Although computer science, information systems, and information technology educators often do an exemplary job of preparing their students for jobs in industry or for further education, there are still many areas where these students do not possess the necessary skills or knowledge based on the expectations of employers or academia. These gaps between the abilities of graduating students and those expected to have can prevent them from succeeding in their careers. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review conducted to determine which areas graduating students most frequently fall short of the expectations of industry or macademia. The results of this review indicate that graduating students are lacking in many different areas, including technical abilities (design, testing, configuration management tools, etc.) personal skills (communication, teamwork, etc.) and professional qualities (e.g. ethics). By raising awareness of these areas, it is possible for educators to become aware of areas where students most frequently fail to meet expectations and to make curriculum changes or adjustments to address these problems

Gaps between industry expectations and the abilities of graduates

There is an acknowledged need for teaching realistic software development in project courses. The design space for such courses is wide, ranging from single-semester to two-semester courses, from single-client to multicustomer courses, from local to globally distributed courses, and from toy projects to projects with real clients. The challenge for a nontrivial project course is how to make the project complex enough to enrich students’ software engineering experience, yet realistic enough to have a teaching environment that does not unduly burden students or the instructor. We describe a methodology for project courses that is realizable for instructors, improves students’ skills, and leads to viable results for industry partners.In particular, recent advances in release management and collaboration workflows reduce the effort of students and instructors during delivery and increase the quality of the deliverables. To enable release and feedback management, we introduce Rugby, an agile process model based on Scrum that allows reacting to changing requirements. To improve early communication, we use Tornado, a scenario-based design approach that emphasizes the use of informal models for the interaction between clients and students. The combination of Rugby and Tornado allows students to deal with changing requirements, produce multiple releases, and obtain client feedback through the duration of the course.We describe our experience with more than 300 students working on 40 projects with external clients over a 4-year period. In the latest instance of our course, the students have produced more than 7000 builds with 600 releases for eleven clients. In an evaluation of the courses, we found that the introduction of Rugby and Tornado significantly increased students’ technical skills, especially with respect to software engineering, usability engineering, and configuration management, as well as their nontechnical skills such as communication with the client, teamwork, presentation, and demo management. Finally, we discuss how other instructors can adapt the course concept.

https://www1.in.tum.de/lehrstuhl_1/research/paper/bruegge2015projectcourses.pdf

Software Engineering Project Courses with Industrial Clients

Over the last few years, most of the attempts to introduce active learning methodologies in the classroom have made use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Many of these efforts have been directed to collaborative scenarios used in remote, blended or face-to-face experiences, in order to take advantage of the flexibility provided by ICT. However competitive learning could also have some positive effects on the success of the learning process, to be added to those of collaborative virtual environments. This paper explores the effects of competitive learning on the satisfaction and the academic achievement of telecommunications students. A tool for active and competitive learning (called QUEST) has been used in the ldquoCommunications Networksrdquo undergraduate course. Significant results on the use of competitive e-learning tools in university students' outcomes and satisfaction are presented.

Effects of Competitive E-Learning Tools on Higher Education Students: A Case Study

Agile transition and adoption human-related challenges and issues

This paper describes two pilot studies, one completed and one ongoing, that evaluate the use of Tablet PCs and a Tablet-PC-based classroom presentation system in an introductory computer science class. The presentation system, Classroom Presenter [2, 3], supports student wireless submission of digital ink answers to in-class exercises. In these studies, we evaluate the hypothesis that the use of such a system increases student learning by: (1) increasing student focus and attentiveness in class, (2) providing immediate feedback to both students and instructor about student misunderstandings, (3) enabling the instructor to adjust course material in real-time based upon student answers to in-class exercises, (4) increasing student satisfaction. The studies evaluate each of the above four parameters by means of classroom observation, surveys, and interviews.

/pdf/improving-learning-in-cs1-via-tablet-pc-based-in-class-3o9k3dfvko.pdf

Improving learning in CS1 via tablet-PC-based in-class assessment

Teamwork is recognized as an important skill for engineering and computer science professionals. Both potential employers and accrediting agencies, such as ABET, expect students to gain proficiency in teamwork skills through experiential learning. Teamwork based projects challenge the student to apply the technical knowledge they gain in school to solve meaningful and complex problems. However, to be truly proficient in teamwork, a student must also learn and practice a large number of peripheral skills. These include planning, estimating, tracking progress, taking corrective actions, managing change, controlling and managing risks, maintaining ethical and professional conduct, communicating complex ideas clearly and concisely, using design automation tools, leveraging web-based tools for team collaboration, and most importantly participating effectively as team members. It is essential that students should be taught these important skills. It is unlikely that without adequate faculty guidance students can pick up these skills through ad-hoc project experience. Yet, many engineering and computer science programs expect the students to do just that. We feel strongly that we need to employ a more pragmatic approach in teaching students the skills necessary to function as effective and productive team members. Additionally, we need to develop criteria for assessing the effectiveness of teaching teamwork and the tools to measure learning outcomes. Among the problems contributing to this situation are the following: engineering and computer science instructors themselves often have had little or no experience operating in teams; training or guidance in effective ways to teach teamwork is seldom provided; and tools and effective approaches to assist in the teaching and assessment of teamwork are lacking. Another problem is that, it takes a great deal of faculty time, effort and energy to guide groups of students in doing effective teamwork. We will describe an approach that we have used to teach team collaboration skills using free and freely available web-based tools. Students learn to use tools for design automation, metrics collection, project management, and web-based collaboration. Our approach encourages students to learn teamwork skills and improves levels of collaboration among team members while reducing demands on faculty time and effort. Use of web-based collaboration tools allows students to participate without the need for frequent face-to-face meetings; this our students love. In an effort to maximize the use of techniques like the ones described in this paper, we hold regular informal sessions of interested faculty to share ideas on improving teaching teamwork and to develop methods and tools for assessment. The paper and the conference presentation will describe both our approach and the results we have obtained.

