Marisa Exter

Comparing educational experiences and on-the-job needs of educational software designers

This paper reports on part of the findings of a mixed-methods study which explored the educational experiences of Computing Professionals who design and develop educational software. A particular focus is given on the gaps professionals perceive between what was covered in their formal (university) education and the skills and knowledge that have been most important to them in their professional roles. Discrepancies were found particularly in areas related to practical skills (such as testing, maintaining code over time, use of source code control and development tools), communication, critical thinking and problem solving, and strategies used to continue learning on-the-job. Participant suggestions for improving university programs focused largely on the use of large scale, complex, authentic projects of significant duration. The author recommends further consideration be given to explicitly teaching the type of self-learning skills and strategies used by experienced professionals.

Design of a Learner-Centered Seminar-/Studio-Based Polytechnic Institute

This design case describes an early design of a new, learner-centered university program for Technology students that combines Seminar and Studio experiences. The design is based on a set of values and understandings about how contemporary students learn best and how to address the needs of a twenty-first century workforce. Challenges encountered by the cross-disciplinary group of faculty designing the curriculum and pedagogical aspects of the program will be discussed.

Empowered Guinea Pigs: Stories of Cross-Disciplinary Projects in an Experimental Educational Software Design Course

This chapter tells the story of an educational software design course through reflections written by the instructor and student coauthors throughout the semester. The course design was inspired by the instructor’s experiences in a software design and development team. Driven by struggles in educational software’s rapid growth, the course focused on the design (i.e., learner analysis, prototyping, and testing) using a project-based pedagogy. With students from a wide variety of backgrounds, learning is focused on the educational software creation process in parallel with analyzing needs and designing software for real clients in multidisciplinary teams. To understand the experience of the course, the authors wrote and analyzed reflections about their experience in the course.