Real Clients Research Articles

The Adoption of Agile Software Methodology with Team Software Process (TSPI) Practices in the Software Engineering Undergraduate Course


 
 
 In computer science, software engineering courses expose the undergraduate students to both the technical and methodological aspects of software development. The traditional software development methods and techniques represent a huge proportion of the courses and hence contribute an essential part of software engineering students’ development process. This plan-driven development is dependent on a set of predefined phases and ongoing documentation which found to be problematic; such as time-consuming, slipped requirements and complicated processes. The main aim of this paper is to study and review the adoption of Agile Software Methodology and Team Software Process (TSPi) practices in the undergraduate course focus on software development. The framework and course plan will be designed to apply and observe the implementation. Furthermore, this study will help to gather the teams’ viewpoint regarding the importance of Agile and TSPi practices in handling small projects with real clients.
 
 

Interviewing real clients and the ways it deepens students’ understandings of legal ethics

ABSTRACTLegal ethics teaching can be enriched and deepened when students experience legal practice through, for example, client interviews. Further, many legal educators are committed to encouraging their students’ commitment to contribute to the community through making the law and legal system fairer. One means of achieving this goal is by introducing a clinical component into a legal ethics course. Empirical research conducted with current students in Australia, analyses students’ changing understandings of ethical values and practice when conducting legal interviews. The article discusses the relationship between an ‘ethic of care’ and concepts of ‘justice’, examined through students’ experiences of client interviewing. It also examines students’ commitment to the justice system, including the finding that their commitment to making law fairer is reinforced through working with disadvantaged clients.

Collaborative Approach in Software Engineering Education: An Interdisciplinary Case

Aim/Purpose: This study was aimed at enhancing students’ learning of software engineering methods. A collaboration between the Computer Science, Business Management, and Product Design programs was formed to work on actual projects with real clients. This interdisciplinary form of collaboration simulates the realities of a diverse Software Engineering team. Background: A collaborative approach implemented through projects has been the established pedagogy for introducing the Software Engineering course to undergraduate Computer Science students. The collaboration, however, is limited to collaboration among Computer Science students and their clients. This case study explored an enhancement to the collaborative approach to project development by integrating other related disciplines into the project development framework; hence, the Interdisciplinary Approach. Methodology: This study adopted the case method approach. An interdisciplinary service innovation activity was proposed to invite other disciplines in the learning process of the computer science students. The agile methodology Scrum was used as the software development approach during project development. Survey data were collected from the students to establish (a) their perception of the interdisciplinary approach to project development; (b) the factors that influenced success or failure of their team to deliver the project; and (c) the perceived skills or knowledge that they acquired from the interdisciplinary approach. Analysis of data followed a mixed method approach. Contribution: The study improved the current pedagogy for Software Engineering education by integrating other related disciplines into the software project development framework. Findings: Data collected showed that the students generally accepted the interdisciplinary approach to project development. Factors such as project relevance, teamwork, time and schedule, and administration support, among others, affect team performance towards project completion. In the case of the Computer Science students, results show that students have learned skills during the experience that, as literature reveal, can only be acquired or mastered in their future profession as software engineers. Recommendations for Practitioners: The active collaboration of the industry with the University and the involvement of the other related courses in teaching software engineering methods are critical to the development of the students, not only in learning the methodology but also as a working professional. Recommendation for Researchers: It is interesting to know and eventually understand the interactions between interdisciplinary team members in the conduct of Software Engineering practices while working on their projects. More specifically, what creative tensions arise and how do the interdisciplinary teams handle the discourse? Impact on Society: This study bridges the gap between how Software Engineering is taught in the university and how Software Engineering teams work in real life. Future Research: Future research is targeted at refining and elaborating the elements of the interdisciplinary framework presented in this paper towards an integrated course module for Software Engineering education.

Team Work is Legal Work: Using Firms to Develop the Case

Real client problems are rarely tidy. Real clients seek legal assistance when they face complex, three-dimensional challenges. This article suggests that professors in first-year lawyering courses can help students develop their problem solving skills by engaging them in collaborative case development. Using a simulation model, students work in teams to identify and fill case holes through fact development and legal research. This framework infuses the traditional hypothetical model with the dynamism of real life legal problem solving.

