Aim/Purpose. This study aims to document the results of Student Ownership of Learning through the development of a software application to support dementia patients. The research strives to create an agile career-like experience connected to software development courses to overall improve the learning outcome for students. Background. Most online classes are limited to lectures, homework, and tests. However, students struggle to evolve with passive instruction as well as no hands-on experience. In addition to that the students do not gain experience directed toward their professions and are not familiar with the requirements during a software development process. The researchers of this study believe that Student Ownership of Learning (SOL) and Scrum can be the basis of a hands-on learning experience where the student is able to take an active approach to their own learning. The study identified the increase in dementia patients and the lack of interactive software applications in health care as an area where research and development were needed. The software application was created to address dementia patients’ needs for meaningful interaction and improvement of memory. The student is able to take leadership of their own learning while working on developing their own project while having guidance from the instructor. Methodology. In this research, the student and professor worked together as a team to experience Student Ownership of Learning that incorporated Scrum-like practices. The student was able to seek guidance from the professor throughout the process and was able to receive feedback in weekly meetings. The student documented their weekly finding and set goals for each week. This helped the student to follow Scrum-like practices where a complex project can be split into multiple smaller units and tackled individually. The Scrum sprint helped the student to set goals for each development cycle and to prioritize certain tasks. The student experiences how to successfully manage time to complete a complex project on a defined end date. Each iteration allowed the student to develop further by doing research, speaking to experts, and having weekly instructor-student meetings. The Scrum process generally allows constant review, and the student is able to access the documentation from the earlier iterations. Contribution. This study showcases the student’s successful learning outcomes connected to Student Ownership of Learning as well as Scrum by providing documentation of the processes, concerns, and successes. Findings This study connected student learning to a professional experience that is closely tied to Student Ownership of Learning and Scrum. The student identified the importance of improving the situation of dementia patients through software development. Generally, the student noted that by working on a chosen topic of interest their motivation and programming skillset increased at a greater rate than in a normal classroom setting. Recommendations for Practitioners. The researchers of this study recommend practitioners consider providing an experience of Student Ownership of Learning connected to Scum. Faculty members in technical fields are welcome to share the findings presented in this research as they experience a student’s perspective throughout this process. Recommendations for Researchers . Researchers are invited to experience how Student Ownership of Learning and Scrum practices might change learning outcomes in technical courses. Researchers could experience increasing learner independence and motivation to further develop students’ programming skill sets. Impact on Society. This study showcases how Student Ownership of Learning and Scrum practices can deliver a new form of higher education with hands-on involvement with more successful outcomes. In addition, this study wants to raise awareness for dementia patients and the troubles they are facing by developing an interactive dementia-focused software application. Future Research. Future research could combine Student Ownership of Learning and Scrum methods in higher education settings to provide a more professional experience for students. The study of dementia-related software applications in health care can be expanded and further explored.

Aim/Purpose. Courses that include development of complex software projects aim to provide career-like experiences prior to a software development-focused capstone. This research shares an international collaborative project (COIL) whereby a remote instructor and their students are the clients for an undergraduate project-focused coding course. Background. This work builds on previous multi-year, Design-Based Research that combined educational best practices in software project development with agile. Prior research incorporated the instructor in the role of both client and Scrum-master and resulted in students experiencing multiple complex software projects prior to the capstone and was conducted in two course formats: synchronous online and in person. There remains the challenge of incorporating a real client. The complexities and challenges of providing real clients in educational settings are well documented; and previous attempts to include real clients in a class setting have been unsuccessful. Involvement in international educational collaborations known as COIL formed the foundation for this exploratory study, as the remote instructor and their students provided the client experience. Methodology. This pilot study examines the experiences of a homogenous and quasi-experimental population consisting of technology students taking a required research course. Validation of the homogenous study is obtained through a small class size, resulting in close interactions between respondents and the instructor, interview-like settings, and immersive data capture. The course modality was Traditional Online, in that students were traditional on campus students with the option to be in the classroom; however, delivery was synchronous-remote. The research involved students enrolled in a technology course in the United States as software developers, working with an instructor and their students who were enrolled in an English class at a German University. Before beginning the project, the instructors met monthly to plan, and to align the project with their individual course outcomes. Throughout the project, COIL communication between the universities was exclusively online. This study builds on previous Design Based Research focused on development and validation of educational tools and techniques combining Scrum, Student Ownership of Learning, guided learning, and a flipped classroom approach. Contribution. This study is among the first to explore COIL as a software client and includes previously modified Scrum practices and tools that can be used to guide complex software projects. This study examines pilot data from an international collaboration where researchers and students have never met in person. It may be useful for institutions that are interested in providing technology students with additional complex software experiences. Findings. {in progress, will be completed spring 2023}

