Using a coach to improve team performance when the team uses a Kanban process methodology

Teams are increasing their use of the Kanban process methodology across a range of information system projects, including software development and data science projects. While the use of Kanban is growing, little has been done to explore how to improve team performance for teams that use Kanban. One possibility is to introduce a Kanban Coach (KC). This work reports on exploring the use of a Kanban Coach, with respect to both how the coach could interact with the team as well as how the use of a coach impacts team results. Specifically, this paper reports on an experiment where teams either had, or did not have, a Kanban Coach. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected during the experiment found that introducing KC led to significant improvement of team performance. Coordination Theory and Shared Mental Models were then employed to provide an explanation as to why a KC leads to better project results. While this experiment was done within a data science project context, the results are likely applicable across a range of information system projects

Using a coach to improve team performance when the team uses a Kanban process methodology

Teams are increasing their use of the Kanban process methodology across a range of information system projects, including software development and data science projects. While the use of Kanban is growing, little has been done to explore how to improve team performance for teams that use Kanban. One possibility is to introduce a Kanban Coach (KC). This work reports on exploring the use of a Kanban Coach, with respect to both how the coach could interact with the team as well as how the use of a coach impacts team results. Specifically, this paper reports on an experiment where teams either had, or did not have, a Kanban Coach. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected during the experiment found that introducing KC led to significant improvement of team performance. Coordination Theory and Shared Mental Models were then employed to provide an explanation as to why a KC leads to better project results. While this experiment was done within a data science project context, the results are likely applicable across a range of information system projects

Formal Reasoning Using an Iterative Approach with an Integrated Web IDE

This paper summarizes our experience in communicating the elements of reasoning about correctness, and the central role of formal specifications in reasoning about modular, component-based software using a language and an integrated Web IDE designed for the purpose. Our experience in using such an IDE, supported by a 'push-button' verifying compiler in a classroom setting, reveals the highly iterative process learners use to arrive at suitably specified, automatically provable code. We explain how the IDE facilitates reasoning at each step of this process by providing human readable verification conditions (VCs) and feedback from an integrated prover that clearly indicates unprovable VCs to help identify obstacles to completing proofs. The paper discusses the IDE's usage in verified software development using several examples drawn from actual classroom lectures and student assignments to illustrate principles of design-by-contract and the iterative process of creating and subsequently refining assertions, such as loop invariants in object-based code.Comment: In Proceedings F-IDE 2015, arXiv:1508.0338

Leveraging Final Degree Projects for Open Source Software Contributions

(1) Background: final year students of computer science engineering degrees must carry out a final degree project (FDP) in order to graduate. Students’ contributions to improve open source software (OSS) through FDPs can offer multiple benefits and challenges, both for the students, the instructors and for the project itself. This work reports on a practical experience developed by four students contributing to mature OSS projects during their FDPs, detailing how they addressed the multiple challenges involved, both from the students and teachers perspective. (2) Methods: we followed the work of four students contributing to two established OSS projects for two academic years and analyzed their work on GitHub and their responses to a survey. (3) Results: we obtained a set of specific recommendations for future practitioners and detailed a list of benefits achieved by steering FDP towards OSS contributions, for students, teachers and the OSS projects. (4) Conclusions: we find out that FDPs oriented towards enhancing OSS projects can introduce students into real-world, practical examples of software engineering principles, give them a boost in their confidence about their technical and communication skills and help them build a portfolio of contributions to daily used worldwide open source applications

Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses

Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed. However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all involved parties. Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders. Key Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other groups involved in the courses. Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the interaction...Comment: Abstract shortened since arxiv.org limits length of abstracts. See paper/pdf for full abstract. Paper is forthcoming, accepted August 2017. Arxiv version 2 corrects misspelled author nam

A Closer Look into Recent Video-based Learning Research: A Comprehensive Review of Video Characteristics, Tools, Technologies, and Learning Effectiveness