Service-Learning as Pedagogy for Transformation of Students’ Learning

Service-Learning is a powerful pedagogy to transform students learning confidence and determination to make good use of their knowledge through empowered services experience in authentic situations with real clients. Teachers use this pedagogy to help students explore an aspect of social issues and take action to relieve the situation through partnership with agencies outside the University. The current study hit new insights about students learning evaluation that was made possible because of inputs from the collaborating Service-Learning partners. The triangulations of quantitative and qualitative methods contribute effectively in evaluating the students’ learning in social service. Service-Learning results in elevated self-evaluation and confidence in all generic skills and attitude changes measured through continual formative assessments though it does not promise immediate conquer over the control group in summative assessments. Discussions have been made to reflect the different roles of summative and formative assessment that Service-Learning could be the catalyst of learning as the tipping point for successful community network construction.

Encountering the pedagogy of live and interactive architectural projects

<p class="Normale1">The use of the word “live” as a prefix for a project, is a thought-provoking, and perplexing concept; does one assume that all other projects are dead?<br />Or is it that "(a)live," in the studio build paradigm, is about the currency and value of the moment? Or is it that one is operating outside of normative architectural academia, and is therefore (a)live?<br />Untangling the meta meaning of the verb “live” and then juxtaposing it with the word “interactive” could draw the reader to the conclusion that we are talking about a non-momentary or continuous two-way transfer of information – often as not between the student, the lecturing staff and external agencies (in many cases real clients). It is this existence between the borderland of academia and practice that this chapter hopes to unpack and clarify.</p><p class="Normale1">This article is an introduction to contents of Chapter II.</p>

Exploring students’ perceptions of service-learning experiences in an undergraduate web design course

ABSTRACTService-learning is an experiential learning experience where students learn and develop through active participation in community service to meet the needs of a community. This study explored student learning experiences in a service-learning group project and their perceptions of service-learning in an undergraduate web design course. The data showed that the service-learning project helped students learn the course material, feel more connected to the surrounding community, and improve their communication and problem-solving skills for their careers. The participants appreciated the opportunity to work with the service-learning partner and will be likely to look for more opportunities to get involved in the community. Time constraints, group work, working with real clients, and technical limitations were reported as major challenges in the group project.

Employability as an ethos in translator and interpreter training

ABSTRACT‘Employability’ is now a key term in university strategies in the UK and increasingly across Europe. Pressure to implement such strategies can lead to bolted-on rather than embedded activities within curricula. This paper argues that employability should be an embedded ethos, particularly for translation and interpreting courses. Employability can be addressed effectively by using real-world applications of learning, to enrich the discipline but also to provide distinct types of intellectually stimulating content. The University of East Anglia (UEA) has a long history of this approach. We outline UEA case studies of effective practice at Masters and undergraduate level, including students working for real clients. Such an endeavour poses logistical and ethical challenges: how can we integrate real-world contexts without taking work away from professionals? This issue can be unwisely ignored or a source of academics’ reluctance to engage in such activities. Using original data from a recent alumni survey and semi-structured interviews, we map the outcomes of such an ethos and ask whether engaging in real-world oriented activities as students affects the professional paths of alumni.

A Prefetching Technique using Apriori and Logistic Methods for the DFS in Cloud

This paper presents an creativity data prefetching scheme on the loading servers in distributed file systems for cloud computing. The server will get and piggybacked the frequent data from the client system, after analyzing the fetched data is forward to the client machine from the server. To place this technique to work, the data about client nodes is piggybacked onto the real client I/O requests, and then forwarded to the relevant storage server. Next, dual prediction algorithms have been proposed to calculation future block access operations for directing what data should be fetched on storage servers in advance. Finally, the prefetching data can be pressed to the relevant client device from the storage server. Over a series of evaluation experiments with a group of application benchmarks, we have demonstrated that our presented initiative prefetching technique can benefit distributed file systems for cloud environments to achieve better I/O performance. In particular, configuration-limited client machines in the cloud are not answerable for predicting I/O access operations, which can certainly contribute to preferable system performance on them.

'Envisioning Student Learning in a Multi-Disciplinary Student Clinic Future Practitioners Learning About Working Collaboratively Across Disciplines to Better Help Communityy (Presentation Slides)

