Software Engineering Students Crosssite Collaboration: An Experience Report

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Software Engineering Students Cross-site
Collaboration An Experience Report

• Sarah Drummond
• Department of Computer Science
• Durham University
• Sarah.Drummond_at_durham.ac.uk

• Marie Devlin
• School of Computing Science
• Newcastle University
• Marie.Devlin_at_ncl.ac.uk

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Overview

• Active Learning in Computing
• Cross-Site Collaboration
• Experiences
• Using the Technology
• Administrative Issues
• Student Interactions
• Evaluation
• Future Work

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Active Learning in Computing

• Centre for Excellence in Teaching Learning
  project - (CETL) - HEA
• Led by Durham with Newcastle University,
  University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan
  University

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ALiC - Aims

• Increase level of student engagement within the
  Computing curriculum.
• Development of a more cohesive curriculum where
  exercises and assessment are more significant.
• Create an educational environment and activities
  that are aligned to the need of industry.
• Formulate assessment approaches that are
  learner-centric and encompassing of many skills.

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Cross-Site Collaboration Motivation

• Cross-site software development more common place
• Give students an insight into SE in an industrial
  context and make assignment more realistic
• Encourage the development of transferable skills
• Evaluate technologies for cooperative working
• Develop a model and some general principles for
  using the cross-site software development
  approach
• .

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Collaborative project

• Work as one company to develop a software product
  - a Tourism Guide
• Shared project between Durham and Newcastle teams
  (Year 2)
• Teams had to collaborate on the look and feel of
  GUIs and some basic functionality
• Different hardware platforms mobile phone and
  PDA which dictated different development
  environments
• Project lasted for full academic year and
  students had to review the products and process
  at the end

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Cross-Site Collaboration Assessment

• Evaluate and assess inter-site collaboration
  without compromising any one teams assessment
• Percentage of marks for collaboration
  documenting cross-site interactions,
  effectiveness of technologies and the resulting
  look and feel of the products
• Newcastle students not given explicit marks for
  collaboration elements of written work depended
  on interactions within the company
• Durham students each compiled personal diary of
  all meetings and produced a legacy report
  (reflection)

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Modes of Communication

• Video Conferencing Access Grid.
• Different set-up at each site
• Team email accounts, SMS, bulletin boards, face
  to face meetings etc.
• Storing of program files and documentation
• Newcastle NESS (shared repository)
• Durham group file storage space

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Experiences Using the Technology

• Durham students ran the AG themselves but
  Newcastle students had to rely on a member of
  staff
• Restricted VC room availability and staff
  availability for supervision at Newcastle
• Students tended to blame the off-site team if
  their meetings had to be rescheduled or cancelled
• When technical difficulties arose no contingency
  plans
• Some problems could not be predicted virus,
  down time of Manchester Bridge
• Students lost confidence in the technology when
  things went wrong

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Experiences Administrative Issues

• Scheduling
• At both sites, teams made up of students studying
  a variety of programmes
• Practical times not compatible
• Student perception that all team members needed
  to attend video conference meetings
• Differences in Curriculum
• Students assumed that the content, delivery and
  emphasis of the SE modules at each site were the
  same
• Emphasis at each site was in fact different

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Experiences Administrative Issues

• Marks for collaboration not explicit enough
• This led to confusion for students resulting in
  complaints of lack of interaction and poor
  communication efforts between sites in early
  phases of the assignment

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Experiences Student Interactions

• Companies that had not met face to face initially
  found it hard to view their off-site team as part
  of the same company
• Lack of relationship lack of motivation to
  respond
• "We found that trying to work with an external
  team was often quite difficult.  We could ask
  them for various pieces of information but we had
  no idea when we were going to get them."
• Student comment
• Some companies had problems not dissimilar to
  those often experienced by co-located teams

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Evaluation Student Feedback

• Some disappointment with the collaboration due
  to both technical and inter-personal
  communications which overshadowed their initial
  excitement and de-motivated some
• Increased fear that they would be penalised if
  things went wrong or for copying and possible
  plagiarism .however ..
• Liked the VC technology and the assignment and
  found collaborating interesting and challenging!!
• Were quite competitive, being representative of
  their university.
• Students liked trying new roles and became more
  confident about their abilities.

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Evaluation Student Feedback

• "The problems we faced with an external team were
  mostly because of technical problems and
  differences in timetables and schedules. I found
  that working with an external team can be
  difficult but also highly useful if you can learn
  to compromise effectively and communicate well."
• Student comment

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Evaluation Staff Observations

• The assignment was realistic, feasible and
  suitable
• Students managed to create some good software.
• The cross-site element meant they had to consider
  a company focus and see the bigger picture
  throughout the project.
• Despite all the technological problems the video
  conferencing did go ahead.
• Students need better preparation support before
  they work across sites.
• Staff need to convey the importance of
  communication rather than the communication
  medium.
• Scheduling and planning need to be more carefully
  considered by staff and students

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Future Work

• Outline the aims and motivation of the assignment
  more clearly
• Schedules and some deadlines will be more closely
  aligned
• Cross-site team games to be held at Durham.
• Ensure more student confidence in using
  technology
• Training in conducting meetings especially
  virtual meetings
• Provide better access to improved VC equipment
• NESS shared repository that can be accessed by
  cross-site teams making exchange of
  documents/files easier.
• One over arching design developed by the company
  with work divided between sites resulting in one
  final product to be presented by the company
• Tighter evaluation strategy industrial liaison,
  focus groups, industrial placement students,
  videoing a number of video conference sessions

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Questions?