People increasingly use videos on the Web as a source for learning. To support this way of learning, researchers and developers are continuously developing tools, proposing guidelines, analyzing data, and conducting experiments. However, it is still not clear what characteristics a video should have to be an effective learning medium. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of 257 articles on video-based learning for the period from 2016 to 2021. One of the aims of the review is to identify the video characteristics that have been explored by previous work. Based on our analysis, we suggest a taxonomy which organizes the video characteristics and contextual aspects into eight categories: (1) audio features, (2) visual features, (3) textual features, (4) instructor behavior, (5) learners activities, (6) interactive features (quizzes, etc.), (7) production style, and (8) instructional design. Also, we identify four representative research directions: (1) proposals of tools to support video-based learning, (2) studies with controlled experiments, (3) data analysis studies, and (4) proposals of design guidelines for learning videos. We find that the most explored characteristics are textual features followed by visual features, learner activities, and interactive features. Text of transcripts, video frames, and images (figures and illustrations) are most frequently used by tools that support learning through videos. The learner activity is heavily explored through log files in data analysis studies, and interactive features have been frequently scrutinized in controlled experiments. We complement our review by contrasting research findings that investigate the impact of video characteristics on the learning effectiveness, report on tasks and technologies used to develop tools that support learning, and summarize trends of design guidelines to produce learning video

A blended learning approach for teaching computer programming : design for large classes in Sub-Saharan Africa

The challenge of teaching programming in higher education is complicated by problems associated with large class teaching, a prevalent situation in many developing countries. This paper reports on an investigation into the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning of programming in a class of more than 200 students. A course and learning environment was designed by integrating constructivist learning models of Constructive Alignment, Conversational Framework and the Three- Stage Learning Model. Design science research is used for the course redesign and development of the learning environment, and action research is integrated to undertake participatory evaluation of the intervention. The action research involved the Students’ Approach to Learning survey, a comparative analysis of students’ performance, and qualitative data analysis of data gathered from various sources. The paper makes a theoretical contribution in presenting a design of a blended learning solution for large class teaching of programming grounded in constructivist learning theory and use of free and open source technologies.NORAD project of Hawassa University from the third phase of a Norwegian Government-supported project.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ncse20hb201

Toward Competency-Based Professional Accreditation in Computing

Program accreditation in medical or religious professions has existedsince the 1800s while accreditation of business and engineeringprograms started in the early twentieth century. With this long history,these disciplines have focused on ensuring the competence oftheir graduates, as modern society demands appropriate expertisefrom doctors and engineers before letting them practice their profession.In computing, however, professional accreditation startedin the last decades of the twentieth century only after computerscience, informatics, and information systems programs becamewidespread. At the same time, although competency-based learninghas existed for centuries, its growth in computing is relativelynew, resulting from recent curricular reports such as ComputingCurricula 2020, which have defined competency comprising knowledge,skills, and dispositions. In addition, demands are being placedon university programs to ensure their graduates are ready forentering and sustaining employment in the computing profession.This work explores the role of accreditation in the formationand development of professional competency in non-computingdisciplines worldwide, building on this understanding to see howcomputing accreditation bodies could play a similar role in computing.This work explores the role of accreditation in the formationand development of professional competency in non-computingdisciplines worldwide, building on this understanding to see howcomputing accreditation bodies could play a similar role in computing.Its recommendations are to incorporate competencies inall computing programs and future curricular guidelines; create competency-based models for computing programs; involve industryin identifying workplace competencies, and ensure accreditationbodies include competencies and their assessment in their standards

Test-Driven Learning in High School Computer Science

Test-driven development is a style of software development that emphasizes writing tests first and running them frequently with the aid of automated testing tools. This development style is widely used in the software development industry to improve the rate of development while reducing software defects. Some computer science educators are adopting the test-driven development approach to help improve student understanding and performance on programming projects. Several studies have examined the benefits of teaching test-driven programming techniques to undergraduate student programmers, with generally positive results. However, the usage of test-driven learning at the high school level has not been studied to the same extent. This thesis investigates the use of test-driven learning in high school computer science classes and whether test-driven learning provides benefits for high school as well as college students