Michael McCracken

A multi-national, multi-institutional study of assessment of programming skills of first-year CS students

In computer science, an expected outcome of a students education is programming skill. This working group investigated the programming competency students have as they complete their first one or two courses in computer science. In order to explore options for assessing students, the working group developed a trial assessment of whether students can program. The underlying goal of this work was to initiate dialog in the Computer Science community on how to develop these types of assessments. Several universities participated in our trial assessment and the disappointing results suggest that many students do not know how to program at the conclusion of their introductory courses. For a combined sample of 216 students from four universities, the average score was 22.89 out of 110 points on the general evaluation criteria developed for this study. From this trial assessment we developed a framework of expectations for first-year courses and suggestions for further work to develop more comprehensive assessments.

Why? When an otherwise successful intervention fails

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been an effective technique in developing self-directed learning and problem-solving skills in students --- especially in the medical school environment. This paper looks at some preliminary results of an ethnographic study of students in a software development environment trying to use PBL. Our findings indicate that students need explicit training in group dynamics, students tend to rely excessively on existing knowledge, and they focus almost solely on product-related issues versus process-related ones. We then present some suggested improvements and future planned research.

Guidance for the development of software engineering education programs

Abstract In this paper, we discuss issues and ideas that can improve the undergraduate education of software engineers. We submit that a key impediment to the advancement of software engineering education is the lack of guidance and support for the development of new courses and curricula. We discuss the work and results of a project to create a set of Guidelines for Software Engineering Education . We outline the content of the Guidelines , describe how they relate to recent and current professional activities to improve the practice of software engineering, and discuss future plans for their development.

Misconceptions of designing: a descriptive study

Our experience in designing and teaching a cross-disciplinary freshman design class has led us to believe that students entering design fields (e.g., computer science or engineering) are saddled with naïve or (mis)conceptions about design and design activity. It is our belief that for students to become effective designers, they must be helped to recognize and overcome these misconceptions through appropriate educational interventions. To better understand the nature and substance of these misconceptions, we conducted a descriptive survey study of 290 freshman in a technological institute. Our findings begin to suggest a consistent profile of misconceptions across declared majors that start to explain observations we have made of naïve designers in our freshman design class. This paper reports on those findings.

Integrating agile practices into software engineering courses

Agile software development methodologies claim to be superior for adapting to the changing needs of customers and projects and to the people on the team. As a result, these methodologies are steadily gaining interest and popularity in industry. Some examples of agile methodologies are Extreme Programming, Feature-Driven Development, Scrum, and Win-Win Spiral. Each of these processes comprises a set of practices, some of which are currently considered best practices and are consistent with what is taught in software engineering courses today. Other practices, however, are controversial and run contrary to the focus of most curricular materials. As educators, we must assess the academic and technical values of emerging technologies and, if convinced of their worthiness, we owe it to our students to integrate them into our curricula.

Toward a pre-disciplinary introductory design sequence

One of our greatest challenges in education is to prepare our students for the realities of the workplace they will be entering. In an economy characterized by global competition and continuous change, students need career-sustaining skills in addition to hard knowledge. They must know how to synthesize and integrate information; to work together in teams; to be creative; to attack open, multidisciplinary problems; to communicate the answers obtained; and to bring ideas into fruition. Recent critiques of engineering education, state the need a slightly different way. They claim that engineering education has focused too much of its energy on engineering science at the expense of engineering design. The author considers how Georgia Techs EduTech Institute is spearheading an interdisciplinary effort to address these needs. Key to the effort is a two-quarter pre-disciplinary introduction to design. The introductory courses are designed to lay the foundations for teaming principles and strategies behind good design, reasoning involved in doing design, and cognitive and social skills a designer needs. Keeping in mind that good design requires effective collaboration and effective use of computer technology, collaboration and use of software is integral to the courses.