Using a wiki to facilitate learning on a Requirements Engineering course

In this paper, we describe the introduction of a wiki for collaborative activities in a Requirements Engineering course offered at a distance to part-time learners. The paper describes the course and how wiki activities were incorporated. The paper then discusses the initial feedback from the students which shows that the wiki has been largely effective for developing students' understanding of the course concepts, the effectiveness of team working in Requirements Engineering and the use of wikis in practice. However, there are particular issues related to asynchronous working in distance education/eLearning that need to be better addressed. We conclude with a discussion of how we are tackling these issues and developing the use of the wiki on the course based on the students' feedba

Troubling identities: race, place and positionality among young people in two towns in Northern England

Central to the post-2001 British policy shift from multiculturalism to community cohesion is the assumption that the disturbances were the product of youth identities that were shaped by ‘parallel lives’, and that there is a need for increased contact between communities. There is evidence to support the notion that many young British people, particularly in areas of significant ethnic physical segregation, favour distinct and racialised identifications, although the positional and situational nature of youth identification is sometimes under-stated. This paper draws on research techniques based on word association, carried out in Oldham and Rochdale, two towns in Greater Manchester often portrayed as epitomising ethnic segregation. The research provides some evidence regarding ways in which young people view the ‘other’ in relation to their self-identification, and also how they perceive their town and area. The research suggests that the factors structuring the development of identifications and categorizations are complex and multi-layered, but that, although there is evidence of negative views of ‘out groups’ held by both white and muslim young people, the latter group have more positive place attachments, and attitudes towards multi-culturalism. The findings suggest that the context in which contact between groups takes place may be important for the success of enhanced contact as a strategy

Kirklees Community Cohesion Action Research: Interim Report

This report provides an interim summary of a collaboration between Kirklees Authority, Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, and a research team from the University of Huddersfield. In this document, we report the main points arising from the project, together with summaries of some of the data. A full analysis of the very considerable amount of data gathered will be produced at the conclusion of the project. As it is not the final version of the report, the authors would be grateful if permission could be sought before drawing on the findings or making direct quotation

Automatic assessment of sequence diagrams

In previous work we showed how student-produced entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) could be automatically marked with good accuracy when compared with human markers. In this paper we report how effective the same techniques are when applied to syntactically similar UML sequence diagrams and discuss some issues that arise which did not occur with ERDs. We have found that, on a corpus of 100 student-drawn sequence diagrams, the automatic marking technique is more reliable that human markers. In addition, an analysis of this corpus revealed significant syntax errors in student-drawn sequence diagrams. We used the information obtained from the analysis to build a tool that not only detects syntax errors but also provides feedback in diagrammatic form. The tool has been extended to incorporate the automatic marker to provide a revision tool for learning how to model with sequence diagrams

Toward the automated assessment of entity-relationship diagrams

The need to interpret imprecise diagrams (those with malformed, missing or extraneous features) occurs in the automated assessment of diagrams. We outline our proposal for an architecture to enable the interpretation of imprecise diagrams. We discuss our preliminary work on an assessment tool, developed within this architecture, for automatically grading answers to a computer architecture examination question. Early indications are that performance is similar to that of human markers. We will be using Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) as the primary application area for our investigation of automated assessment. This paper will detail our reasons for choosing this area and outline the work ahead

Traceability and AOSD - From Requirements to Aspects

The traceability question is addressed through the development of a framework to go from requirements to aspects using the Design by Contract methodology. It is demonstrated that by starting at the requirements stage, and specifying an early aspect in the same semi-formal language as the system's existing requirements, we have the basis from which to design the aspects at the implementation stage. The language of pre- and post-conditions is shown to match closely that of aspects, in that pre-conditions match the aspect's pointcut, and the post-condition matches the advice part of the aspect. This thus gives us traceability from 'early aspects' to 'late aspects'. This approach will shed some light on the relationship between requirements and their refinements to pre- and post conditions, and the traceability of requirements in the face of reuse over time. The addition of a new crosscutting requirement is investigated in terms of the framework, demonstrating the relationship between early and late aspects and traceability. The framework promises to help with the design of the late aspects. We propose the concept of relevancy: information in a requirement beyond its specification as pre- and post-conditions, as a way of identifying join points

Wikis supporting authentic, collaborative activities: lessons in usability

The Open University delivers distance learning to its students. Traditionally, its students work independently of each other. Looking to enhance their students learning, two postgraduate courses have introduced authentic, collaborative activities. This is easier to achieve now because of the availability of wikis: a lightweight, web-based collaborative authoring environment. This paper examines the effect of the wikis’ functionality on the students’ use of the tool, and the consequences for the students’ engagement with the activities and learning opportunities. This is a relatively large scale study involving 56 wikis produced by over 250 students. The data was drawn from the two courses using a variety of methods. A qualitative inductive analysis was used to look for emergent themes. These were validated by cross referencing, to match recorded comments with wiki content. We found that the limited functionality of wikis influenced how students engaged with the collaborative activities. While all groups were able to collaboratively author the documents required for assessment, they were not always produced in the way intended by the course teams. This meant the expected benefits of collaborative learning were not always realised. This paper will be of interest to academics aspiring to employ wikis on their courses and to practitioners who wish to realise the potential of wikis in facilitating information sharing and fostering collaboration within teams

Wikis supporting authentic, collaborative activities: lessons from distance education

The Open University delivers distance learning to its students. Traditionally, its students work independently of each other. Looking to enhance their students learning, two postgraduate courses have introduced authentic, collaborative activities. This is easier to achieve now because of the availability of wikis: a lightweight, web-based collaborative authoring environment. This paper examines the effect of the wikis’ functionality on the students’ use of the tool, and the consequences for the students’ engagement with the activities and learning opportunities. This is a relatively large scale study involving 56 wikis produced by over 250 students. The data was drawn from the two courses using a variety of methods. A qualitative inductive analysis was used to look for emergent themes. These were validated by cross referencing, to match recorded comments with wiki content. We found that the limited functionality of wikis influenced how students engaged with the collaborative activities. While all groups were able to collaboratively author the documents required for assessment, they were not always produced in the way intended by the course teams. This meant the expected benefits of collaborative learning were not always realised. This paper will be of interest to academics aspiring to employ wikis on their courses and to practitioners who wish to realise the potential of wikis in facilitating information sharing and fostering collaboration within teams