Incorporating Free/Open-Source Data and Tools in Software Engineering Education

Abstract

Software development is a fast-changing area. New methods and new technologies emerge all the time. As a result, the education of software engineering is generally considered not to be keeping pace with the development of software engineering in industry. Given the limited resources in academia, it is unrealistic to purchase all the latest software tools for classroom usage. In this chapter, the authors describe how free/open-source data and free/open-source tools are used in an upper-level software engineering class at Indiana University South Bend. Depending on different learning objectives, different free/open-source tools and free/open-source data are incorporated into different team projects. The approach has been applied for two semesters, where instructor's experiences are assembled and analyzed. The study suggests (1) incorporating both free/open-source tools and free/open-source data in a software engineering course so that students can better understand both development methods and development processes and (2) updating software engineering course regularly in order to keep up with the advance of development tools and development methods in industry.

Developing Software Engineering Competences in Undergraduate Students: A Project-Based Learning Approach in Academy-Industry Collaboration

“…Its difficulty is not like theoretical courses, such as algorithm analysis, nor programming courses, such as data structures. Software Engineering is an empirical course; students should learn Software Engineering methods through hands-on experience, which might include the following aspects [18]: Real-world software development, real-world customer interaction, realworld planning and estimation, and real decision-making and problem solving.…”