The Effect of Real-World Capstone Project in an Acquisition of Soft Skills among Software Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayden Khakurel ◽  
Jari Porras
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Real World ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Capstone Project

scholarly journals Engaging Software Engineering Students with Employability Skills

2016 ◽  
pp. 1765-1802
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Armarego
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Engineering Software ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering

This chapter explores the findings from an Action Research project that addressed the Professional Capability Framework (Scott & Wilson, 2002), and how aspects of this were embedded in an undergraduate Engineering (Software) degree. Longitudinal data identified the challenges both staff and students engaged with. The interventions that were developed to address these are described and discussed. The results of the project show that making soft skills attainment explicit as part of the learning objectives went a long way in assisting students to engage with the activities that exercised these skills.

scholarly journals Engaging Software Engineering Students With Employability Skills

2017 ◽  
pp. 1800-1838
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Armarego
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Engineering Software ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering

This chapter explores the findings from an Action Research project that addressed the Professional Capability Framework, and how aspects of this were embedded in an undergraduate Engineering (Software) degree. Longitudinal data identified the challenges both staff and students engaged with. The interventions that were developed to address these are described and discussed. The results of the project show that making soft skills attainment explicit as part of the learning objectives went a long way in assisting students to engage with the activities that exercised these skills.

PTBL

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
LieHuo Chen ◽  
Qiang Liu ◽  
XiaoGuang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Traditional Course ◽  
Engineering Department

With software projects are becoming increasingly complicated, soft skills such as collaboration, effective communication, rhetoric, socio-cultural, accountabilities and collision resolution in real-life software projects, as well as computer programming are badly required for team members to cooperate and finish the strenuous projects. Therefore it is fundamental for software engineering students to improve such skills, if they want to accelerate the success of teamwork. Nowadays, the ability of effective cooperation and communication is much more important than raw programming talent. Teams with average programmers who communicate well are more likely to success than those with superstars but not good at communication. At the same time, these soft skills are just difficult to teach and learn which require true collaboration and communication between students. The traditional learning activities for training soft skills are insufficient based on the facts that teachers and mentors pay too much attention on professional and technical abilities instead of soft skills. In this paper, a novel learning model called Problem and Task Based Learning is proposed which includes Problem-Based Learning, Task-Based Learning, and Web3D technologies. This new model could elevate the teamwork skills in software engineering and overcome the common limitations of the traditional course. This paper also presents two courses using this learning model-a Task-game course and a virtual 3D meeting, as well as some experimental results obtained from the students and the teachers who have participated in the two case studies. Both students and teachers are from Software Engineering Department of Tsinghua University.

Students’ Awareness and Embracement of Soft Skills by Learning and Practicing Teamwork

10.28945/4650 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Noa Ragonis ◽  
Orit Hazzan ◽  
Gadi Har-Shai
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study about changes in computer science and software engineering students’ perceptions of their soft skills during their progress through the Computer Science Soft Skills course. Background: Soft skills are often associated with a person’s social, emotional and cognitive capabilities. Soft skills are increasingly sought out and are well recognized by employers alongside standard qualifications. Therefore, high importance is attributed to soft skills in computer science and software engineering education. Methodology: Content analysis was applied to interpret, categorize and code statements from students’ course assignment answers. Data analysis was performed gradually at the three main stages of the course and by the two students’ study populations. Contribution: The paper highlights the variety of (a) soft skills that can be learnt in one course, both on the individual level and on the team level and (b) assignments that can be given to students to increase their awareness and motivation to practice and learn soft skills. Findings: Data analysis revealed the following: (a) five individual soft skills categories, with 95 skills, and five team-related soft skills categories, with 52 skills (in total, the students mentioned 147 soft skills); (b) course assignments and particularly team-based activities elicited student awareness of their individual soft skills, both as strengths and weaknesses; (c) students developed their reflection skills, particularly with respect to team-related soft skills; and (d) significant differences exist between the two groups of students in several categories. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to integrate soft skills during their training. Establishing a meaningful learning process, such as project-based learning, enables students to apply and develop soft skills when accompanied by reflective thought processes. Recommendation for Researchers: A similar course can be taught and be accompanied by similar analysis of students’ learning outcomes, to examine the influence of local culture on the characteristics of soft skills. Impact on Society: Increased awareness of soft skills in scientists and engineers’ undergraduate education. University graduates who will strengthen their variety of soft skills in their academic training process and will be more meaningful employees in the workplace and in society. Future Research: Our future research aims (a) to explore additional innovative ways to increase students’ learning processes, awareness and practices in relation to soft skills and (b) to research how students’ soft skills are developed during the entire undergraduate studies both on the individual level and the team level.

