16,899 research outputs found
Opiskelijoiden valmistaminen työelämään yliopiston sisäisen ohjelmisto-startupin avulla
Tertiary education aims to prepare computer science students for the working life. While much of the technical principles are covered in lower-level courses, team-based capstone projects are a common way to provide students hands-on experience and teach soft skills. Although such courses help students to gain some of the relevant skills, it is difficult to simulate in a course context what work in a professional software engineering team really is about.
Our goal is to understand ways tertiary education institutions prepare students for the working life in software engineering. Firstly, we do this by focusing on the mechanisms that software engineering capstones use to simulate work-life. A literature review of 85 primary studies was conducted for this overview. Secondly, we present a more novel way of teaching industry-relevant skills in an university-lead internal software startup. A case study of such a startup, Software Development Academy (SDA), is presented, along with the experiences of both students and faculty involved in it. Finally, we look into how these approaches might differ.
Results indicate that capstone courses differ greatly in ways they are organized. Most often students are divided in teams of 4–6 and get assigned with software projects that the teams then develop from an idea to a robust proof-of-concept. In contrast, students employed in the SDA develop production-level software in exchange for a salary for university clients. Students regarded SDA as a highly relevant and fairly irreplaceable educational experience. Working with production-quality software and having a wide range of responsibilities was perceived integral in giving a thorough skill set for the future.
In conclusion, capstones and the internal startup both aim to prepare students for the work-life in software engineering. Capstones do it by simulating professional software engineering in a one-semester experience in a course environment. The internal startup adds a touch of realism to this by being actual work in a relatively safe university context
Evaluation of students' capstone software development projects
Capstone projects are important part of engineering education studies in software development field. In the project, a student team implements a software product usually for a company. Because of group work, complex project topics and external stakeholders, evaluation of students’ work is challenging. Our studied project course is aimed for Master’s students, during their last year of studies. It is compilation of all information and competence what students have learned during their studies in computer science so far. In this paper, we introduce a new detailed evaluation model for software engineering capstone projects. The model has the following main dimensions: project and process quality (e.g. completeness, usability and documentation), schedule (analysed kept agreements) and customer satisfaction (feedback e.g. about implemented features, functionality, easiness to maintain and communication and co-operation with the project team). Furthermore and big part of project evaluation, students can be seen as valuable asset to give feedback to themself and to each other, as well as for evaluating the project itself as part of their professional development. We have tested the evaluation model with over 25 projects and 146 students during two academic years, and the benefits of the model are more clear and transparent requirements in addition to fair credits to students. There may be variation within a project group both on the credit units and grade.publishedVersionPeer reviewe
Scrum2Kanban: Integrating Kanban and Scrum in a University Software Engineering Capstone Course
Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development
methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in
professional software development. This usually means students are introduced
to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However,
as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to
different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of
this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the
industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the
hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone
project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent
process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how
agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the
course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our
observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during
the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We
further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for
future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed
an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of
Kanban into the course
Evaluation of team dynamic in Norwegian projects for IT students
The need for teaching realistic software development in project courses has
increased in a global scale. It has always been challenges in cooperating
fast-changing software technologies, development methodologies and teamwork.
Moreover, such project courses need to be designed in the connection to
existing theoretical courses. We performed a large-scale research on student
performance in Software Engineering projects in Norwegian universities. This
paper investigates four aspects of team dynamics, which are team reflection,
leadership, decision making and task assignment in order to improve student
learning. Data was collected from student projects in 4 years at two
universities. We found that some leader's characteristics are perceived
differently for female and male leaders, including the perception of leaders as
skilful workers or visionaries. Leadership is still a challenging aspect to
teach, and assigned leadership is probably not the best way to learn. Students
is are performing well in task review, however, needs support while performing
task assignment. The result also suggests that task management to be done in
more fine-grained levels. It is also important to maintain an open and active
discussion to facilitate effective group decision makings
Latin American perspectives to internationalize undergraduate information technology education
The computing education community expects modern curricular guidelines for information technology (IT) undergraduate degree programs by 2017. The authors of this work focus on eliciting and analyzing Latin American academic and industry perspectives on IT undergraduate education. The objective is to ensure that the IT curricular framework in the IT2017 report articulates the relationship between academic preparation and the work environment of IT graduates in light of current technological and educational trends in Latin America and elsewhere. Activities focus on soliciting and analyzing survey data collected from institutions and consortia in IT education and IT professional and educational societies in Latin America; these activities also include garnering the expertise of the authors. Findings show that IT degree programs are making progress in bridging the academic-industry gap, but more work remains
Benefits of Industry Involvement in Multidisciplinary Capstone Design Courses
Opportunities for industry involvement in capstone design courses go beyond industry sponsorship of capstone design projects. Representatives from industry can serve as guest lecturers, curriculum advisors, and design project sponsors and team mentors. Since 2000, industry participation has been a core part of the capstone design course at Marquette University. Practicing engineers provide a relevant, practical real-world perspective of their topic, reinforcing its importance to professional engineering practice. Students and faculty benefit from the up-to-date treatment of the topic provided by guest speakers from industry who have expertise in the topic and are willing to share their experiences with students. Students benefit from industry sponsorship of senior design projects through the opportunity to work on realworld problems of importance to industry, exposure to industry and company-specific project management and product development processes, and familiarity with economic, legal, and regulatory design constraints. This paper provides a brief description of the Multidisciplinary Capstone Design course at Marquette University, examples of industry involvement in the course, and the observed benefits of industry involvement to students, the university, and industry participants. It presents examples of current practices used at other schools as well as helpful recommendations for managing industry participation in capstone design courses
Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Data Science
The Park City Math Institute (PCMI) 2016 Summer Undergraduate Faculty Program
met for the purpose of composing guidelines for undergraduate programs in Data
Science. The group consisted of 25 undergraduate faculty from a variety of
institutions in the U.S., primarily from the disciplines of mathematics,
statistics and computer science. These guidelines are meant to provide some
structure for institutions planning for or revising a major in Data Science
Guest Editorial: The 2014 Capstone Design Conference
The goal of the 2014 Capstone Design Conference held in Columbus, OH was to build upon the success of three previous conferences (2007 and 2010 in Boulder, CO, and 2012 in Champaign, IL) and expand the community of educators, students, and industry members engaged in discussing, analyzing, and improving capstone design education. Sessions at the 2014 Capstone Design Conference were designed for vibrant sharing of ideas and experiences across the capstone community via interactive panel sessions, poster session socials, and hands-on workshops. This editorial discusses conference planning, structure, and feedback. Technical papers that follow in this issue document scholarship surrounding noteworthy capstone course innovations. Most of these began as four page peer-reviewed papers included in the conference proceedings
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