Exploring Factors Influencing the Satisfaction of Adult Software Engineering Students with Teamwork in Distance Education

Abstract

Using team-based software development assignments is a prevalent instructional strategy in software engineering (SE) education. Students utilize these development assignments as a vehicle to (co-)learn SE concepts, practice problem-solving, and develop soft skills. The satisfaction of SE students with their teamwork experience in team-based assignments is an important educational and motivational factor that contributes to increased participation in future team-based projects. There is a scarcity of research on the satisfaction of SE students with teamwork in distance and online education specifically for adult learners. This study reports on a case study conducted to identify factors influencing the satisfaction of adult SE graduate students with their teamwork experiences in team-based software design and development assignments at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL), a distance education university for adult learners. The self-reflection reports of 29 adult SE students, aged between 25 and 35 years, documented and self-evaluated their experiences with a team-based design and development assignment within a master SE course were analyzed using an open thematic analysis approach. The analysis of the reports revealed six categories of factors that influenced the adult online SE students’ satisfaction with their team-working experience, namely, the attitude of team members, communication, collaboration, team characteristics, tooling and technology, and learning. Additionally, we conducted a literature review to identify any similarities and differences between the results obtained from the literature and those derived from our study on this topic.