Controlled Experiments as Means to Teach Soft Skills in Software Engineering

2017 ◽  
pp. 1355-1373
Author(s):  
Marco Kuhrmann ◽  
Henning Femmer ◽  
Jonas Eckhardt
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Soft Skill ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
University Course ◽  
Job Profile

The job profile of a Software Engineer not only includes so-called “hard-skills” (e.g. specifying, programming, or building architectures) but also “soft skills” like awareness of team effects and similar human factors. These skills are typically hard to teach in classrooms, and current education, hence, mostly focuses on hard rather than soft skills. Yet, since software development is becoming more and more spread across different sites in a globally distributed manner, the importance of soft skills increases rapidly. However, there are only a few practical guides to teach such tacit knowledge to Software Engineering students. In this chapter, the authors describe an approach that combines theoretical lectures, practical experiments, and discussion sessions to fill this gap. They describe the processes of creating, planning, executing, and evaluating these sessions, so that soft skill topics can be taught in a university course. The authors present two example implementations of the approach. The first implementation lets students experience and reflect on group dynamics and team-internal effects in a project situation. The second implementation enables students to understand the challenges of a distributed software development setting. With this knowledge, the authors critically discuss the contribution of experimentation to university teaching.

scholarly journals Engaging Software Engineering Students with Employability Skills

2014 ◽  
pp. 123-160
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Armarego
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Engineering Software ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering

This chapter explores the findings from an Action Research project that addressed the Professional Capability Framework (Scott & Wilson, 2002), and how aspects of this were embedded in an undergraduate Engineering (Software) degree. Longitudinal data identified the challenges both staff and students engaged with. The interventions that were developed to address these are described and discussed. The results of the project show that making soft skills attainment explicit as part of the learning objectives went a long way in assisting students to engage with the activities that exercised these skills.

scholarly journals MetricRA: Learning Software Metrics through Augmented Reality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca Motta ◽  
Mario Bonicenha ◽  
Claudia Susie Rodrigues ◽  
Cláudia Werner
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Real World ◽  
Software Metrics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Class Diagram ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Augmented Reality Technology ◽  
Learning Software

Augmented reality creates a bridge between virtual and real world, providing stimulating resources for different purposes. This technology enables new teaching possibilities since it can bring more abstract concepts into reality and put the knowledge related to several areas, such as Software Engineering, into practice. MetricRA is a tool developed to help Software Engineering students to understand Cohesion and Coupling metrics. The solution was implemented with Augmented Reality technology, where the user can control a class diagram to observe the metrics transformation. This article describes MetricRA tool and presents a study conducted to evaluate its ability to contribute to the understanding of the concepts proposed.

scholarly journals Towards data-driven software engineering skills assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-135
Author(s):  
Jun Lin ◽  
Han Yu ◽  
Zhengxiang Pan ◽  
Zhiqi Shen ◽  
Lizhen Cui
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Skill Development ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Software Engineers

Purpose Today’s software engineers often work in teams to develop complex software systems. Therefore, successful software engineering in practice require team members to possess not only sound programming skills such as analysis, design, coding and testing but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration and self-management. However, existing examination-based assessments are often inadequate for quantifying students’ soft skill development. The purpose of this paper is to explore alternative ways for assessing software engineering students’ skills through a data-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the exploratory data analysis approach is adopted. Leveraging the proposed online agile project management tool – Human-centred Agile Software Engineering (HASE), a study was conducted involving 21 Scrum teams consisting of over 100 undergraduate software engineering students in multi-week coursework projects in 2014. Findings During this study, students performed close to 170,000 software engineering activities logged by HASE. By analysing the collected activity trajectory data set, the authors demonstrate the potential for this new research direction to enable software engineering educators to have a quantifiable way of understanding their students’ skill development, and take a proactive approach in helping them improve their programming and soft skills. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has yet to be published previous studies using software engineering activity data to assess software engineers’ skills.

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