Undergraduate Software Engineering Students Research Articles

Methodical Software Testing Course in Higher Education

Many articles and reports highlighted how many recent computer science and software engineering undergraduate students often face obstacles when starting their professional jobs, because of misalignment of the earned skills during their academic school education with what is really required in the industry. To reduce the gap and to make sure up to date software testing course is utilized in our university, we design and develop in this paper testing course for undergraduate students in our university as work on progress as we believe education courses should be updated to achieve both the well-known standards and the market needs. Moreover, this article summarizes the findings and the lesson learned of using the designed course as a real experiment in university education.

An assessment of student satisfaction with e-learning: An empirical study with computer and software engineering undergraduate students in Turkey under pandemic conditions.

As COVID-19 reached Turkey in March 2020, all universities switched to e-learning in a very short period. Computer and software engineering (CE/SE) undergraduate students studying at university campuses have switched to e-learning. This paper seeks to understand the e-learning experience of CE/SE undergraduate students. A questionnaire was created and applied to CE/SE undergraduate students in Turkish universities. The data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The questionnaire received 290 usable responses. The highlights from the findings include: the participants (1) used video recordings intensively for e-learning and found them useful; (2) found face-to-face lectures more beneficial compared to digital live lectures; (3) used external online resources to improve their learning performance in courses; (4) thought that the materials and methods utilized for assessment should be adapted to e-learning for a better and fair evaluation; (5) perceived significantly less instructor support and classmate interaction and collaboration in e-learning compared to on-campus education settings; (6) rated their perceived satisfaction from e-learning as 2.85, slightly under the mid-level of the 5-point Likert scale; (7) perceived instructor support, student interaction and collaboration, and student autonomy as noteworthy factors in high-quality e-learning.

Establishing a start-up in Saudi Arabia: the Innosoft story

Subject Area Entrepreneurship. Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are to explain the importance of passion in entrepreneurship, develop an understanding of the business model canvas and its elements, identify typical challenges faced by a startup (during early days and while growing), explain the role of seed fund and customer feedback for small business success and identify the appropriate hiring strategy for startups. Case overview/synopsis The case traces the journey of two Saudi under-graduate software engineering students, namely, Loai Labani and Riyadh Al-Tayib, who had a vision to establish the best information technology (IT) services company in Saudi Arabia. With no previous experience of establishing a company or working for a startup, coupled with the fact that the culture of entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia is still in its ascendancy, they knew it would be challenging. Nevertheless, at the same time, they were convinced it would be totally up to them to do the hard work needed to propel their vision into reality. The case, after introducing the founders, talks about their respective backgrounds and how it complemented their goal/vision of establishing an IT services company. The case, with references from the literature, also throws light on the entrepreneurship culture in Saudi Arabia but the focus is the various challenges faced by the team in setting up their business and the strategies they used in dealing with the challenges. Some of the challenges discussed are securing early customers, initial financing to support startup, business model development, managing daily operations and hiring and marketing strategy. The case ends with another challenge faced by the founders, for the readers to think about the possible ways of dealing with the challenge at hand. Complexity academic level The case will be used for under-graduate level students. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Towards data-driven software engineering skills assessment

Purpose Today’s software engineers often work in teams to develop complex software systems. Therefore, successful software engineering in practice require team members to possess not only sound programming skills such as analysis, design, coding and testing but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration and self-management. However, existing examination-based assessments are often inadequate for quantifying students’ soft skill development. The purpose of this paper is to explore alternative ways for assessing software engineering students’ skills through a data-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the exploratory data analysis approach is adopted. Leveraging the proposed online agile project management tool – Human-centred Agile Software Engineering (HASE), a study was conducted involving 21 Scrum teams consisting of over 100 undergraduate software engineering students in multi-week coursework projects in 2014. Findings During this study, students performed close to 170,000 software engineering activities logged by HASE. By analysing the collected activity trajectory data set, the authors demonstrate the potential for this new research direction to enable software engineering educators to have a quantifiable way of understanding their students’ skill development, and take a proactive approach in helping them improve their programming and soft skills. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has yet to be published previous studies using software engineering activity data to assess software engineers’ skills.

