Online Software Engineering Graduate Program Case Study: Significant Student Engagement and Career Impact

Marcela Alexandra Mera Trujillo; Yasser Alshehri; Dale G Dzielski; Katerina Goseva-Popstojanova

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Conference: 2023 ASEE North Central Section Conference
Location: Morgantown, West Virginia
Publication Date: March 24, 2023
Start Date: March 24, 2023
End Date: March 25, 2023
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44915
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44915
Download Count: 78

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Paper Authors

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Marcela Alexandra Mera Trujillo West Virginia University

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Marcela Mera Trujillo is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and working on her certificate in University Teaching at West Virginia University. Her Ph.D. work focuses on computer vision, mainly image-based 3D reconstructions compression, and learning methods for interest point detection, matching, and pose estimation. Her position as a Graduate Services Assistant for WVU's online software engineering program and a combination of her studies for the certificate has cemented her passion for both teaching and educational research.

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Yasser Alshehri Yanbu Industrial College orcid.org/0000-0003-1134-4514

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Yasser Alshehri is an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at Yanbu Industrial College, in the Royal Commission at
Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from West Virginia University, USA, in 2018. His research applies data analytics and
machine learning tools to different disciplines, software engineering, and software quality.

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Dale G Dzielski MBA, CMA, PMP, SAFe 4 Agilist West Virginia University

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Dale Dzielski leads the Online Software Engineering Graduate Program in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering which includes both a Graduate Certificate and a Master of Science in Software Engineering. In this role, he coordinates 10 instructors and faculty, offering 24 graduate courses online, oversees the marketing efforts of the program, leads the program admissions committee for new admits, advises all program students, leads the Quality Matters effort to improve curriculum and alignment of the courses to a state and national online standard, and teaches five courses in the program. He has participated on various research grants including CITeR and ARPA-E GENSETS programs. He is performing Software Engineering research for NASA IV&V through the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium in the areas of effort and risk of Architecture Technical Debt and the evaluation of binary code. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and sits on the IEEE P1012 Working Group as well as the Agile Sub-working Group and participates on the IEEE P1951 Working Group as well as various WVU committees. His primary research focus includes distance learning environments, collaborative environments, Software Engineering, effort and risk associated to Architecture Technical Debt, business process management and supply chain, enterprise architecture frameworks, and interoperability.
Education: M.B.A Regent University Virginia Beach, VA 1990, B.S. Magna Cum Laude - Fairmont State College Fairmont WV 1986
https://directory.statler.wvu.edu/faculty-staff-directory/dale-dzielski

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Katerina Goseva-Popstojanova West Virginia University orcid.org/0000-0003-4683-672X

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Dr. Katerina Goseva-Popstojanova is a Professor at the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. Her research interests are in software
engineering, cybersecurity, and data analytics, as well as in higher education focused on these areas. She
has served as a Principal Investigator on various NSF, NASA, and industry funded projects. She leads the
B.S. in Cybersecurity program and serves as Academic Coordinator of the M.S. in Software Engineering
Program at West Virginia University. She has served on program and organizing committees of many
international conferences and workshops.

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Abstract

For online education, interactions between learners and instructors and learners’ engagement are not easily achieved. The online education process, including organization and management, occurs differently than in conventional teaching. The paper provides insight into online education technologies and techniques for an engineering graduate program and how online learning has evolved using a case study. The article presents over 25 years of history of the case study program providing data results of alums, students, and faculty surveys across five years to answer three critical questions for Software Engineering learners. These three research questions address learning resource deployment, organization and management, and new learning and teaching activities. The results of the surveys revealed that ninety percent of learners strongly agree or agree that the Learning Management System (LMS) is great for their engagement with other learners and the instructor. Additionally, the results expressed student satisfaction with online admission, registration, and advising. The surveys identified that the impact of the online engineering graduate program in the case study on the learner included a job promotion and salary increase for most of the survey participants.

Citation
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Mera Trujillo, M. A., & Alshehri, Y., & Dzielski, D. G., & Goseva-Popstojanova, K. (2023, March), Online Software Engineering Graduate Program Case Study: Significant Student Engagement and Career Impact Paper presented at 2023 ASEE North Central Section Conference, Morgantown, West Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--44915