Aim/Purpose: This research aims to describe layering of career-like experiences over existing curriculum to improve perceived educational value. Background: Feedback from students and regional businesses showed a clear need to in-crease student’s exposure to career-like software development projects. The initial goal was to develop an instructor-optional project that could be used in a single mid-level programming course; however, the pilot quickly morphed into a multi-year study examining the feasibility of agile projects in a variety of settings. Methodology: Over the course of four years, an agile project was honed through repeated Design Based Research (DBR) cycles of design, implementation, testing, communication, and reflective analysis. As is common with DBR, this study did not follow single methodology design; instead, analysis of data coupled with review of literature led to exploration and testing of a variety of methodologies. The review phase of each cycle included examination of best practices and methodologies as determined by analysis of oral and written comments, weekly journals, instructor feedback, and surveys. As a result of participant feedback, the original project was expanded to a second project, which was tested in another Software Engineering (SE) course. The project included review and testing of many academic and professional methodologies, such as Student Ownership of Learning, Flipped Classroom, active learning, waterfall, agile, Scrum, and Kanban. The study was homogenous and quasi-experimental as the population consisted solely of software engineering majors taking required courses; as based on validity of homogenous studies, class sizes were small, ranging from 8 to 20 students. Close interactions between respondents and the instructor pro-vided interview-like settings and immersive data capture in a natural environment. Further, the iterative development practices of DBR cycles, along with the inclusion of participants as active and valued stakeholders, was seen to align well with software development practitioner practices broadly known as agile. Contribution: This study is among the first to examine layering a career-like software development project on top of a course through alteration of traditional delivery, agile development, and without supplanting existing material. Findings: In response to industry recommendations for additional career-like experiences, a standalone agile capstone-like project was designed that could be layered over an existing course. Pilot data reflected positive perceptions of the project, although students did not have enough time to develop a working prototype in addition to completing existing course materials. Participant feedback led to simultaneous development of a second, similar project. DBR examination of both projects resulted in a simplified design and the ability to develop a working prototype, if and only if the instructor was willing to make adjustments to delivery. After four years, a solution was developed that is both stable and flexible. The solution met the original charge in that it required course delivery, not course material, to be adjusted. It is critical to note that when a working prototype is desired, a portion of the lecture should be flipped allowing more time for guided instruction through project-focused active learning and study group requirements. The results support agile for standalone software development projects, as long as passive delivery methods are correspondingly reduced. Recommendations for Practitioners: Based on the findings, implementation of a career-like software development project can be well received as long as active learning components are also developed. Multiple cycles of DBR are recommended if future researchers wish to customize instructional delivery and develop complex software development projects. Programming instructors are recommended to explore hybrid delivery to support development of agile career-like experiences. Small class sizes allowed the researchers to maintain an interview-like setting throughout the study and future studies with larger classes are recommended to include additional subject matter experts such as graduate students as inter-action with a subject matter expert was highly valued by students. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers are recommended to further examine career-like software development experiences that combine active learning with agile methods; more studies following agile and active learning are needed to address the challenges faced when complex software development is taught in academic settings. Further testing of standalone agile project development has now occurred in medium sized in person classes, online classes, independent studies, and creative works research settings; however, further research is needed. Future re-search should also examine the implementation of agile projects in larger class sizes. Increasing class size should be coupled with additional subject matter experts such as graduate students. Impact on Society: This study addresses professional recommendations for development of agile career-like experiences at the undergraduate level. This study provides empirical evidence of programming projects that can be layered over existing curriculum, with no additional cost to the students. Initial feedback from local businesses and graduates, regarding agile projects with active learning, has been positive. The area business that refused to hire our underprepared SE graduates has now hired several. Future Research: Future research should explore layering agile projects over a broader range of software development courses. Feedback from hiring professionals and former students has been positive. It is also recommended that DBR be used to develop career-like experiences for online programming courses.

