Driving Forces
We consider learning goals and risks and chances are the driving forces of a software practical course. It is noteworthy that these driving forces are fundamentally different from those found in practice. Software management is a product-oriented task. The main driving force is risk and the entities to deal with during risk estimation are different from those in education - namely quality, quantity, cost, time and productivity.
Learning Aims
A lecturer can emphasize technical engineering topics or management topics in a project course. In EASE the distinction between technical engineering topics and management topics is considered too one-dimensional. Instead it is distinguished between high-level skills and low-level skills, too. EASE uses its own taxonomy of learning aims.
- hard skills
- technology-related, low-level: detailed know-how about concrete technologies, e.g. programming languages, APIs, operating systems, CASE tools;
- technology-related, high-level: the ability to recognize advantages and disadvantages of concrete technologies with respect to a current ambiguous task;
- method-related, low-level: know-how about concrete software engineering techniques and concepts, e.g. specification languages, modeling languages, process models, design patterns, GRASP patterns;
- method-related, high-level: the ability to appreciate the respective importance of concrete software engineering techniques and concepts;
- soft skills: courage, skills concerning teamwork, leadership, decision-making, enforcing plans, motivation, and moderation;
- key skills: receptiveness, efficiency, ability to learn.
EASE is supposed to support the learning of high-level hard skills and soft skills, but it does not prescribe concrete learning goals. For instance, in a particular project modeling, specification, design, or even coding may be emphasized. EASE provides a framework for learning and exercising software engineering. The lecturer defines the learning goals.
EASE Disclaimer
EASE is supposed to support the learning of soft skills. Learning soft skills is not about teaching personality. Learning soft skills is not about changing the minds of the participants. The soft skills that EASE wants to foster are merely techniques that might be helpful in professional life.
Risks and Chances
A software course inherits risks and chances from adult education. There are also specific risks with regard to software engineering. Different individuals perceive the same topic in totally different ways. Participants have different dispositions and hold different opinions about the purpose of computer science. As a result, the students have different objectives concerning their participation in the course. However, we believe that is not only a risk factor but also a chance as different skills and opinions may contribute to collaborative learning.
These are chances: Students are receptive, hard-working and well-motivated. It is a risk that motivation may vanish. We believe it is very important to respect the students' different points of view in order to keep motivation high.
In nearly every software project, we observed students only wanted to learn details about technology and were not interested in other learning. They have an attitude similar to that of real programmers, where sometimes baby duck syndrome occurs. Even more problematic, these students often tend to be non-communicative. They are not willing to work together with students that do not exactly share their opinions. In the worst case a project team consists of several small groups of competing programmers and a bunch of increasingly intimidated other participants. With EASE's micro process, these students quickly become major contributors to teamwork.
Lecturers may introduce other risks when they simplify complex software engineering concepts.Sometimes concepts are simplified to such an extent that students are misled.
EASE is designed to mitigate risks and exploit chances. Therefore EASE fosters teamwork and collaborative learning, self-organization and learning by doing.