Teaching software engineering: An active learning approach

Abstract

Software Engineering is a core component of many computer engineering programs. In software engineering courses, students are taught to apply their programming and development skills to solve a larger scale problem. The resolution of this problem involves the development of an understanding of the problem from the client's perspective as well as an analysis of solution alternatives. Unfortunately, in many cases, the software engineering course is offered late in the curriculum, typically at the senior level. This makes it difficult for students to apply the knowledge that they have learned effectively on capstone and other academic projects. Students often comment that it would have been "nice to know this" before making the wrong decisions on their capstone projects. Thus, to be successful, components of software engineering need to be taught earlier in the undergraduate curriculum. This shifting to an earlier level, however, poses pedagogical issues. This paper describes the metamorphosis of an undergraduate software engineering course from a senior level course to a sophomore level course. In this course, students are taught to use software engineering tools and practices in pursuit of a solution to a software based embedded systems problem. Students actively work together in teams while theoretical software engineering concepts are delivered using "Just in Time" instruction. based upon student comments and other feedback. An analysis of student performance will also be provided.