to pay for everything again next year, ouch. I think we pay less for the entire Adobe suite and we can run that with a site license so every computer can use it. Every computer in each classroom and all of the computers in the lab have all of the applications.

With the Corona license we have to plan the Corona classes in a single room and limit which computers in lab can run the app. This creates logistical problems for the administration.

Even the demo runs into trouble. If we just run the demo it’s free. But we’d like to allow students to test their apps on dept hardware. This means that we need to create emails for each machine and those emails will need to be tied to specific hardware. So if a student checks out an ipad they need to know the email for that ipad to test their app. It’s not a problem for me to do this at home. But I anticipate trouble when trying to get 40 or more students to do this. [import]uid: 98652 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 73994[/import]

#5

There is the problem! iPad! You do not have a lot of choise at the moment if using iPads. A site license would be nice. You have my vote. [import]uid: 23256 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 74000[/import]

#6

It’s the cost that blows our budget. I feel we would be paying for more than we would be using. Someone might buy a personal copy Corona when they have an app they want to market. In our case we students who want to take a class and have nothing developed up front. Only a small minority will want to publish anything.

I agree the Apple licensing scheme is a total headache. I have an idea that I would like students to be able to create a personal portfolio app. But it seems the only way you could get this to a potential employer would be to get it in the iTunes store.

Last semester we did apps with HTML/CSS/JS. This has it’s own problems and limitations. But, it also completely avoids all of the costs and licensing restrictions of everything else. Not to mention it’s super easy to share these types of projects. [import]uid: 98652 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 74002[/import]

#7

I think i mentioned this in another thread on the topic…

Our school is piloting with all student computers as Corona test users using the freeware and the instructors machine has a paid Corona sunscription and Apple Dev license. The kids that have an iOS device can compile on the instructor’s machine and download the app.

TextWrangler + Conona Test user = Free.

We are trying to work with sponsors to fund more licenses if the pilot program works.

-David
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#8

Thanks for the replies.

The costs of of licensing each machine is too high. The tech who manages the computers happy with the idea of creating an email for each Test User account. I’m just trying to find a good solution that work well.

On a related note, when publishing to itunes is the publsihing tied to just the Apple developer ID or is it tied to both the Corona registration and the Apple ID? For example, if a student created a project they wanted to publish, could they publish it through a school registered copy of Corona using their Apple ID, or would they need to get their own Corona registration?

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#9

It’s tied to teh Apple Dev certificate.

Free version of Cornoa + Apple Dev certificate = loadable on iOS device.

You need the paid version of corona and also the Apple Dev certificate to submit to the Apple App Store.

-David [import]uid: 96411 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 74016[/import]

#10

Thanks for the reply. I understand that you need paid version of Corona and an Apple developer cert. My question was, would it be possible for a student to pay for the Apple develop cert and use the school’s copy of Corona to submit an app to the app store?

In other words is the Corona registration tied to the Apple certificate.

I’m imagining that I might have a couple students that want to publish an app. They will each need their own Apple Developer cert. But will they also need their own individual Corona registration? Or can they all share the classroom copy? [import]uid: 98652 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 74021[/import]

#11

The student can copy their Apple certificate to a USB thumb drive and load it on a school machine to build for a device. Care should be taken by the student to remove the certificate when finished, so it is not reused by someone else.

-David
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#12

The Apple certificate system is a total pain. [import]uid: 98652 topic_id: 19180 reply_id: 74064[/import]