The learner experience of student-led international group project work in software engineering.

McDermott, Roger; Bass, Julian; Lalchandani, JayPrakash

Abstract

Software development has become increasingly globalized because of technological innovation, the evolution of work and business processes, as well as prevailing educational systems and national policies [1]. This paper addresses the challenges faced when creating realistic opportunities for students to participate in team working on a globally distributed software engineering project. We examine the experience of one set of students who undertook a single semester software development project, the technical objective of which was to create a product using online collaboration tools [2]. The students involved were studying at two widely-separated universities: Robert Gordon University (RGU), UK, and the International Institute for Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B), India. A classroom-based action research approach has been used to evolve and reflect on the project [3]. Detailed student feedback was canvassed using an open-ended questionnaire. The students report favourably on acquisition of employability, collaboration and professional skills. A number of challenges remain in areas of project management, the use of collaborative technology and of scaling the project to larger classes, while retaining a manageable supervision overhead.

Citation

MCDERMOTT, R., BASS, J. and LALCHANDANI, J.P. 2014. The learner experience of student-led international group project work in software engineering. In Proceedings of the 2014 Frontiers in education conference (FIE 2014): opening innovations and internationalization in engineering education, 22-25 October 2014, Madrid, Spain. Piscataway: IEEE [online], article number 7044181. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2014.7044181

• Conference Name: 2014 Frontiers in education conference (FIE 2014)
• Conference Location: Madrid, Spain
• Start Date: Oct 22, 2014
• End Date: Oct 25, 2014
• Acceptance Date: Oct 22, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2014
• Publication Date: Feb 19, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 14, 2017
• Print ISSN: 0190-5848
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Article Number: 7044181
• Series ISSN: 0190-5848
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2014.7044181
• Keywords: International group project; Global software engineering; Collaborative technology; Employability; Student experience
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2221