ISEDJ

Information Systems Education Journal

Volume 14

V14 N4 Pages 4-12

July 2016


The Design and Evaluation of Class Exercises as Active Learning Tools in Software Verification and Validation


Peter Y Wu
Robert Morris University
Moon Township, PA 15108, USA

Priya Manohar
Robert Morris University
Moon Township, PA 15108, USA

Sushil Acharya
Robert Morris University
Moon Township, PA 15108, USA


Abstract: It is well known that interesting questions can stimulate thinking and invite participation. Class exercises are designed to make use of questions to engage students in active learning. In a project toward building a community skilled in software verification and validation (SV&V), we critically review and further develop course materials in the software engineering curriculum for an undergraduate course in SV&V. The project involves the joint effort with many other academic institutions and industry partners. There are four topic areas of Software Engineering in our focus: Requirements Engineering, Software Review, Configuration Management, and Testing. We see class exercises as active learning tools for the students in our flipped classroom approach. We present our design of the class exercise: in its generic components envisioning how it may be used in general, but also its use in selected examples to illustrate these components. The class exercise design includes the learning objectives to indicate how the course design meets the learning outcome objectives for ABET accreditation. We further applied a classification of the learning objectives to present the case of the class exercises as active learning tools. Our initial implementation is ready and we are in the process of implementation with partner institutions for feedback and review.

Keywords: Active Learning Tool, software engineering, Software Verification and Validation, SV&V

Download this article: ISEDJ - V14 N4 Page 4.pdf


Recommended Citation: Wu, P. Y., Manohar, P., Acharya, S. (2016). The Design and Evaluation of Class Exercises as Active Learning Tools in Software Verification and Validation . Information Systems Education Journal, 14(4) pp 4-12. http://isedj.org/2016-14/ ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of EDSIG 2015)