Evolution of a graduate software engineering capstone course — a course review

• Autores: Phillip A. Laplante, Joanna F. DeFranco, Everton Guimaraes
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. 4, 2019, págs. 999-1007
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In education projects, students sometimes have difficulty conveying their knowledge when asked to solve real problems especiallywhen a software product is generated as an outcome. Faculty accumulated nearly 12 years of experience running a graduatesoftware engineering capstone course perceived the need to better assist students on the learning process. Course adaptations arerequired, particularly considering the heterogeneity of student’s background and work experience, as well as the use of currenttechnologies and tools. The paper outlines an evolved graduate software engineering capstone course for part-time graduateprofessional students. The capstone course is intended to create a meaningful student experience while providing a productiveenvironment to apply knowledge learned from the program. Moreover, the new proposal emphasizes agile methodologies and codeas the primary artifact. Our main contribution is to present the evolution of this capstone course, from inception to coding, testingand deployment. The course revision includes new artifacts, such as a work breakdown structure and burndown chart, as means toimprove the course learning outcomes based on lessons learned and student experience. For evaluation purposes, we selectedgroups of most recent capstone course sections totaling 175 students. Two learning objectives of the program were evaluated:teamwork and critical thinking. Critical thinking was assessed via the project plan artifact. Teamwork was assessed throughdiscussion forums, team test plans and reports. The results were positive; however, they indicate that not all elements of projectplanning are present in the studio course.