With a goal of preparing software engineering
students for practice in today’s global settings, Uppsala
University has for some years run courses involving global
collaboration. The “IT in Society” course is one such course
which applies an ‘Open Ended Group Project’ model, in
partnership with a local health sector client and global
educational partners. Within each iteration of the course,
students across the partnering institutions are given a brief
around an open-ended problem. They work in collaboration
with their client and stakeholders to investigate options and
produce a report with their findings and recommendations,
informed by global perspectives. The report may or may not be
supported by working software prototypes. We analyze student
evaluations & reflections on the course to unpack their
perceptions of software engineering, the perceived relevance of
a global learning experience and its role in reshaping their
identities as global software engineers
