Investigating the Benefits of Applying Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Enhance Learning Experiences in Capstone Courses

Abstract

This research seeks to improve the learning experiences in Software Engineering Programs using Virtual Assistants based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Students of Software Engineering Capstone Courses face real world situations and challenges that grant them valuable experiences for their professional preparation. However, since this knowledge is acquired through real-life exposure projects, it is difficult to transmit it among different generations of students. In consequence, all the gained knowledge, experiences, and computer codes developed are lost and cannot be reused outside the project context when they finish their assignment at the end of the semester. To address this challenge, this thesis considers the development of AI based virtual assistants applied in higher education, in a form of a lesson learned system, a recommender system integrated with a chatbot, to help students, solve problems similar to those they face in the different stages of their software project development by recommending previous lessons learned. The innovative contribution lies in the implementation of the described techniques from the state-of-art artificial intelligence field in an educational platform with the goal to leverage the experience gained during years of the teaching a Capstone Course in Software Engineering to new student generations who might benefit from this universal knowledge gained previously, in order to assist software engineering students to enhance their learning experience.