Zoran Putnik

On the assessment and self‐assessment in a students teamwork based course on software engineering

For the previous 7 years, under the auspices of a “Stability Pact of South‐Eastern Europe” and DAAD, a joint project for developing an undergraduate course in “Software Engineering” has been conducted. The intention of the project was to enable a usage of shared materials for software engineering courses at wide range of universities in countries participating in the project. During school year 2004/2005: for the first time the same course; with the same case study; and the same assignments; have been conducted at the Humboldt University Berlin and University of Novi Sad. In this article, we share some of the experiences obtained during conducting the same course for the last several school years.

Evolution of Professional Ethics Courses from Web Supported Learning towards E-Learning 2.0

Skopje and Novi Sad share several joint courses in Professional Ethics at undergraduate level and at postgraduate level. These courses have been delivered to almost 1000 students from 14 different target groups. For seven years, teaching, learning as well as assessment have been steadily growing from traditional Web supported learning, through blended learning, towards Web 2.0. This paper presents all the stages of the courses evolution using several learning management systems, and the effort to enhance teaching, learning and active contribution of all the actors in the educational process. Particular attention is paid to our latest experience using Moodle and its social networking aspects in education. This survey reveals all the activities during the course delivery including student workload, grading system, and teachers efforts to maintain the courses. Student encouraging impressions regarding the content delivery and assessment, their personal opinion about the impact of e-learning 2.0 to quality and quantity of acquired new knowledge, and sincere suggestions to persist in the same direction are the greatest assurance that social networks are currently the best way to deliver computer ethics courses. At the same time, it seems that this approach is the most exhausting and the most challenging for the teachers, but at the same time, the best balance between the effort undertaken and the results obtained.

Wiki usage in team assignments for computer science students

Collaboration in contemporary teaching and learning practice can be highly supported and improved via usage of information and communication technology, even when it comes to solving complex team assignments in university courses. One of the possibly best types of software tools for such purposes is wikis. This paper presents the experimental usage of wiki as means of introducing collaborative activities in two completely different courses on the undergraduate level of Computer Science studies -- an introductory eBusiness course for freshmen, and the advanced course in Software Engineering for final year students.

A View on a Successful International Educational Project in Software Engineering

In this paper, a successful and fruitful joint project will be presented. The project joins participants from 9 countries and from 15 universities. Since it started in 2001, this project entitled “Software Engineering: Computer Science Education and Research Cooperation” helped participants to gain excellent, up to date educational material, apply modern teaching methods, exchange experiences with other participants, and work jointly on the further development of lectures, case-studies, assignments, examination questions, and other necessary elements of a course. Project works under auspices of Stability Pact of South-Eastern Europe, and is supported by DAAD. The project started with the creation of a common beginning course in “Software Engineering”, but over time it grew and the number of other courses was developed. Finished almost completely are the courses in “Object-oriented programming”, “Software Project Management”, “Advanced Compiler Construction”, and “Data Structures and Algorithms”, and some other courses are under development. Aside from the educational collaboration, project members also developed good scientific cooperation, and published several research papers.

Gender related issues associated to computer Science students

In this paper, gender related statistical data for computer science students at the Department of Mathematics and Informatics, within the Faculty of Science of the University of Novi Sad will be analyzed. Success of both freshmen students and students of the last year of studies will be compared. Comparison will deal with two types of computer science courses: two of technical nature - programming and software engineering, and two of a more general, business nature - software ethics and software project management.

Analysis of ERASMUS staff and student mobility network within a big European project

The academic mobility is one of key factors that enable the globalization of research and education. In this paper we study the network of ERASMUS staff and student exchange agreements between academic institutions involved in FETCH - a big European project oriented towards future education and training in computer science. The structure of the network was investigated relying on standard metrics and techniques of social network analysis. Obtained results indicate that the network is in a mature phase of the development in which none of the institutions has a critical role to the overall connectedness of the network. Additionally, the network has a clear core-periphery structure with an active core and mostly inactive periphery.

Gender related correlations of computer science students

In this article, statistical findings obtained by a large survey containing about 120 questions and options are presented. An inquiry using this survey was carried out on a considerable sample of students from four countries of Balkan region, studying different directions of computer science. Students belong to universities that are members of a joint educational project, plus three of the involved countries, emerged from the same country, former Yugoslavia, therefore the results are comparable. Data was analyzed and here we present the most interesting correlations and opinions about satisfaction and views about computer science studies and prospects. Students surveyed were of both female and male population, from two faculties of mathematics, and two faculties of electrical engineering from the four countries of the Balkan region. Male students think studies did not positively influence their intellectual growth.Mathematics courses presented to them will not help them in professional lives.Both genders are secure about their future careers in Serbia.Both genders are not in FYRO Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.Both genders in Serbia are pessimistic how their studies prepared them for career.

Gender influences on studying computer science: non-EU Balkan case

In this paper, an analysis of gender related influences for studying of computer science in several countries of the west Balkan region was conducted. A large survey with about 120 different options within 33 questions offered has been created and inquiry has been carried out on a considerable sample of students. Students were of both gender, and relationships and links between answers of these groups were considered. What is more important, students came from four different countries, members of a joint educational DAAD project. The survey data was available for students from Serbia, FYR of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. The obtained results were analyzed and we present the most interesting opinions of both female and male population of students. In short, our analysis shows more maturity within the female population of students, and more vanity within male population. Yet in general, both genders are quite satisfied with their choice of profession, and look into the bright future, by their opinion.

On distance education courseware

Multimedia, WWW and advanced technologies are bringing changes in the field of education. Additional ways of interaction between students, study material, and teachers, are introduced. Development in technology and their introduction into education, changed the character and methods of it. A need exists for a distance education and additional education at home. With the cost of multimedia computers becoming lower, while availability of educational CD-ROMs higher, a proper inclusion of these into the curricula and distance education is needed. Here, some strategies for distance education software are being proposed.

Possible Routes on a Highway of eLearning – Promising Architecture for eLearning Systems

This paper presents the first and preliminary, original ideas about the possible architecture for the improvement of eLearning use at the university level. We suggest introduction of three-way architecture consisting of ways to: convert traditional teaching resources into the eLearning form of learning objects, methodology to employ some electronic activities as a replacement for traditional classroom activities, and methodology to use software agents for harvesting the necessary additional learning material from open learning repositories. Individual parts of the proposed architecture have been tested in practice, and showed very positive results, so we expect to further improve the application of eLearning by using the architecture as a whole.