Aim/Purpose: To examine crowd-sourced programming as an experiential learning, instructional medium. The goal is to provide real-time, real-world, artificial intelligence programming without textbook instructional materials. Background: Open source software has resulted in loosely knit communities of global software developers that work together on a software project. Taking open source software development to another level, current trends have expanded into crowd sourced development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This project explored the use of Amazon Alexa’s tools and web resources to learn AI software development. Methodology: This project incorporated experiential and inquiry educational methods that combined direct experience with crowd-sourced programming while requiring students to take risks, solve problems, be creative, make mistakes and resolve them. The instructor facilitated the learning experience through weekly meetings and structured reports that focused on goal setting and analysis of problems. This project is part of ongoing research into small group creative works research that provides students with real-world coding experience. Contribution: Undergraduate students successfully programmed an introductory level social bot using experiential learning methods and a crowd-sourced programming project (Amazon Alexa social bot). Findings: A of the experience and findings will be included with final paper release summary Recommendations for Practitioners: Crowd sourced programming provides opportunities and can be harnessed for semester long coding projects to develop student programming skills through direct involvement in real open sourced projects. Recommendation for Researchers: There is a high rate of failure associated with software projects, yet pro-gramming courses continue to be taught as they have been for decades. More research needs to be done and instructional materials developed for the undergraduate level that use real programming projects. Can we improve the rate of success for software projects by requiring expe-riential education in our courses? Impact on Society: Crowd-sourced programming is an opportunity for students to learn to program and build their portfolio with real world experience. Students participating in crowd-sourced programming are involved in creative works research and gain experience developing real-world software. Future Research: Future research will explore experiential learning such as crowd-sourced and other open source programming opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in real software development.

Aim/Purpose: This study reports the outcome of Student Ownership of Learning (SOL) through developing a shopping application. This research aims to describe embedding agile career-like experiences into software development courses in order to improve perceived educational value. Background: Many classes consist of lectures, homework, and tests; however, most students do not remember what they learn through passive instruction. The re-searchers of this study believe that SOL and Scrum can be combined to guide students as they take an active and leading role in their learning. Methodology: This study implemented SOL and Scrum to promote learning through teacher and student collaboration. Iterative development of an ill-defined and complex software project progressed through goal setting, task determination, prioritization, and timeboxing. Following Scrum, the complex project was first broken down into small units. The development followed short periods of independent work followed by meetings; each timeboxed development cycle is modeled after a Scrum sprint. Weekly instructor-student meetings emphasized planning and reflection through code review, discussions of progress and challenges, and prioritization for the next iteration. The project followed the agile philosophy of soft-ware development flow through iterative development rather than focusing on a defined end date. Contribution: This study provides a practical guide for successful student learning based on SOL and Scrum through project details such as project successes and iterative challenges. Findings: This study found that SOL, when combined with Scrum, can be used to provide a career-like software development experience. Student perceptions reflect regular interactions with a subject matter expert for the development of a complex software project increased willingness to learn, helped clarify goals, and advanced development of independent programming skills. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can share this research with faculty members from different faculties to develop the best solutions for SOL using Scrum. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers are encouraged to explore different disciplines and different perspectives where SOL and Scrum methods might be implemented to increase active learning through teamwork or project-based learning. Impact on Society: This study is beneficial for creating or redesigning a course to include career-like experiences. Readers can understand that the high level of engagement and achievement achieved through SOL and Scrum are the driving forces for project success. Future Research: Practitioners and researchers can expand the current body of knowledge through further exploration of Scrum and SOL in educational settings where the emulation of real career experiences is desired. Future research examining best practices, tools, and methods for embedding complex software development projects into programming courses would benefit instructional faculty in many technical disciplines.