A validated educational format in software engineering targeting students’ collaboration skills

Abstract

In the context of the Bologna process the “shift from teaching to learning” is postulated to meet two central goals: To increase the students’ employability and to foster needed competencies. To be in a position to process methods and find solutions for highly complex, abstract, large, and multilayered problems, a Software Engineer has to have a lot of subject knowledge and technical competencies; but above all, he/she has to be able to work in – at least one – team. For the purpose of preparing the students with professional knowhow and moreover with teamwork skills, the approach shown in this paper supplements an ex-cathedra teaching by a seminar and a project phase. This combination is dedicated to acquire theoretical knowledge in a collaborative and self-directed way. This is done in order to be able to deepen the learned matter, to share content through learning-by-teaching in groups and furthermore to apply the knowledge and skills in a simulated project, which constitutes a realistic situation and teamwork of an engineer as good as possible.