- Title
- Reflection and guided problem-based learning in software engineering
- Creator
- Brankovic, Ljiljana; Ye, Huilin; Reynolds, Michael
- Relation
- 24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE2013). Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE2013) (Gold Coast, Qld 8-11 December, 2013)
- Relation
- http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/australasian-association-engineering-education/2013-annual-conference
- Publisher
- Giffifth University
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Backgound: The context of this study is a Software Engineering Project, taught in the 3rd year of BEng(Software) at the University of Newcastle in 2011/2012. This is a two-semester course where the students work in teams of 4-5 members to develop a real-life software application – FlightPub, a website where customers can search for and book airline flights, as well as become members and collect loyalty points. To succeed in such a challenging project, students need to apply all the knowledge assimilated in their previous years, as well as to acquire other knowledge and practical skills necessary for successful completion of the project. Contact hours consisted of a two hour lecture, a two hour workshop and a 30 minute mentor meeting for each of the teams separately, per week. Purpose: The Software Engineering Project is a challenging course both for students and teaching staff, as the tasks are open ended and teams are required to work more independently then in any of their previous courses, and thus new teaching approaches needed to be explored and/or developed, that would better facilitate student learning. Design/Method: To support the students’ needs, we developed ‘guided problem based learning’ and adopted reflective learning approaches, both of which were assessed individually, rather than as a team. Guided problem based learning was utilised mostly for exploring and adopting software tools, such as version control, software frameworks, and project management software, whereas reflective learning was assessed in the form of a reflective journal within the final report. We evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching methods based on the overall success of the software performance, the extent to which software tools were used in the project, as well as formal and informal feedback from the students. Results: Guided problem based learning is an effective learning approach in project based software engineering, while reflection is extremely valuable in improving the problem solving and decision making skills of students involved in the software development process. Conclusions: Problem based learning naturally lends itself to software engineering projects, as the initial requirements are somewhat ill defined and all learning is in the service of accomplishing the job. However, pure problem based learning may not be suitable for software engineering projects, as students may find themselves overwhelmed by the complexity of the project and the diversity of possible directions, and thus guided problem based learning appears as a valuable alternative approach.
- Subject
- software engineering project; problem-based learning; reflective learning
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1307408
- Identifier
- uon:21415
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780992409906
- Language
- eng
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