Automating the process of measuring complexity of Java programming assignment

Programming is a complex intellectual activity and a core skill for first year IT students. Several researches have shown that most students often write programs without considering the quality of the program. Due to this matter, an automatic assessment system has become one of the most important tools to evaluate and grade programming assignment including judgments of the quality of programming solutions.Besides considering the correctness of the output program, the automatic assessment system also focuses on the complexity factor in ensuring the consistency and accuracy of the hand-marking programming assignments and improve the quality of students’ programming solution.This study is proposed as an effort to assist lecturers of the Introductory Java Programming course in evaluating and grading program assignments by considering the complexity factor.Besides selected traditional software metrics such Lines Of Code and Cyclomatic Complexity, several object-oriented metrics are adopted to measure the program complexity namely, Respond For a Class (RFC), Number of properties (SIZE2), Number of classes (NCL), Operation Complexity (OpCom), Operation Argument Complexity (OAC) and Attributes Complexity (AC). Specific score and weight will be given for each selected metric as a measurement of the program complexity.The summary of report that contains a complexity analysis and complexity mark awarded to the student will be generated automatically using a developed prototype.Thus, this approach will be implemented to provide a tool in order to improve the process of evaluating the Introductory of Java programming assignment for the Faculty of Information Technology

The Influence of Knowledge Visualization on Externalizing Tacit Knowledge

The process of teaching and learning suffers from poor conceptualizations of tacit knowledge to be explicit. This paper interprets and externalizes lecturer tacit knowledge based on knowledge visualization approach. Externalization process is a process of converting tacit knowledge such as ideas and experiences into written form so that it can be transferrred to the students. Thus knowledge visualization is used as an approach to externalize lecturer tacit knowledge through teaching material to be shared among the students. An exploratory research is adapted to discuss the issue of externalization process based on knowledge visualization approach. A conceptual framework is developed which provides an analytical perspective on externalizing tacit knowledge. The results of this study reveal that knowledge visualization is one of the approaches to convert lecturer tacit knowledge to student explicit knowledge in teaching and learning process

Pair programming in inducing knowledge sharing

The Pair programming as a part of the Agile software development has been gaining acceptance among practitioners and software development community.This successful leads a wide use of pair programming in educational setting as pedagogy in programming course.Pair programming can foster knowledge sharing among students.Many studies have been done with pair programming in education however most of them do not highlight internalized knowledge particularly tacit knowledge from knowledge sharing processes between students who act as driver and navigator in pair programming practice.Thus, this paper will discuss knowledge internalization based on the knowledge sharing activities in pair programming practices by employing the process of Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization (SECI).The sample of the study consisted of 60 students who were actively engaged in pair programming practices.The factors investigated were types of internalized tacit knowledge in the form of learning, thinking and decision making skills among the students. Online questionnaires were adapted from SECI model into educational context.T Test technique was used to analyze the data.This study is expected to contribute a better understanding of important knowledge sharing activities to construct student’s skills during Internalization process through pair programming.This study’s result will be considered for future rigorous theoretical framework for constructing tacit knowledge among the students in pair programming environment

Knowledge internalization in pair programming practices

Pair programming practice has been widely used as a pedagogical approach in educational setting specifically in the programming course.Most pair programming studies agree that this practice can foster knowledge sharing among students.However, the studies do not highlight knowledge internationalization during pair programming practice. Therefore, this paper will discuss knowledge internalization based on tacit knowledge that occurs from knowledge sharing activities in pair programming practices.This is achieved by employing the process of Socialization, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization (SECI) in the form of learning, thinking and decision-making skills among the students.119 participants were actively engaged in the pair programming practice in this study.The participants were required to answer questionnaires, which were adapted from the SECI model to suit the educational context. Statistical t-test was used to analyse the data.The results showed that pair programming was able to promote knowledge internationalization in the thinking process.This study contributes to a better understanding of important knowledge sharing activities to construct student’s skills during the internalization process through pair programming. Future works will be focused into a rigorous theoretical framework for constructing tacit knowledge among the students in pair programming environment

Coverage Criteria for UML State Chart Diagram in Model-based Testing

Software testing is a necessary and essential part of the software quality process and plays a major role in detecting errors in systems. To improve the effectiveness of test case generation during software testing, and with the growing adoption of UML by software developers and researchers, many studies have focused on the automation of test case generation from UML diagrams. One of these diagrams is the UML state chart diagram. These test cases are generally generated to achieve certain coverage criteria. However, combinations of multiple criteria are required to achieve better coverage. Different studies use various number and type of coverage criteria in their methods and approaches. This paper reviews previous studies to present the most practical coverage criteria combinations for UML state chart diagram, including all-states, all-transitions, all-transition-pairs and all-loop-free-paths coverage. A special calculation is necessary to determine the coverage percentage of the proposed coverage criteria. This paper presents a calculation method to achieve this goal with an example is applied to a UML state chart diagram. This finding would be beneficial in the area of automatic test case generating for model-based testing and especially in the UML state chart diagram