In this paper, the author examines the imperative for interdisciplinary student clinics where law, nursing, social work and other disciplines work together in joint classes at undergraduate levels to learn collaborative and client skills to overcome barriers and professional stereotypes that impede the solving of clients problems holistically. Then they can work towards delivering a real life advice clinic to clients in most need and undertake systemic reforms to avert problems. The paper defines interdisciplinary student clinics and multi-disciplinary practice given the nomenclature in literature is contradictory and confusing. The presenter’s research and practical experience as a clinical legal education supervising solicitor within a health service has led to the idea for the development of an interdisciplinary student clinic as an important way of building better and more responsive future practitioners in health, law and allied health disciplines. The paper outlines some initiatives undertaken by law students under her supervision that could if further developed be done in collaboration and co-cooperatively alongside other colleagues in different fields and in student learning to ensure respectful and reciprocal learning. It can also lead to an appreciation of different professional roles and differing ethical obligations. In this paper, the author identifies why there is a need for such an approach to break down barriers between professionals to improve social justice and health outcomes based on her recent empirical research. She will explore research and new approaches to lawyering and health services provision that works across silos to enable more seamless navigable service options for real life clients of the clinic and new approaches in a work place. The author has been asked to advise (pro bono) on the establishment of such an innovative clinic at Portsmouth University in the UK for nursing, law and social work students. This initiative by way of a pilot aims to see work across academic disciplines and with clinical supervisors from different fields designing and teaching together in such a IDSC. The author notes that a further paper is being developed in collaboration with the Head of Law and Head of Nursing at Portsmouth University that explores these issues in more details.

Health facility service availability and readiness for intrapartum and immediate postpartum care in Malawi: A cross-sectional survey.

This analysis seeks to identify strengths and gaps in the existing facility capacity for intrapartum and immediate postpartum fetal and neonatal care, using data collected as a part of Malawi’s Helping Babies Breath program evaluation. From August to September 2012, the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) conducted a cross-sectional survey in 84 Malawian health facilities to capture current health facility service availability and readiness and health worker capacity and practice pertaining to labor, delivery, and immediate postpartum care. The survey collected data on availability of equipment, supplies, and medications, and health worker knowledge and performance scores on intrapartum care simulation and actual management of real clients at a subset of facilities. We ran linear regression models to identify predictors of high simulation performance of routine delivery care and management of asphyxiated newborns across all facilities surveyed. Key supplies for infection prevention and thermal care of the newborn were found to be missing in many of the surveyed facilities. At the health center level, 75% had no clinician trained in basic emergency obstetric care or newborn care and 39% had no midwife trained in the same. We observed that there were no proportional increases in available transport and staff at a facility as catchment population increased. In simulations of management of newborns with breathing problems, health workers were able to complete a median of 10 out of 16 tasks for a full-term birth case scenario and 20 out of 30 tasks for a preterm birth case scenario. Health workers who had more years of experience appeared to perform worse. Our study provides a benchmark and highlights gaps for future evaluations and studies as Malawi continues to make strides in improving facility-based care. Further progress in reducing the burden of neonatal and fetal death in Malawi will be partly predicated on guaranteeing properly equipped and staffed facilities in addition to ensuring the presence of skilled health workers.

Outsourcing at Office Supply Inc.

This case is designed to teach how to structure information technology (IT) infrastructure outsourcing deals from both the outsourcer and the client perspective. Office Supply Incorporated (OSI) is a company in crisis, with challenges in its cost structure and poor IT performance. Outsourcing to Technology Infrastructure Solutions is an opportunity to both reduce costs and complexity for the firm, but students first must consider whether outsourcing is a good strategic fit for OSI. Detailed spreadsheet templates are given that are based on a real outsourcing client engagement for a major infrastructure outsourcing company. The spreadsheets are complex but have been simplified so that they automatically calculate when populated, allowing the students to quickly move to answering the management challenge: how should TIS price and structure the outsourcing deal? Answering this question provides deep insights into the business case for IT outsourcing and how outsourcers financially engineer a deal structure to ensure a win-win outcome for both the client and outsource service provider.Students will: Understand the strategic context of IT outsourcing and when it will benefit a firm; Understand IT infrastructure outsourcing and management issues such as personnel reductions and organizational change; Learn which outsourcing pricing model is the best fit for a project; Create a rigorous cost-benefit financial analysis and ROI model for IT infrastructure outsourcing; Analyze the model and learn how to financially engineer the deal to be a win-win for the outsourcer and client.

Student developed computer science educational tools as software engineering course projects

In a one semester course on software engineering for upper level computer science students, students typically learn the fundamental software processes spanning the software development lifecycle --- from requirements specification through architectural design, implementation, testing, and evolution, along with the software tools that support the development activities. Courses in software engineering often incorporate semester long team projects, where students collaborate on a software development project. Thus, in addition to developing the technical skills associated with software development, the software engineering course is a common place where computer science students develop their skills in teamwork and collaboration, as well as in communications. The nature and type of projects in such courses varies. Some integrate projects where students develop software for clients such as on campus departments, or local non-profits, while others have been increasing exposure to open source development with students contributing to existing open source projects. In our software engineering course, we have recently introduced course projects where teams of students specify, design, and implement software that assists computer science students in learning fundamental computer science topics. In this paper, we present our experience with such CS learning tool projects, including a discussion of the impact on student outcomes in a senior-level course on software engineering. We compare this experience to our prior use of projects for real clients in this same course. We find that students who participate in the CS learning tool projects perceive an increase in learning progress on fundamental principles, theories, and factual knowledge, as compared to their peers in course sections with projects for real clients, with an equivalent effect on teamwork and collaboration skills. Most surprisingly, the students who develop CS learning tools report a significantly higher level of progress on industrial relevant skill development as compared to the students who develop so called projects for real clients.

