New Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Software Systems Development in Large Groups - Telecollaboration (original) (raw)

A Framework for Software Engineering Education: A Group Projects Approach

2007

Software Engineering (SE) programmes at institutions of higher education aim to produce software engineering specialists who have the required knowledge of the SE tools, techniques and methods as well as the technical expertise to design and develop complex software. These programmes are generally well designed, however, those completing such programmes do not necessarily possess the required skills because of several inherent issues. This paper presents a framework for the provision of SE education using a Group Projects approach and suggests that there is a need to provide opportunities for students to work individually and in pairs in their first year of the course, in groups of 4-6 in the second year and in larger groups of at least 10 in the final year. Discussing the issues, the paper presents solutions to some of the difficulties that are often encountered with respect to team working, in particular: team formation, allocation of projects, group dynamics and project managemen...

A structured approach for managing a practical software engineering course

30th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Building on A Century of Progress in Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.00CH37135)

The challenges to teaching software engineering include achieving functioning teams, enforcing individual accountability, ensuring progress of the students, and evaluating quality of the product. The two-semester, software engineering course at the University of Texas at El Paso incorporates a cooperative group method and an improvement process model that enables learning from past results. The course centers on a cross-disciplinary, largescale project that provides students with an opportunity to deal with the challenges of developing a real-world product. The experience of working with incomplete, ambiguous and changing requirements motivates the need for applying software engineering techniques and approaches to the project. In the first semester, students perform analysis and define requirements specifications for the proposed system. The second semester course covers design, implementation, and testing. This paper details the structure of the course. Specifically, it outlines how cooperative teams are structured, how students learn the importance of process refinement and improvement, and how the project is presented and managed while achieving individual accountability.

Team characteristics for maximizing the educational effectiveness of practical lectures on software intensive systems development

2013 26th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), 2013

In practical lectures on software intensive business systems, we do not yet have an established method for determining what kind of personal characteristics and team compositions are most beneficial to obtaining the maximal educational effectiveness. Here, we propose a framework for analyzing the effects of personal characteristics of team members on educational effectiveness. We also apply the framework to an actual practical lecture. As a result, we find that it is better for a team to have members with a similar degree of tendency of conservative for acquiring more knowledge and skills and the team members have similar characteristics of progressive or conservative. It is expected that in similar practical lectures, we can also obtain the desired educational effectiveness if we can compose a team with the suitable characteristics as based on our findings.

Core software engineering subjects: a case study ('86-'94)

Proceedings Software Education Conference (SRIG-ET'94)

The "software crisis" was first acknowledged in the mid 1960s. Some would claim that the software crisis is still with us. A recent issue of Scientific American ran a story on the currently infamous software disaster at the new Denver international airport [1]. Software engineering has been heralded as the needed discipline that can improve software development to meet the needs of modern software requirements. This paper will look at the key subject at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) that introduces students to software engineering. This subject will be compared to current model curricula. The success of this subject will be evaluated and a corollary drawn to the usefulness of the model curricula. Then this paper will look at software engineering project work at QUT and consider what are appropriate compromises to make to run a successful group project in a single semester.

Introducing Software System Course to Engineering Undergraduate Students - An Experience Report

2021

Introducing the fundamentals of software systems to early undergraduates is a tedious journey for the instructors. It is crucial for students as it lays the foundation and establishes a perception of the upcoming computing courses. With rapid advancements in technology and considering the changes in workforce practices, it is required to upgrade the course curriculum to up-skill the students in contrast to prevailing times. This paper discusses our journey towards upgrading a decade-old introductory course on Software Systems for early undergraduate students. We present our approach towards updating the course curriculum and its delivery modes to ease learnability among early undergraduate students. We implemented mixed pedagogy methods over the years and captured student feedback to evaluate our approach.

Teaching software engineering to undergraduate computing students

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2011

University programmes in software engineering (SE) aim to produce graduates who have knowledge of the latest technologies and appropriate expertise to develop complex software. Although SE courses are often well designed, those completing such programmes do not necessarily possess the required skills. There are several reasons mainly due to issues relating to the design of SE programmes as well as those concerning the delivery of course material. In the present work, we discuss matters relating to the second type, in particular: teaching of software development, choice of programming paradigms, criteria for choosing a first language, design approaches and group working. In this context, the paper highlights the weaknesses of the traditional methods of teaching and outlines an Objects-First approach for teaching a first course in SE. It is suggested that, during later stages of the programme of study, students specify, design and implement software systems working in teams of at least ten. Otherwise, students will be unable to fully appreciate the difficulties associated with SE.

An intensive software engineering learning experience

Proceedings of Second Computer Science Education Research Conference on - CSERC '12, 2012

We describe how we presented a year-long Software Engineering (SE) module. The first part of the module entailed a process we call rocking the boat. Our objective was to create an opportunity for our students to experience a complete software engineering project (from specification to delivery) within six weeks. During the second part students worked in self-selected teams on an industry-based SE project. Again they were required to undergo the complete SE lifecycle. We firstly describe the design of our module. We then describe how we gathered and analysed information on how the students behaved in their teams as well as about what they experienced while participating in the module. Finally, we discuss our observations. We conclude with remarks about the potential success and possible improvement of our teaching strategies and future research directions.

Systems development group project: A real world experience

Information Systems Education Journal, 2006

The Group Systems Development Project course of the Information Systems major at the University of Cape Town is a practical course designed to integrate the body of knowledge obtained in other undergraduate theoretical courses. The main objective of the course is to give students a real world experience of the diverse and complex nature of the Information Systems profession and provide them with adequate skills for the global marketplace. This paper describes the objectives as well as the deliverables and the administration of the course. The basic course content is outlined, and the various stakeholders and their roles are identified. Some discussion is provided regarding the comprehensive set of assessment strategies that has been implemented as well as a number of critical issues that have emerged. Finally, the need for ongoing research in this area is addressed.

Integrative Educational Approach Oriented Towards Software and System Development

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 2013

The paper is based on our academic teaching and research work in software and system engineering to effectively develop modern, complex real-life Web application systems. It bridges the gap between academic education and industry needs and illustrates how such collaboration can be successfully developed in the IT area where technology development is rapid. Its scope covers the processes, models, technologies, people, and knowledge that have the capability to contribute to developing such systems. The paper also relates to contributions of some of Harlan D. Mills award recipients for software engineering achievement, to address the needs to: i) improve the engineering education in an academic setting, and ii) develop real-life software and system projects. Hybrid educational methods are applied for student learning that combine class room approach of teaching fundamental theoretical concepts and practice via real world complex projects embedding intelligence in software and systems p...

Report from the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Course Projects (SWECP 2005)

19th Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEET'06)

This paper reports on the activities and results from the 2 nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Course Projects (SWECP 2005), which was held on October 18, 2005 in Toronto, Canada. Creating software engineering course projects for undergraduate students is a challenging task. The instructor must carefully balance the conflicting goals of academic rigor and industrial relevance. Some of the fundamental characteristics of software engineering projects (e.g., team-based, large-scale, long-lived) are difficult to realize within the constraints of a university course in a single semester. This is particularly true when dealing with young students who may lack the real-world experience needed to appreciate some of the more subtle aspects of software engineering. This workshop explored how educators and industry can work together to develop a more rewarding educational experience for all stakeholders involved. Several key themes emerged from the workshop, including the importance of forming teams that are fair and balanced, the challenges in selecting a project that engages the students and meets the goals of the course, and the need for knowledge transfer amongst instructors.