Sharing Software Engineering Curriculum Materials
- Conference
- Location
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Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
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June 18, 2006
- Start Date
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June 18, 2006
- End Date
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June 21, 2006
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Software Engineering Constituent Committee
- Page Count
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6
- Page Numbers
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11.1125.1 - 11.1125.6
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--962
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/962
- Download Count
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532
Paper Authors
Michael Lutz Rochester Institute of Technology
Mike Lutz is on the faculty of the Golisano College of Computer and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. He led development of the first BS in Software Engineering in the United States.
Gregory Hislop Drexel University
Greg Hislop is on the faculty of the College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University. He leads the college efforts in a BS and MS in software engineering offered jointly with the Department of Computer Science.
Mark Sebern Milwaukee School of Engineering
Mark Sebern is on the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He directs the BS in Software Engineering.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Sharing Software Engineering Curriculum Materials
Introduction
In addition to the usual economies of scale, sharing curriculum materials is particularly important for software engineering since the pool of faculty is rather small and software engineering curriculum materials age quickly. This means that broad engagement by faculty with the question of how to promote material sharing is essential for the growth of software engineering education. This paper is intended to foster discussion within the software engineering community about developing and maintaining shared curriculum resources on an on-going basis.
The paper approaches this topic by summarizing the experience of the SWENET project in creating shared curriculum materials for software engineering. SWENET, The Network Community for Software Engineering Education, was an NSF funded project to develop curriculum modules for faculty members wanting to incorporate software engineering concepts in new or existing courses. The paper discusses the project results, focusing on lessons learned.
Although the benefit of sharing course materials is obvious, the practice is not particularly wide spread in higher education. Reasons for this low level of sharing are discussed in terms of faculty motivators and inhibitors. The online environment developed by the project for course materials collection will also be discussed along with an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken. In addition, the project employed various mechanisms to encourage faculty participation, including hosting several summer workshops for faculty. The effectiveness of these mechanisms will be examined. The paper also includes suggestions and ideas for future efforts to share curricular materials.
Project Summary
SWENET, the Network Community for Software Engineering Education, was an NSF funded project to produce and organize high-quality materials supporting software engineering education. The project sought to support faculty members delivering software engineering degrees, however, the project also maintained a focus on accommodating faculty who teach in other computing degree programs where the need for software engineering coverage is high, but the available class time for these topics is much lower. SWENET was a multi-institution effort, encompassing several of the first B.S. in Software Engineering programs in the United States.
The SWENET effort to create a collection of curriculum materials included creation of a Web site (http://www.swenet.org) and structure for defining and organizing the materials. The materials were organized into course modules with a fixed structure anchored to an existing framework. The project began shortly after the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge project (SWEBOK) 1 was released, so SWEBOK provided the initial framework for the project. The module categories in the prototype web site – design, process, quality, and requirements – corresponded directly to major focus areas of SWEBOK.
Lutz, M., & Hislop, G., & Sebern, M. (2006, June), Sharing Software Engineering Curriculum Materials Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--962
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