Enhancing emotional competencies with law students

<p>Research was conducted at the University of Newcastle Legal Centre (Australia) over 2013 and 2014 involving an emotional intelligence training module designed to improve the emotional competencies of law students on placement in a legal centre working with real clients. An earlier paper (Wardhaugh & James, IJCLE 2014) described the project and preliminary findings of Stage One. This paper provides the findings and ultimate conclusions of Stage Two. Overall the statistical analysis of variance between Stage One (control group in 2013) and Stage Two (intervention group in 2014) was not significant, the qualitative results from Stage Two produced valuable insights into enhancing professional development by leveraging the student experience of interviewing real clients in a clinic setting. Overall learnings from the project are discussed, including suggestions for further research.</p>

Lessons from Scranton: Using Scenes from the Television Series The Office to Teach Topics in Professional Communication

Background: Despite efforts to include communication instruction in both college and continuing education curricula for students in all areas of study, workplace surveys continually report that employees' communication skills are lacking. The differing contexts of school and the workplace may be one reason for this disconnect, so teaching strategies that can effectively bridge this gap are needed. Research questions: How do students respond to using scenes from a television series to teach professional communication concepts within workplace contexts? What are advantages and drawbacks to this strategy? Situating the case: Strategies used to teach professional communication in a way that facilitates its application in the workplace include classroom exercises, service-learning projects involving real clients, and simulations. In addition, videos are a commonly used method of classroom teaching. They can activate verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, and musical/rhythmic intelligences, allowing students to use their stronger intelligences and develop their weaker ones. Research also suggests that students appreciate visual stimulation and technology use when learning communication skills. How the case was studied: Students completed a brief end-of-course survey to gather both qualitative and quantitative data concerning their learning experiences with the activities described. About the case: To make undergraduate writing courses more relevant to the workplace, specific scenes from The Office were integrated to teach units on negative messages and intercultural issues. Following these clips, students completed both in-class exercises and course assignments pertaining to the topics covered. Results: After completing the class sessions and associated exercises described here, most students could discern the relevant concepts from the clips; they found both the clips and the associated exercises helpful in learning the concepts; and they recommended ongoing use in future classes. Students appreciated the comedic nature of the material, the use of different media, and the pop culture reference. Drawbacks included scenes focusing on what not to do, that often showed communication gone awry rather than the correct way to communicate. Some students also prefer more traditional teaching methods. Conclusions: The results indicate that the use of television clips along with associated exercises can be useful aids in teaching professional communication concepts.

Client-Based Pedagogy Meets Workplace Simulation: Developing Social Processes in the Arisoph Case Study

Teaching problem: Immersive pedagogies—including real-world or client-based projects, case studies, and simulations—have long been used to encourage student problem-solving, analytical thinking, and teamwork in professional communication. Building a connection to the real world has real challenges, however, for both instructors and students. How can we better prepare students for their future careers in our technical communication courses? Situating the case: This paper draws on three areas in the literature to situate the Arisoph case study: First, we discuss the work that has been done with client-based projects and the problems and challenges researchers have found with incorporating these projects into the classroom. Second, we discuss a newer model of workplace simulations, particularly focusing on the work done by Fisher and Russell. Third, we discuss the psychological theories of attribution and reattribution, which provided a foundation for our development of the Arisoph case study. How this case was studied: This paper describes the development of the Arisoph case study, an online client-based simulation course designed for engineering students to learn and practice technical communication. Course development and collection of instructor and student responses took place from 2010 to 2014. About the case: This paper details the development and implementation of the Arisoph case study, which brought the workplace realities of a variety of engineering professions into a classroom filled with engineering majors. The Arisoph simulation was designed to manage student attribution and reattribution, particularly to help engineering students connect the principles and skills learned in technical communication courses with their future careers. The Arisoph case study is a full-semester simulation, where students apply for work in a fictional company and fulfill different roles on professional teams. Each assignment during the semester is situated in the context of the simulation. The major projects for the simulation, however, come from a real client in the engineering field. This unique combination of simulation and client-based projects provides students with greater opportunities for successful reattribution. Conclusions: Initial student reactions to the course show an increased understanding of workplace communication and a greater motivation to produce the best possible product for the client. We hope that long-term studies will show significant carryover of those attitudes into students' careers.

