Abstract:

Unlike many courses in the field of computer science, teaching software engineering comes with a set of challenges. These major challenges can be categorized into five aspects, namely: (1) incorporating a case study based approach to the design of lectures and assignments, (2) including projects from a range of domains, technology, and platforms, (3) keeping up with rapid evolution of technology, (4) setting up a development environment enabling students to understand the impact of geographical, social, and cultural implications on software development, and (5) having students understand the fact that software development is not simply a technical activity, but involves facilitating effective operation of teams. Since software systems have now become an integral part of almost every single industry, producing students who can develop and maintain systems that span across various industries is critical. This paper describes each of these challenges and possible approaches towards overcoming these challenges. The focus of this paper will address the challenges of creating a course within an undergraduate computer science curriculum to teach global software engineering. Due to the globalization of software development activities, industries are looking at recruiting students who are equipped with skills needed to deal with challenges around global software engineering. Designing instructional materials and assessment tools to develop this unique mix of skill sets is addressed in this paper. We also discuss both the traditional and non-traditional aspects of teaching software engineering to computer science students.

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