Explicit and tacit knowledge conversion effects, in software engineering undergraduate students

This study evaluates the effect of conversion between tacit and explicit knowledge, and its influence on Software engineering and Software Process Improvement in the context of a small school software company in which undergraduate students participate as personnel. A survey measurement instrument was applied to the last three generations of students. The effect was measured from an interaction of the four modes of the SECI model knowledge conversion using regression analysis associated with four hypotheses study. The findings show that students are able to generate tacit and explicit knowledge in a similar way to software organizations. This study is considered a contribution of both academia and software industry that encourages this type of experiences in undergraduate students and prepares them as intellectual capital with an organizational culture that shares knowledge.

Evaluación de la Técnica de Visualización Basada en Grafos: Un Experimento Controlado

Muchos investigadores han señalado la falta de estudios empíricos que sistemáticamente examinen las ventajas y desventajas del uso de técnicas de visualización para soportar la comprensión del software. Estos estudios son indispensables para recolectar y analizar evidencia objetiva y cuantificable acerca de la utilidad de las técnicas de visualización y herramientas propuestas, y más aún, para servir como guía de la investigación en visualización de software. En este estudio, 6 tareas típicas de comprensión de software fueron realizadas por 20 estudiantes de un curso de ingeniería de software. Se midió el tiempo de respuesta y se calificó la exactitud en las respuestas de los participantes. Los resultados indican que, por una parte, el uso de la técnica de visualización basada en grafos mejoró la exactitud en las respuestas de los estudiantes (21.45% en promedio); por otra parte, no se encontró evidencia significativa de reducción en el tiempo gastado por los estudiantes para resolver las tareas de comprensión de software.

Design and evaluation of an alternative programming paradigms course

The knowledge of the most common programming paradigms, and the basic abstractions provided by each paradigm, are competencies to be attained by Software Engineering undergraduate students. These abstractions also include the basis of concurrent and parallel programming, present in different programming paradigms. In an existing Software Engineering degree, these competencies were assigned to the Programming Technology and Paradigms course. We present the approach followed in the design of that course to teach object-oriented, functional, concurrent and parallel programming to second year undergraduate students with basic knowledge of Java. The time limitations of the course prevented us from using various programming languages. After analyzing different alternatives, we chose C# to teach the course. We describe the most important challenges faced and how we addressed them. The course success rate is slightly greater than the rest of courses in the same year and degree, while performance rates and average marks are analogous. There is no influence of age and gender on the final mark, but students retaking the course have significantly worse evaluation than those enrolled for the first time. The students’ self-evaluation revealed that the proposed course has a strong influence on the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, and their satisfaction with the course was significantly higher than with the rest of courses in the same degree.

The Evaluation of Study Success between Online Study and Classroom Study Environment

Online study has increasingly become more attractive to students at university level due to convenience access to their instructors and to study resources. This study has developed online social network for study. It proposes to provide lesson content availability, past lecture, by sending online study lesson media to students’ mobile phone or tablet. Approximately 85 undergraduate software engineering students participated for 1.5 semesters. In comparing the use of the study toll, and without the tool, the alterations were found between traditional classroom learning style and online study. Also, the study’s aim was to attest the online study tool’s efficiency. However, these results were not obvious when the achievement factor was controlled by the limitation of time. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate these two groups of students with extended experiment time for a noticeable result by used questionnaires course examination, and inventory of ILP learning process. The observed, shows that students with online study tools scored higher on course examinations after measures by the mentioned methodology.

Essential Technical Competencies for Software Engineers: Perspectives from Sri Lankan Undergraduates

Software engineering complexities and challenges are multifold and does not only rise from technology advancements. Human factors related to software engineering is a key aspect which has been overlooked by many organizations and also received less research focus. The research which is a part of a longer study strives to build a competency framework targeting software engineers. Considering a future with more agility and product engineering this study is conducted through mixed mode methods taking Sri Lankan software engineering undergraduate students as a sample to determine the future outlook. The technical competencies identified would support undergraduates, academics and industry training providers with fresh insights from a research perspective. Further it will help undergraduates who intend to join the industry to sharpen their technical competencies. General Terms Software Engineering, Humans Aspects in Software Engineering, Technical Competencies.

