Strategies for delivering active learning tools in software verification & validation education

Abstract

Imparting real world experiences is often a challenge due to both lack of effective active learning tools and effective delivery strategies. This pedagogical requirement is important because graduates are expected to develop software that meets rigorous quality standards in functional and application domains with little to no training. Lack of effective active tools has been addressed by the authors by designing, developing, and delivering, twenty (20) delivery hours of Case Studies, sixteen (16) delivery hours of Class Exercises, and six (6) delivery hours of Video Case Studies for use in courses that impart knowledge on SV&V topics viz. requirements engineering, software reviews, configuration management, and software testing. Four key skill areas sought after by employers, namely communication skills, applied knowledge of methods, applied knowledge of tools, and research exposure have been used to drive the development funded by a National Science Foundation grant and perfected through an industry-academia partnership. These tools have been successfully disseminated to over 25 universities with many CS, IS, SE programs incorporating the tools in their existing courses and others designing new courses based on these tools. Since student learning retention depends on knowledge retention activities delivered in different settings it is important to identify and incorporate delivery strategies that meet course and/or module learning outcomes. In this paper we discuss strategies used to effectively incorporate and deliver the developed Active Learning tools by instructors at two universities. Traditional and flipped classroom delivery strategies are discussed as well as topics like pre-requisite knowledge preparation prior to class, course module presentation sequence, homework, team/individual work, collaborative discussions, and assessment tools are deliberated. In addition student feedback and assessment are also presented for each category of active learning tools and strategies that work are summarized.