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

McDermott, Roger; Bass, Julian; Prakash Lalchandani, Jay

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.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Start Date: Oct 22, 2014
• End Date: Oct 25, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Feb 19, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2014.7044181