Project-Driven Learning-by-Doing Method for Teaching Software Engineering using Virtualization Technology

Many universities are now offering software engineering an undergraduate level emphasizing knowledge point. However, some enterprise managers reflected that education ignore hands-on ability training, and claimed that there is the isolation between teaching and practice. This paper presents the design of a Software Engineering course (sixth semester in network engineering) at University of Jinan for undergraduate Software Engineering students that uses virtualization technology to teach them project-driven learning-by-doing software development process. We present our motivation, challenges encountered, pedagogical goals and approaches, findings (both positive experiences and negative lessons). Our motivation was to teach project-driven Software Engineering using virtualization technology. The course also aims to develop entrepreneurial skills needed for software engineering graduates to better prepare them for the software industry. Billing models of virtualization help pupils and instructors find the cost of the experiment. In pay-as-you-go manner, two labs and three step-by-step projects (single project, pair project, and team project) are designed to help the students to complete the assignment excitedly. We conduct some detailed surveys and present the results of student responses. The assessment process designed for this course is illustrated. The paper also shows that learning-by-doing method correlates with the characteristics of different projects, which has resulted in a successful experience as reported by students in an end of a semester survey.

The Impact of the PSP on Software Quality: Eliminating the Learning Effect Threat through a Controlled Experiment

Data from the Personal Software Process (PSP) courses indicate that the PSP improves the quality of the developed programs. However, since the programs (exercises of the course) are in the same application domain, the improvement could be due to programming repetition. In this research we try to eliminate this threat to validity in order to confirm that the quality improvement is due to the PSP. In a previous study we designed and performed a controlled experiment with software engineering undergraduate students at the Universidad de la República. The students performed the same exercises of the PSP course but without applying the PSP techniques. Here we present a replication of this experiment. The results indicate that the PSP and not programming repetition is the most plausible cause of the important software quality improvements.

On the Domain-Specificity of Mindsets: The Relationship Between Aptitude Beliefs and Programming Practice

<?Pub Dtl=""?> Deliberate practice is important in many areas of learning, including that of learning to program computers. However, beliefs about the nature of personal traits, known as mindsets, can have a profound impact on such practice. Previous research has shown that those with a fixed mindset believe their traits cannot change; they tend to reduce their level of practice when they encounter difficulty. In contrast, those with the growth mindset believe their traits are flexible; they tend to maintain regular practice despite the level of difficulty. However, focusing on mindset as a single construct focused on intelligence may not be appropriate in the field of computer programming. Exploring this notion, a self-belief survey was distributed to undergraduate software engineering students. It revealed that beliefs about intelligence and programming aptitude formed two distinct constructs. Furthermore, the mindset for programming aptitude had greater utility in predicting software development practice, and a follow-up survey showed that it became more fixed throughout instruction. Thus, educators should consider the role of programming-specific beliefs in the design and evaluation of introductory courses in software engineering. In particular, they need to situate and contextualize the growth messages that motivate students who experience early setbacks.

Virtual Scrum: A teaching aid to introduce undergraduate software engineering students to scrum

ABSTRACTTeaching agile practices is becoming a priority in Software engineering curricula as a result of the increasing use of agile methods (AMs) such as Scrum in the software industry. Limitations in time, scope, and facilities within academic contexts hinder students' hands‐on experience in the use of professional AMs. To enhance students' exposure to Scrum, we have developed Virtual Scrum, an educational virtual world that simulates a Scrum‐based team room through virtual elements such as blackboards, a Web browser, document viewers, charts, and a calendar. A preliminary version of Virtual Scrum was tested with a group of 45 students running a capstone project with and without Virtual Scrum support. Students' feedback showed that Virtual Scrum is a viable and effective tool to implement the different elements in a Scrum team room and to perform activities throughout the Scrum process. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 999: XX–XX, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21588 © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:147–156, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21588

