Conference Session

Accreditation and Assessment in SE Programs

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Janet E. Burge, Miami University; Paul V. Anderson, Miami University, Ohio; Michael Carter, North Carolina State University; Gerald C. Gannod, Miami University; Mladen A. Vouk, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

communication abilities necessary to ensure their success in theworkforce.1, 2 Employers typically place effective communication at the top of the qualitiesthey seek in new engineers.3, 4, 5, 6 To prepare their students to communicate effectively intheir careers, engineering programs may require a technical writing course taught by anotherdepartment and, in some cases, one or two communication-intensive courses in theirprograms. Nevertheless, new college graduates encounter significant difficulty adjusting toworkplace communication practices,7, 8, 9 and employers invest substantial sums inmentoring, providing in-house training, or subscribing to external programs to teach newemployees the communication skills that are basic in their workplace.10 While

Conference Session

Accreditation and Assessment in SE Programs

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nan Niu, Mississippi State University; Donna Reese, Mississippi State University; Kui Xie, Mississippi State University; Chris Smith, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

from economics and measurement to generative programming and re-engineering. Thecrucial aspect that distinguished Frakes’ course from other reuse courses was probably theexplicit introduction and teaching of domain engineering.   Figure 1. Domain engineering as a means of achieving systematic software reuse8 Page 22.1254.4Domain engineering is the key to systematic software reuse. The basic insight is that mostorganizations build software systems within a few business lines, called domains, repeatedlybuilding system variants within

Conference Session

Software Engineering Projects

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James N. Long, Oregon Institute of Technology; Linda Sue Young, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

requirements and the mapping of those requirements into the software development lifecycle for effective impact analysis for change control. Page 22.1091.6MMORPG Course ElementsThe goal of the course modification is to draw students into course material through applicationof scoring and organization of activities similar to ideas used in MMORPG. The following tenelements are considered the ingredients for any successful game5. 1. Avatars 2. Three dimensional environment 3. Narrative Context (Epic Story) 4. Feedback 5. Reputations, Rank, and Levels 6. Marketplaces and Economies 7. Competition under explicit and enforced rules 8. Teams

Conference Session

SE Tools and Techniques

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shane Markstrum, Bucknell University; Gary M. Haggard, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

seamless integration of the codedeveloped by different groups. Additionally, user testing of prototype implementations adds asense of real development to the project. Since simple graph theory topics are an important aspectof a computer science education, the project also gives an opportunity for the students to presenttheir tool at local and regional computer science meetings that encourage student participation.1 IntroductionMany computer science programs include some type of capstone course in the senior year as a wayto challenge their students to apply all of the knowledge they have gained on a substantial project.However, there are typically not many opportunities in the second and third year of these programsto introduce students to a team

Conference Session

Accreditation and Assessment in SE Programs

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan E. Conry, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

school of arts and sciences with other departments inmathematics and the physical sciences. Others are in units that also house a wide spectrum ofengineering programs. Some are the responsibility of departments that are responsible for asingle academic program and others are lodged in the same department as the other twocomputing programs considered. Table 1 provides information concerning the relevant degreeprogram names, the accredited status of the programs, the housing department (if applicable) andthe housing school or college within the institution. As is clear from Table 1, at eight of theseinstitutions (just over 60%) all three programs are resident within a school or college ofengineering. At three of the institutions (about 23%) of the

Conference Session

SE Tools and Techniques

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John C. Georgas, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

insights, and our own observations. Page 22.1413.2 Figure 1. A screenshot of a ROBOCODE battle in progress.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses background informationon learning theories and the Robocode simulator, Section 3 presents the design of our approach,and Section 4 discusses evaluative results while Section 5 offers concluding remarks.2. BackgroundThis section presents background information that underpins our work regarding the ROBOCODEsimulator and the learning theory foundations that inform the design of our approach.2.1. ROBOCODEROBOCODE is an open-source development platform for

Conference Session

Accreditation and Assessment in SE Programs

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Massood Towhidnejad, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Thomas B. Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Salamah Salamah, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

be adopted in any significant way in thecomputing education. In this work, we re-introduce the DigitalHome Case Study, and report onour use of one of the case modules of this case study.1. Introduction to Case Study TeachingCase studies were first used in the Harvard Law School in 1871 [2]. Since then, case studies havebeen a subject of much study and research about their effectiveness in teaching and learning[1,2,4,5]. They have become a proven and pervasive method of teaching about professionalpractice in such fields as business, law, and medicine. In its most naive form, case study teachingrefers to a realistic example used to illustrate concepts and/or technique. More formerly, a casestudy involves the application of knowledge and skills

Conference Session

Software Engineering Projects

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Massood Towhidnejad, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Thomas B. Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Joseph E. Urban, Texas Tech University; Gregory W. Hislop, Drexel University; Richard Stansbury, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

Project InspireCT Goals and StrategyInspireCT is an NSF funded project involving Drexel University, Embry-Riddle AeronauticalUniversity, and Texas Tech University, and their partners (regional high schools and middleschools) that promote the following goals: Goal 1: Attract more students to the study of computational thinking; Goal 2: Enhance student learning and ability to apply computational thinking; and Goal 3: Enable instructors to engage students with computational thinking in action.The central tenet of InspireCT is that computing education will benefit by engaging students inmeaningful computing projects much earlier in their education, even as early as pre-college. Oneof the problems with this approach is the lack of technical

Conference Session

Software Engineering Projects

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Reichlmayr, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

, qualityassurance, collection and analysis of metrics and effective team mechanics. Common hurdles tointroducing software engineering process in student projects are cited in similar experiencereports. They include compressed time schedules [1], justifying the relevancy of following aprocess and simply a general disinterest by students fixated on technology and implementationdetails [2]. Page 22.1712.2Over the past ten years Agile software development practices have grown in acceptance and havegained a solid foothold in commercial software development. [3] Companies from Yahoo [4] toLockheed Martin [5] are using Agile processes and practices in the

Conference Session

SE Tools and Techniques

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert W. Hasker, University of Wisconsin, Platteville; Mike Rowe, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

standards should be expected of student-created models.1 IntroductionTeaching students to use the Unified Modeling Language (UML)1, 6, 21 is challenging for manyreasons. Among these is that students obtain little direct feedback on model quality fromexisting tools. This allows them to generate syntactically correct but semantically challengedmodels, such as reversing multiplicities or the direction of generalization arrows. In addition,there is often a long delay between model creation and critique. The typical classroom modelis that a student works (possibly in a group) on an assignment for several days with littlefeedback, submits it on a due date, and then waits several more days for a graded response.The lack of immediate feedback weakens

Conference Session

SE Tools and Techniques

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeff Ringenberg, University of Michigan; Marcial Lapp, University of Michigan; Apoorva Bansal, University of Michigan; Parth Shah, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

studentshould take a non-standard version of the course, whether it was more advanced or rudimentary.4.0 Results and Possible ExtensionsTo determine and refine the predictive abilities of our exam, we first correlated the Fall 2009predictive exam scores to student performance in a computer programming course using normalexam scores and overall course grades. The results of this initial analysis are shown in Table 1.From the results, there appears to be a definite relationship between a student’s performance onthe predictive exam and their performance in the course. Exam 1 0.38 Exam 2 0.40 Exam 3