Experiences with Diploma Projects at University of Montenegro

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Experiences with Diploma Projects at University
of Montenegro

• 10th Workshop on Software Engineering Education
  and Reverse Engineering, Ivanjica, 6th 11th
  September 2010.

2
Agenda

• History
• Learning outcomes
• What contributes to the project mark
• The assessment form
• Statistics
• Problems

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History

• Started in 2001 academic studies, Computer
  Science programme
• First projects presented in 2005
• From 2003 applied studies, Information
  technologies programme
• First projects presented in 2006

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Learning Outcomes (1)

• On successful completion of the module, students
  should be able to
• Conduct a reasonably thorough investigation into
  a topic of interest, importance or relevance to
  computer science or its applications
• Where appropriate, accomplish an acceptable
  implementation (or other useful model) to fulfill
  the main goals of the project

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Learning Outcomes (2)

• Work largely independently, within agreed project
  requirements, with minimal supervision
• Deliver technical presentations during the
  project development cycle
• Complete a detailed project report covering all
  central aspects of the project

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Learning Outcomes (3)

• Work within all project deadlines, interim report
  deadlines and consultation requirements giving
  regular and timely feedback to your project
  supervisor(s)
• Plan and manage all your own project milestones

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What contributes to the project mark (1)

• The achievements of the project
• What was its scale?
• How complex was it?
• What problems did student overcome?

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What contributes to the project mark (2)

• The process
• Have student carried out the processes of
  analysis, specification, design, implementation
  and testing, as appropriate to his/her project?
  How well have student analyzed and justified the
  decisions he/she took?
• (In the case of the supervisor) How was students
  performance throughout the year? How well
  prepared were he/she for meetings? How
  successfully did student spread the load
  throughout semester?

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What contributes to the project mark (3)

• The end product
• If software, does it have the required
  functionality?
• How good is its user interface?
• Is it stable and robust?

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What contributes to the project mark (4)

• The project demonstration
• How clear was students demonstration? Could
  he/she answer questions convincingly?
• The project report
• Its content, clarity, presentation. How well have
  student described what he/she did, and how he/she
  did it?

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Project Assessment Form

• Quality of demonstration
• Quality of report
• Quality of product
• Quality of process (based on all sources of
  evidence)
• Management (supervisor only)
• Substantialness of achievement

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Project Assessment Form
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Statistics (1)
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Statistics (2)
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Statistics (3)
Area of stud.
Genetic Algorithms 11
Graph Algorithms 4
Teaching Software 6
Third-party Projects 11
Web Services 3
Neural Networks 10
Mobile Platforms 2
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Statistics (4)
Area of stud.
Probabilistic Systems 3
Unsupervised Learning 2
Semi-supervised Learning 2
Machine Learning Applications 8
GIS 1
Parallel programming 2
Fuzzy logic applications 2
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Problems

• Intellectual property rights
• The University has intellectual property rights
  over any code that student produce in the course
  of students project but
• For students who implements third-party
  companies projects, intellectual property rights
  are transferred to these companies (T-com,
  Montenegro airlines)

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Problems

• Plagiarism
• Deliberate plagiarism is a very serious offence
  and as a minimum it results in disqualification
  from the project module. So far, 3 students we
  gave them new projects
• Plagiarism occurs accidentally students quote
  or paraphrased other people's work, without
  clearly indicate that this is what they are
  doing, and doesnt include the source
• Tables, diagrams, other people's programs or
  source code etc. copied from elsewhere must also
  be clearly labeled as such, with reference to the
  source

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Problems

• Writing report
• Wrong structure of report (all levels)
• Lack of precision
• Long sentences
• Typography
• Illustrations
• Grammar and spelling (Nightmare!)

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Problems

• Project management (1)
• Project work is meant to begin with a period of
  reading and research. During this period, student
  ideas about how he/she will approach the project
  work will crystallize, and he/she will learn the
  new techniques, background knowledge and perhaps
  programming languages which he/she will need to
  complete the project

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Problems

• Project management (2)
• our estimate 180-240 hours/semester (10-15
  hours/week or 2-3 hours/day)
• 83 of students leave implementation for the last
  3-4 weeks of semester (daily 0-12 hours)
• 90 of students leave writing to the (literally)
  last minute

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Problems

• Lack of collaboration with third-party companies
• Some lecturers are not interested to provide
  projects and/or support

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Students' feedback

• Projects are too demanding
• I need one more week/month/year
• I don't know how to read data from files ...
  start Flex ... using python

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The End

• More information
• www.pmf.ac.me
• Thank you for your attention!
• Questions?