This book gathers chapters from some of the top international empirical software engineering researchers focusing on the practical knowledge necessary for conducting, reporting and using empirical methods in software engineering. Topics and features include guidance on how to design, conduct and report empirical studies. The volume also provides information across a range of techniques, methods and qualitative and quantitative issues to help build a toolkit applicable to the diverse software development contexts

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Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering

How to increase precision in capillary electrophoresis.

Applying the triple bottom line in sustainable supplier selection: A meta-review of the state-of-the-art

Information systems development needs to be taught using an expe-Chris Cope riential approach. This is difficult when introductory classes are large and the stu-Pat Horan dents have no knowledge of the complex social and business environments in which Department of Information Technology information systems are developed. This paper presents a teaching approach called aLa Trobe University, BendiO'o role played case as an experiential tool for large classes of introductory IS students. Bendigo, 3550 o These cases involve students behaving as systems analysts confronting an actor who Australia role plays a cli~nt from a real business organ~sation envi:~nment. .The role played C.Cope@bendigo.latrobe.edu.au case approach IS compared and contrasted WIth the tradluonal wrItten case approach Horan@ironabark.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au and is shown to have significant advantages, particularly in allowing direct interaction between the student and the complex personal and social environments associated with information systems development. A phenomenographic research technique was used to investigate the students' perceptions of the learning context associated with a role played case. It is considered highly desirable to provide a learning context in which students attempt to understand the material being presented and relate the new material to the rest of the curriculum. This is known as a deep learning approach and is associated in the phenomenographic view of learning with conceptually significant learning. The investigation showed that a majority of students perceived the learning context associated with the role played case as requiring a deep learning approach. As a result of the investigation an enhancement to the role played case approach was developed with the aim of increasing the proportion of students who are able to apply a deep learning approach. Finally, the paper recommends the further use of phenomenographic techniques in information systems education (ISE) research. INTRODUCTION The need to teach information systems (IS) development using an experiential approach is well documented in the literature. A number of teaching methods have been reported which assist students to achieve the knowledge, skills and awareness of complex business environments they will need in industry. One such method is to include a real-world or simulated long term project in the curriculum [I] [2] [3]. This method is not suited to an introductory IS subject, however, because: the theory of systems analysis and design needs to be taught before any long term project can be considered.; the organisation and supervision of projects is resource intensive and beyond the capabilities of most IS …

Journal of Information Systems Education

The typical software engineering education lacks a practical treatment of the processes of software engineering---students are presented with relevant process theory in lectures, but have only limited opportunity to put these concepts into practice in an associated class project. Simulation is a powerful educational tool that is commonly used to teach processes that are infeasible to practice in the real world. The work described in this dissertation is based on the hypothesis that simulation can bring to software engineering education the same kinds of benefits that it has brought to other domains. In particular, we believe that software process education can be improved by allowing students to practice, through a simulator, the activity of managing different kinds of quasi-realistic software engineering processes. 
To investigate this hypothesis, we used a three-part approach: (1) design and build SimSE, a graphical, interactive, educational, customizable, game-based simulation environment for software processes, (2) develop a set of simulation models to be used in seeding the environment, (3) evaluate the usage of the environment, both in actual software engineering courses, and in a series of formal, out-of-class experiments to gain an understanding of its various educational aspects. Some of the educational aspects explored in these experiments included how SimSE compares to traditional teaching techniques, and which learning theories are employed by students who play SimSE. 
Our evaluations strongly suggest that SimSE is a useful and educationally effective approach to teaching software process concepts. Students who play SimSE tend to learn the intended concepts, and find it a relatively enjoyable experience. These statements apply to students of different genders, academic performance levels, and industrial experience backgrounds. However, in order for SimSE to be used in the most effective way possible, our experience has demonstrated that it is crucial that it be used complementary to other educational techniques and accompanied by an adequate amount of direction and guidance given to the student. Our evaluations also suggested a number of promising directions for future research that can potentially increase the effectiveness of SimSE and be applied to educational simulation environments in general.

Simse: a software engineering simulation environment for software process education

When it comes to software engineering education, there is a gap between what industry needs and what universities offer. To close this gap, the authors propose a comprehensive collaboration between academic software engineering programs and industry. They offer a model for this collaboration and highlight three real-world ventures.

K. Beckman

Papers

Collaborations: closing the industry-academia gap