Evaluating the Collaboration between a Software Project Management Course and a Software Development Course in Terms of Student Learning and Experience

Abstract

is an assistant professor of software engineering at Quinnipiac University. He has experience in teaching introductory computer science as well as upper-level software engineering courses, including software quality assurance, software project management, and software engineering in health care. His current research interests include improving the quality of human-intensive processes (HIPs), such as medical processes, with a focus on detecting human errors before harm is done and preventing such errors. He has used software engineering techniques to formally represent and analyze models of complex HIPs and industrial engineering techniques to elicit and validate models of such processes. He is also interested in human-computer interaction techniques for presenting information to assist process performers during an ongoing process. Stefan Christov holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Mark Hoffman, Quinnipiac UniversityMark Hoffman is a professor of computer science at Quinnipiac University. He joined the University in 2001 following a career in industry and has taught a wide variety of courses including data structures, computer architecture and organization, software development, and the senior capstone project. His research interests include communication and critical thinking skills in computer science education, and the impact of technology on work/home boundary management. He received his Ph.D. from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Evaluating the Collaboration between a Software Project Management Course and a Software Development Course in Terms of Student Learning and Experience AbstractThe ability to manage software teams and the ability to productively interact with a project manager are important skills in many computing professions. The integration into the computer science and software engineering curricula of opportunities for students to learn and exercise these skills, however, could be challenging due to various logistical reasons. The work described in this paper evaluates a newly established collaboration between an undergraduate software engineering course on software project management and an undergraduate computer science course on software development in terms of student learning and experience. The contributions of this work are a methodology for evaluating such collaborations and some lessons learned from applying this methodology for one semester.

Guiding Principles and Pedagogical Tools for an Introductory Software Development Course

“…Overall, Table 5 indicates that a large percentage of students believe they have achieved the learning outcomes of the course -more the 80% of students agree or strongly agree they achieved 6 of 8 learning outcomes and more than 85% of students agree or strongly agree they achieved half the learning outcomes. Table 5 shows that the top ranked SLOs are software development documents 1 (2), communication skills (5), and teamwork (6), followed by critical and reflective thinking (8), maintain an existing software product (1) and develop and apply testing (4). These results support the strong emphasis on communication skills (6 and 1), teamwork (5) and reflective thinking from feedback (8).…”

“…Table 5 shows that the top ranked SLOs are software development documents 1 (2), communication skills (5), and teamwork (6), followed by critical and reflective thinking (8), maintain an existing software product (1) and develop and apply testing (4). These results support the strong emphasis on communication skills (6 and 1), teamwork (5) and reflective thinking from feedback (8). The bottom two SLOs are management tools (3) and social and ethical implications (7).…”

“…As a component of a collaboration between a Software Project Management course and the ISD course, students completed a survey self-assessing their achievement of the student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the ISD course [5]. The seven SLOs from the course syllabus were broken down into eight on the survey for the sake of clarity.…”

“…These indicate that there may be issues associate with configuration management and social and ethical implications learning. Turning to Table 6c, student learning outcome differential, students made most progress toward achievement of communication skills and teamwork (5). Students made least progress toward achievement of social and ethical implications (6).…”