Teaching Agile Software Engineering Using Problem-Based Learning

Many studies have reported the utilization of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in teaching Software Engineering courses. However, these studies have different views of the effectiveness of PBL. This paper presents the design of an Advanced Software Engineering course for undergraduate Software Engineering students that uses PBL to teach them Agile software development methods- particularly Scrum. The course also aims to develop entrepreneurial skills needed for software engineering graduates to better prepare them for the software industry. The assessment process designed for this course is illustrated. The paper shows that Scrum practices correlate with the characteristics of the PBL approach, which has resulted in a successful experience of PBL as reported by students in an end of a semester survey.

Exploring the Educational Benefits of Introducing Aspect-Oriented Programming Into a Programming Course

This paper explores the educational benefits of introducing the aspect-oriented programming paradigm into a programming course in a study on a sample of 75 undergraduate software engineering students. It discusses how using the aspect-oriented paradigm, in addition to the object-oriented programming paradigm, affects students' programs, their exam results, and their overall perception of the theoretically claimed benefits of aspect-oriented programming. The research methodology, consisting of automating the analysis of student-created computer programs, administering surveys, and collecting exam results, provided an objective measurement of the benefits of the paradigm for novice programmers, as well as evaluating their perception of its usefulness. The results show that the use of aspect-oriented programming as a supplement to object-oriented programming enhances the productivity of novice program code software engineering students and leads to increased understanding of theoretical concepts. Students readily accepted the new paradigm and recognized its benefits.

Pilot Study of Industry Perspective on Requirement Engineering Education: Measurement of Rasch Analysis

Software development industry identifies that human-based give a significant problem in Requirement Engineering. To that reason, education gives a substantial impact in delivering a skill worker and should be a medium to reduce the problem. Survey question was distributed among ICT for this pilot study to the organization of MSC status in Malaysia for pilot study. 15.53% (N = 32) respondent successfully return their respond back. The result shows that only 27 person is analyzed regarding to misfit data provided by Rasch Measurement Model. The unidimensionality, person-item map and misfit data are discussed. Research objective to identify the undergraduate problem in Requirement Engineering education is achieved. Future work will be discussed on further analysis on actual survey to improve employability skill among software engineering undergraduate students.

Extreme programming promotes extreme learning?

Extreme programming (XP) is an agile methodology claimed to promote the rapid development of software systems, enabling the accommodation of changing customer requirements during the project lifecycle without excessive cost penalties. The mechanisms used to achieve this require the software development team to maintain accurate tacit knowledge through extensive face-to-face communication and peer learning. This characteristic of XP, the authors argue, makes it a suitable tool in the teaching of new technologies to software engineering students. This is borne out by feedback from a group of fourth-year Master of Engineering (MEng) software engineering undergraduate students who undertook an XP-based project as part of their course. Furthermore, the authors argue that the methodology is best taught in its full form through group project work. This is most effective when undertaken in the latter years of a computer science or software engineering course, after the students have been exposed to more traditional, plan-based methodologies.

MUSE studio lab and innovative software engineering capstone project experience

This paper presents our rationale in setting up an innovative studio lab called the MUSE (Monash University Software Engineering) Studio Lab for our final year undergraduate Software Engineering students in 2002, an evaluation of the outcomes for 2002 and plans for 2003 and beyond. We describe the Monash University Software Engineering (MUSE) Strategy to make the MUSE culture and MUSE agile process branding visible through the MUSE Studio Lab for the learners, academics, management and the outside world of academia and industry. This strategy is aimed at supporting a continuum of learning styles in three units in the final year of our Bachelor of Software Engineering Program. The teaching/learning model used is a predominantly constructivist/student-centered/active learning approach for the Capstone SE project (Studio unit), and a constructivist approach for the Honours Research thesis unit. A more traditional teaching approach is used for the Systems Validation, Verification, Quality &amp; Standards unit based on traditional instructional design model which is objectivist in view of learning. We also provide details of the the middle weight process that student groups follow in their full year SE Capstone project. At MUSE Studio, we have fused pedagogy with technology.