Axel Böttcher

Identifying base competencies as prerequisites for software engineering education

Over the recent years, we experienced that a significant percentage of first-year students shows difficulties in acquiring even introductory software development knowledge, as well as in coping with the study process itself. In most cases, the core problem is not a lack of general intellectual capacity, but rather significant deficiencies in certain base competencies (i.e. self-, practical and cognitive as well as social competencies). We imply that these base competencies are crucial for successfully studying computer science or related topics. In order to identify these base competencies, we collected a superset of competencies from literature, structured this set, and performed filtering and clustering steps, resulting in almost 100 remaining base competencies that are relevant in our teaching context. As it is impossible for any lecturer to develop all these competencies in a single effort, we finally boiled this set down to a selection of those competencies that we deem to be most relevant for successfully studying software related topics at university level. Towards this end, for each competence, we defined what we the lecturers expect from our incoming freshmen students. In addition, we specified the skill level expected by the job market. Furthermore, we assessed the skill level of those 70% of our students that have obvious difficulties in coping with study requirements. Finally, we selected those competencies with a large difference between what is expected from our graduates and what we find in our incoming cohort. This analysis resulted in a selection of 27 competencies that we deem to be highly essential prerequisites for software engineering education, and which are not sufficiently well developed in the vast majority of freshmen students. For each of these base competencies we provide definitions and denote reasons for their selection.

On analyzing the effectiveness of Just-in-Time Teaching

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is an activating teaching method that is highly popular in todays university education systems. In this paper, we use the experience we made using JiTT during two semesters to analyze the effectiveness of this teaching method.

On feedback techniques for the evaluation of teaching effectiveness

For us a lecturers, it is important to assess early on in a class whether we effectively reach our students and create the desired teaching outcome. Usually, the major assessment is some kind of exam which takes place at the end of term - and thus at a time when it is generally too late to change anything. Instead, lecturers need a toolset of different feedback and evaluation techniques that provide feedback as required, at different intervals throughout term, adequate for different teaching settings and group sizes, and with a reasonable amount of time and effort required from all parties involved. To help choose a suitable feedback technique for a specific teaching context, we introduce a classification scheme for feedback techniques. On this basis, we rate a variety of well-established feedback techniques, thus making it possible to select those feedback techniques that best suit ones individual needs.

Evaluation of Java-based open source web frameworks with Ajax support

Web frameworks are widely used in web applications to lower development effort and ease maintenance. The large number of Java1 web frameworks makes it hard to decide for one. A systematic approach is necessary to come to an optimal decision under given requirements and conditions. For this work, 110 Java web frameworks were gathered; 13 of them were analyzed by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The result is a systematic approach towards a selection guidance for a Java web framework within a particular project. The list of Java web frameworks and the goal hierarchy can be reused, adopted and extended as required. The process described in this paper enables project leaders and developers to do their own comparisons - it is not limited to evaluation of Java Web frameworks. The AHP, as described here, allows a decision maker to adjust the priorities of criteria and intensities according to his needs in a comprehensible manner.

Software engineering project simulation in student entry phase of computer scientists-to-be

Many freshmen students of computer science are unaware of the requirements and job profiles of their future professional domain. To provide them with a deeper insight into the requirements of their future jobs at an early point of their studies, we designed a software engineering simulation project that focuses on the main tasks a software engineer has to deal with in professional life. More precisely, this project focuses on the major software-technical, methodological and practical competencies every computer scientist-to-be must acquire. Thus, this introductory software engineering project serves as a kind of “kick off meeting” for freshmen students in computer science. It creates an initial insight into and understanding of the overall interrelation of the different tasks and skills that will be a crucial part both of their study process as well as of their future professional career.

A Generic Virtual Bus for Hardware Simulator Composition

The typical interface between hardware components is a standardized bus. This article presents a virtual counterpart for simulated hardware components: a virtual bus on a virtual motherboard. The authors show that reuse of standard components, common with real hardware, can find its analogy in the domain of simulated hardware, making simulators less expensive and more flexible.

A Concept for an Intelligent Tutoring System to Support Individual Learning Paths in Software Development Courses

Freshmen students of computer science usually are a highly heterogeneous set, especially regarding their initial programming skills, which range from none to professional. As well, students are unequally equipped with essential base competencies, and differ in their respective pace of learning and the amount of practice they need to get new skills under their belt. As a consequence, every student requires an individual learning path to meet his or her specific needs. To ensure an efficient learning progress, it is crucial to select additional exercises for the students’ self-study phases appropriately, so that they really meet the individual student’s current need. Therefore, we developed a concept and implemented a prototype for a tutoring system that supports individual learning paths by providing each student with exercises that specifically address his or her specific needs and take existing skills and competencies into account.

An Action Day for First-Semester Students, fostering Self-Reflection, Networking and many other Skills

Over the years, we observed that students have difficulties when moving from school to university. In order to support our first-semester students, we designed and performed an action day at the beginning of their first semester. This day is designed to create identification with the subject, to get them actively engaged, and to let students get in contact with each other in an unstressed atmosphere. Furthermore, we intend to assess students’ initial level of competences relevant for studying successfully. The first four applications achieved good results. Passive students turned to a more active attitude, as they understood that they are responsible for their academic success right from the beginning. In a survey the majority of students agreed that the action day helped to get in contact with their fellow students. Interviews with lecturers confirmed this statement. Moreover, through the assessments, lecturers get insights into their students’ competences at a very early stage. This helps to adjust the teaching to students’ needs or offer additional support to them. Taken together, we designed an approach that offers our students a better start into their life at our university and we will continue performing this action day.

Integrated development of technical and base competencies: Fostering reflection skills in software engineers to be

The student entry phase is the period of a study process in which fundamental technical and non-technical skills should be acquired. The interrelation of those skills is not only crucial for the study process itself. Rather, the systematic, well-reflected methodological usage of specific technical knowledge is a key element for the future professional career after graduation. Unfortunately, during our last years of teaching we noticed that most of the novices in software engineering are neither well equipped with the necessary soft skills, nor can they handle the key technical skills in an appropriate way at the end of their first semester. Therefore, we designed a project that addresses technical and non-technical competencies in an integrated way. In the project, we induce students to actively increase their awareness of their own proficiency in technical and non-technical skills by guided reflection and feedback processes, both individually as well as in a group.

A concept for interventions that address typical error classes in programming education

Many programming errors that we observe in novice programmers coincide with those that are described in literature. Due to their vast number, it is practically impossible to list all errors explicitly and describe interventions for each specific error. Therefore, to reduce the number of single instances that have to be considered, we developed an error classification scheme that enables us to classify errors into seven classes. These classes are based on the revised Bloom-taxonomy and focus on the underlying problem that causes the observed errors. Based on these classes, we investigate and develop interventions that focus on the underlying problems, thus addressing the problem causes rather than their symptoms. In this paper, we describe both the interventions themselves, and the research process we applied for identifying these interventions.