Conference Paper- Access to Justice Making it Come Alive and a Reality for Students and Enabling Engaged Future Practitionerss

The presentation commenced with a 20 minute discussion and illustration by Dr. Liz Curran who has worked for many years as a clinical legal education supervising solicitor in an academic role and now works in Professional Legal Training role in the ANU Legal Workshop. She has been an active researcher on access to justice and human rights for over a decade with numerous research projects, articles and as a commentator.In 2008 Dr Curran wrote in the Alternative Law Journal that ‘from this vantage point, being an academic and a practitioner, a constructive inter-play occurs where theory can inform practice and vice versa.’ It is this inter-play which can make a valuable contribution to policy debates, student learning and development and their sense of being involved in upholding justice and the rule of law. From such a vantage point, universities in their teaching and research and policy makers can tap into evidence based information on the experience of the day-to-day dilemmas facing the members of the community for whom survival, emotional and physical well-being can be precarious. Dr Curran’s presentation outlines:• How by using scenario based learning and role play rooted in real client experience of the complexity of the legal system and services to the most disadvantaged can inform, expose and better prepare students for practice. The presenter will outline examples of using role play rooted in real life experience that she utilised that can add a human dimension to skills based learning and a critical consideration of the law and its application in graduate and under-graduate teaching.• How using materials and assessments that involve students in identifying trends and exploring solutions to problems can assist them as future lawyers in seeing they have a place in shaping the administration of justice more broadly. She will provide examples of how students’ work has influenced decision-makers.This presentation was followed by a 20-minute interactive conversation with questions to stimulate small group discussion and report back.• Logistics, for example, maximum number of participants, AV requirements and desirable room configuration.

Evaluating Facilitated Modelling Processes and Outcomes: An Experiment Comparing a Single and a Multimethod Approach in Group Model Building

Facilitated modelling approaches have been suggested as helpful tools to support negotiation in strategic analysis processes due to their potential to facilitate cognitive change and enhance consensus and commitment with final decisions. In the present research, we developed an experimental framework to compare what two of these approaches, that is, group model building and a multimethod approach, contribute to the process and outcomes in the negotiation of strategies. In the multimethod approach, we combined strategic options development and analysis with computer simulations of the group model building approach. We explored the differences between these two modelling approaches in facilitating cognitive change, consensus and commitment by building an experimental research design with real clients, working on their organisation’s problem. Furthermore, we compared the type and content of participants’ contributions in the strategic conversation. The lessons from the experiment conducted are twofold. On one hand, the multimethod approach encouraged more divergent contributions and produced a higher degree of cognitive change than group model building (i.e., the single approach). On the other hand, group model building encouraged more contributions about content related to causes of the problem and enhanced more commitment to the final solution than the multimethod approach. Hence, the conducted experiment brings new insights into the benefits of using multimethods and possible losses resulting from such combinations. Accordingly, we have presented opportunities for further research regarding the combination of facilitated modelling approaches.

Team Projects in Computing Education

Team projects are a way to expose students to conflicting project objectives, and “[t]here should be a strong real-world element … to ensure that the experience is realistic” [ACM/IEEE-CS 2015b]. Team projects provide an opportunity for students to put their education into practice and prepare them for their professional careers. The aim of this special issue, and the previous one, is to collect and share evidence about the state of practice of team projects in computing education and to help educators in designing and running team projects. The articles presented in the present issue cover the following topics: real projects for real clients, open source projects, multidisciplinary team projects, student and team assessment, and cognitive and psychological aspects of team projects.

Building dietetic student confidence and professional identity through participation in a university health clinic

AimThe objectives of this study were to explore the impact of participating in a university‐based dietetic clinic on student's perceived confidence and recognition of skills needed for practice and explore students’ overall experience of attending the clinic.MethodsA curriculum‐based university clinic provided third‐year students with an experiential learning opportunity to practice diet history interviewing skills on real clients. Qualitative data were gathered through focus groups with 13 (43% of total enrolment) third‐year nutrition and dietetics students who were recruited via an email invitation. Focus groups were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted by all three authors.ResultsEngaging in an authentic learning environment was viewed positively by students and enabled them to develop confidence and a sense of professional identity. The experience also enabled students to identify personal learning needs and skills required for future practice, and gain insight into the realities of practice.ConclusionsThese findings support the evidence that dietetic curriculum should provide students with authentic learning opportunities in a safe environment, prior to potentially stressful placement experiences. This enables students to discover the nuances of dietetic practice, practise people‐related skills and develop confidence in those skills that are crucial to practice.