teaching software engineering using foss

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FOSS in the Teaching of Software Engineering

Ashley Maher

Ashley Maher Education Mini-Conference LCA Tuesday 19th January, 2010




Questions?

When the presentation is only 15 - 20 minutes in length there is very limited time to be properly interactive during the presentation, sorry.

Education Mini-Conference LCA Tuesday 19th January, 2010 Ashley Maher




BackgroundHow did Software Engineering come into being?DefinitionsCourse work – Text BooksWhat is missing?The Group ProjectOut comesMoving forwardQuestions





I am not an academic

Several of my close friends and colleagues are academics





A new academic could not take up position until later in the Year, so I was invited from Industry to teach the Spring Session 2009

Software Engineering Subject at the University of Wollongong.






● The field of software engineering was born in 1968 in response to chronic failures of large software projects to meet schedule and budget constraints ● Recognition of "the software crisis"

● Term became popular after NATO Conference in Garmisch Partenkirchen (Germany), 1968





http://war.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:01_khafre_north.jpg





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20090529_Great_Wall_8185.jpg





http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_destruction.ogg





Let us consider some modern definitions● The IEEE Computer Society defines software

engineering as: "(1) The application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software; that is, the application of engineering to software. (2) The study of approaches as in (1).”● "IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering

Terminology," IEEE std 610.12-1990, 1990.





Let us have a quick look at some course outlines and some text books





● Quickly we notice points like:● principles● qualities● processes● requirements elicitation● formal methods● diagrams● Testing● OO [and UML]




Such courses are very good.

Some students have great results and excellent understanding following such courses.

There is however no comment on Programming in the Large.






● Points of understanding:● principles● qualities● processes● requirements elicitation● formal methods● diagrams● Testing● OO [and UML]● communication




Then placing the student in a situation similar environment to those developers in the 1960's gives the learner a far greater insight to what is needed to be understood rather than something more to learn.

I will expand on this.





Software Engineering Practices & PrinciplesCSCI318- MCS9318Spring Session 2009

Group Project Description






● Projects Approved● School web project● Timetable project (Multi-Lingual)● Real Estate Project● YouTube style site● Team Management Project● POS-ERP Project





● FOSS Projects used as basis● Drupal ==> Drupal has installation profiles,

the first 5 projects aim was to create installation profiles to achieve their end goals. So an end user could down load Drupal with their installation profile and have a functioning application quickly

● OpenBravo ==> Is a FOSS ERP-POS their aim was to customise OpenBravo for use in a Furniture Store.





● The project is a Software Engineering Teaching, Learning and Evaluation exercise, it is not a software project per sea.

● This was not about FOSS● Morally wrong to turn the students into FOSS

experts in a Software Engineering Course, the aim of taking such a course is to learn SE.





● Students should feel comfortable to be able to pursue any career path● One students career goal is to work for

Microsoft, this student very much enjoyed the project and felt he had learned a great deal from the exercise.




Lecture DiscussionsRefinement of the Assignment was undertaken in Lectures under direction from the Lecturer or by Student question





Lecture DiscussionsSo if I am claiming the students learned by participating in larger projects, how large?469 contributors to Drupal 7.x core

4940 contributed modules





Lecture DiscussionsOO is mentioned in many SE coursesWe see here:http://drupal.org/node/547518“Drupal programming from an object-oriented perspective”

Modularity – Reuse code


http://drupal.org/node/547518




Lecture Discussions●Information hiding●Code Quality

● http://drupal.org/contributors-guide● http://drupal.org/developing/modules● Why have these tools? Why even specify white space?

●Large to Small● Mindset

●point


http://drupal.org/contributors-guide




Results of Student Survey37 students in the course24 attended the final lectureAll those attending the final lecture completed the assessment of the Group Project Assignment.





Results of Student Survey

How well did the project full fill its role of giving students an understanding of programming in the large (Sliding scale out of 5)

Mean: 4.5

Standard Deviation: 0.5




FOSS in the Teaching of Software EngineeringResults of Student Survey

How well did the project full fill its role of giving students skills and experience transferable to the workplace (Sliding scale out of 5)

Mean: 4.28

Standard Deviation: 0.6





Would you run the Project in the same way if you were the lecturer?

22 yes or pretty much1 smaller deliverables1 no





Why to answer of previous question:taught valuable lessonsgreat programming is not allclear to understand SEclear and effective showing students working in groups





good project, good group size gives idea of larger, good open sourceall goodreal world experienceexcellent way to teach SEwell structured met outlinegreat experience in SEthe process of software engineering seamed concisely conveyed





So!

What does this prove?





NOTHING





Concluding RemarksFOSS has a part to play in providing Student Software Engineers a greater understanding

of Software Engineering.OpenBravo has realised this and does this

well:http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/Universities





Oh

And

http://drupal.org/project/anytm





Ashley Maher

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teaching software engineering using foss

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