Georg Hagel

Learning and teaching software process models

Software process models are fairly abstract tools for organizing large, complex software development projects. Since particularly undergraduate students commonly do not have any experience in being part of such a project, their understanding of the benefits and shortcomings of particular process models is very limited. Even more, frequently they are not aware of the need to follow a particular process model since their previous one-person software assignments were too small for requiring any such model at all.

Towards a Competency-based Education with Gamification Design Elements

In this contribution we describe a theoretical way of linking dynamics as gamification design elements with competency-based education. Furthermore the value of the adoption of dynamics is addressed in order to support the design of gamified and competency-based learning on an abstract level of goal definition.

Gamifying the learning of design patterns in software engineering education

In this contribution a process and a way for a standardized documentation are proposed for the creation of gamified and competency-based learning activities. Furthermore the application of the process and its documentation is described by using an exemplary learning activity which was created, implemented and evaluated. The findings indicate, that the use of gamification design elements for learning a design pattern can be effective and successful and can lead to an increase in learning motivation.

Just-in-Time Teaching in software engineering: A Chinese-German empirical case study

Learning centered teaching becomes an important factor in a global perspective of learning software engineering. The Just-in-Time Teaching approach is used in a Chinese-German empirical case study. In a one year terminated project we will analyze the performance of our students in an active learning scenario with Just-in-Time Teaching and Peer Instruction. We will contribute an inter-cultural comparison of achieved competencies by students self-assessment and teachers observation.

Task-based programming learning in higher education

The task-based language learning (TBLL) approach is used in the context of foreign language pedagogy. Since a programming language is also a language by definition, this emerges the question whether the approach can also be used for learning programming. The paper presents fundamentals of the TBLL approach and illustrates how it can be adopted for learning an object-oriented programming language. It gives suggestions for concrete specifications of a task-based programming learning (TBPL) and shows their effects on an exemplary programming task.

Just-in-Time-Teaching experience in a Software Design Pattern course

Teaching design patterns in computer science introductory sequence is more difficult than learning it. We present a Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT) practice in Software Design Patterns course targeted to entry level students. We proposed a model that combines JiTT concepts with didactic considerations, preparation materials, in-class sessions and post-lecture assignments. We have effectively used this approach to teach two undergraduate classes. The paper also presents the results of a survey conducted to identify the effectiveness of the JiTT activities through warm-up questions, class-wide discussions, experiments and exercises.

Ranking task activity in teaching software engineering

In this research, we investigate the possibility of applying ranking task activity in teaching and learning software engineering courses. We introduce three types of ranking tasks, conceptual-, contextual- and sequential ranking questions, which cover most core topics such as requirement analysis, architecture design and quality validation in the course. We have also done experiments on a group of students to see if ranking tasks could increase their conceptual knowledge in specific areas. Assessments were given in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this activity, showing an obvious increase in complex conceptual understanding.

Learning Tasks for Software Engineering Education: An exemplary development of learning tasks for software engineering based on didactic function and knowledge type

Learning tasks play an important role in education and especially in higher education. However, there is a significant lack in research regarding these in higher education. A learning task shows several characteristics, whereas the didactic function of a task is mostly considered. Two characteristics of learning tasks are focused in this paper: The didactic function and the type knowledge. Existing types of learning tasks are presented as well as a proposal for learning tasks in software engineering education that considers didactic functions, like elaboration, training or application and types of knowledge, i.e. factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge. This paper aims to serve as a guidance for lecturers who have the purpose to create learning tasks that address both characteristics -- the didactic function and the type of knowledge.

Introducing a Deployment Pipeline for Continuous Delivery in a Software Architecture Course

Continuous Delivery (CD) has emerged to an important concept of software architecture in the last few years. The goal of a CD strategy is to decrease the time to market of an application while increasing the quality of that software. However, literature shows that teaching CD practices in higher education is in an infancy stage. Therefore a new concept for teaching CD practices is developed and demonstrated. In this concept students have to master several different tools and technologies to create an automated software delivery system. This can be achieved by guiding the students through a hands-on project, in which they develop stage by stage a CD pipeline. This paper introduces necessary background information as well as the CD teaching concept with its scaffolded learning approach for implementing a CD pipeline in a software architecture course.

Work in progress: Towards a generic platform for implementing gamified learning arrangements in engineering education

This contribution discusses problems of existing gamified learning platforms as a result of an analysis and reveals a research gap that is addressed using a domain-specific modeling (DSM) approach. Foundations of the DSM approach are described and our vision to use it for improving the creation, adaptability, and extensibility of platforms as well as the exchange of promising gamified learning concepts. Early results are presented and steps ahead are shown.