Teaching teamwork in engineering and computer science

Being able to work effectively in teams is an important learning objective for software engineering students. Although many programs today make team projects fundamental elements of their curricula, few actually teach teamwork and communication skills directly. Consequently, students may gain experience working in teams but may not learn the skills necessary to perform effectively in a team environment. In previous studies it was shown that both team synergy and basic software engineering knowledge correlated significantly with team project success. This paper examines additional factors that have the potential to affect group performance. In particular, this study looks at gender, age, cultural diversity, previous work experience, and the degree to which work is equitably shared among team members as possible factors affecting success. Based on the results of this study, suggestions are made for both team formation and designing appropriate assignments to enhance the teamwork skills of students.

Teaching teamwork skills in software engineering based on an understanding of factors affecting group performance

This paper describes the assessment and evaluation of experiments with active learning techniques performed in upper division computer science classes at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). In spite of the traditional views of computer science as an individualistic subject matter that attracts introverted, nonsocial students, the authors used active learning techniques in their classrooms for several semesters with encouraging results. In addition to an improved attitude and stated increased satisfaction, students' test results seemed to show increased comprehension and improved critical reasoning abilities. However, the authors felt the need to further evaluate their experiments for a more objective assessment. As an initial step, the authors conducted a survey of CSUN graduates, now working professionals. The goal of the survey was to determine how well the active learning experiments met the objectives of improved critical analysis abilities that were needed on their jobs, as well as improved communication and collaboration skills.

Assessment of active learning with upper division computer science students

This paper describes a project in which Communication Studies pedagogy was incorporated into Software Engineering courses at California State University, Northridge. Responding to the needs of potential employers as well as the ABET 2000 criteria, faculty from the Departments of Communication Studies and Computer Science developed a variety of instructional strategies to enhance students’ ability to work in teams and maximize group effectiveness. The project involved specific instruction in group communication skills as part of the regular course of instruction, the administration of the Kolbe A TM Index, and assessment by students and instructors of the value of the team process and projects. I. Introduction Although it is commonly recognized by educators and scholars alike that to be successful in today’s workplace, high levels of teamwork and communication skills are necessary, instruction in these areas in Engineering and Computer Science is minimal, if undertaken at all. During the past four semesters, we have introduced students to the study of group process and have assessed the value of such instruction. In designated sections of Computer Science 380, "An Introduction to Software Engineering," we provided some specific, but limited instruction in group communication and administered the Kolbe A Index. 1 The Kolbe A Index is an instrument that measures conation, or a person’s inherent talent or natural way of doing things and predicts what a person will or will not do, given the freedom to act. Widely used in the corporate world, the Kolbe A Index is valuable method for putting together synergistic teams. Our experience has demonstrated the value of instruction in group process and the benefits of assigning students to teams based on their conative talents. An analysis of success of team projects over a two year period shows a statistically significant correlation between team synergy and scores on team projects. Furthermore, teams receiving specific instruction in communication skills also performed better and viewed the team projects more positively. Although this study was done in computer science courses, the results clearly suggest the applicability of these pedagogical methods to any course where communication and team building skills are important.

/pdf/teaching-communication-and-teamwork-in-engineering-and-p7fed9aohg.pdf

Teaching Communication and Teamwork in Engineering and Computer Science

Computer science students, especially upper division students, are stereotypically considered to be introverted and therefore poor candidates for an active learning curriculum. Ironically, the requirements of their field demand skills in critical analysis and evaluation, as well as communication and collaboration skills, that are not easily acquired in the traditional classroom environment with a "lecture" agenda where students maintain a basically passive role. This paper describes experiments with active learning techniques performed in two different upper division computer science classes, "Societal Issues in Computing" and "Computer System Security". In spite of the traditional views of computer science as an individualistic subject matter with self centered nonsocial students, the authors have used active learning techniques in their classrooms for several semesters with encouraging results. In addition to an improved attitude and stated increased satisfaction, students' test results showed increased comprehension and improved critical reasoning abilities.

Robert Lingard

Papers

Teaching teamwork in engineering and computer science

Teaching teamwork skills in software engineering based on an understanding of factors affecting group performance

Assessment of active learning with upper division computer science students

Teaching Communication and Teamwork in Engineering and Computer Science

Active learning with upper division computer science students