Knowledge transfer of the wireless healthcare application in rural community: A case study in Baling, Kedah

Healthcare system in rural area is equally as important as who live in the urban or modern city counterparts.Due to geographically difficulty to access by the modern transportation, wireless communication is one of the possible approaches to reach these areas.On the key aspect is the infrastructure reliability to securing knowledge transfer amongst knowledge of the rural society.This study is to determine the readiness of the rural communities in accepting wireless healthcare applications for the effective transfer of acquired knowledge from healthcare expertise to the rural communities.The instruments were developed and survey was conducted in rural area of Baling, Kedah. 435 questionnaires have been distributed and only 245 are qualified to be analyzed using quantitative analysis.The result shows that the rural communities are appreciate and long-wait with this new type of technology in helping them to improve the healthcare rural system even though the wireless infrastructure is hindering

Coverage criteria for UML state chart diagram in model-based testing

Software testing is a necessary and essential part of the software quality process and plays a major role in detecting errors in systems. To improve the effectiveness of test case generation during software testing, and with the growing adoption of UML by software developers and researchers, many studies have focused on the automation of test case generation from UML diagrams. One of these diagrams is the UML state chart diagram. These test cases are generally generated to achieve certain coverage criteria. However, combinations of multiple criteria are required to achieve better coverage. Different studies use various number and type of coverage criteria in their methods and approaches. This paper reviews previous studies to present the most practical coverage criteria combinations for UML state chart diagram, including all-states, all-transitions, all-transition-pairs and all-loop-free-paths coverage. A special calculation is necessary to determine the coverage percentage of the proposed coverage criteria. This paper presents a calculation method to achieve this goal with an example is applied to a UML state chart diagram. This finding would be beneficial in the area of automatic test case generating for model-based testing and especially in the UML state chart diagram

The influence of digital communication Technology on University Branding: an understanding of open and distance learning (odl) from students’ perspectives

Open and distance learning (ODL) refers to flexible educational opportunities regarding access and various knowledge acquisition methods. In the era of digital communication technologies, ODL offers flexible, self-directed learning techniques and comprehensive and engaging learning content. Most students at the Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) Universiti Utara Malaysia are working adults, meaning students would have to balance their employment and studies. It is a competitive industry, with each institution endeavouring to provide exceptional services to its stakeholders. The objectives of our study are 1) to understand students’ perceptions of PACE, particularly in ODL, and 2) to explore the motivation for students’ value co-creation, particularly in ODL. This study employed a qualitative method approach, namely, focus group discussions. The informants were current students from various learning centres (e.g., UUM Sintok, KL, JB, etc.). Our findings discovered four main themes for the perception of ODL students: communication engagement, service-dominant mindset, student experience, and knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, the motivation for students’ value co-creation in ODL is mainly because of attitude, active participants, facilities, satisfaction, brand loyalty and brand image. Our study provides some insights into value co-creation and how to position PACE's reputation in the minds of its stakeholders. As such, our findings were significant for PACE to communicate its corporate branding, and students may be more inclined to study at the university

Trends and Emerging Areas of Agile Research: the Report on XP2014 PhD Symposium

The PhD symposium of XP2014, the 15th International Conference on Agile Software Development, was organized as a half-day event prior to the main conference program. Seven PhD candidates came from different research institutes across the globe to present their own research proposals at the symposium. The symposium was run in a lively and interactive manner. The candidates received constructive feedback on their proposals from all the symposium participants. In this report we describe the presented proposals, focusing on the content and feedback. Through them we can take a peek at the trends and emerging areas of agile research in the coming years

Expertise Coordination for Agile Software Development Projects

Agile software development projects rely on the diversity of team members’ expertise. This expertise, however, is not adequate on its own: it is important to leverage available expertise through expertise coordination. Expertise coordination requires team members to rely on each other for recognizing who has particular expertise, when and where they are needed, and how to access the expertise effectively. Agile teams also need to rely on outside expertise such as user experience designers, architects, and database administrators. This thesis presents a theory of expertise coordination in Agile Software Development projects. We employed semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis in a Grounded Theory study involving 48 Agile practitioners and external specialists. This study discovered three main categories of expertise coordination: processes of expertise coordination, strategies of managing external expertise, and management roles in supporting expertise coordination. The theory provides a new insight into how Agile teams coordinate internal and external expertise, how they utilize external specialists and outsourcers’ expertise, and how management can support expertise coordination