Developments in Global Software Engineering Education

Abstract

Abstract-An ITiCSE 2015 conference working group report has recently delivered a comprehensive systematic review of the literature addressing the challenges and solutions in teaching global software engineering courses. In this panel session, a group of authors of that report will review the findings, and present their own views on teaching such courses, the pros and cons and their own motivations and experiences, together with strategies that have proven effective. We argue that these courses are critical for preparing students for practice as software engineers in today's global settings, but they are certainly not for the faint-hearted. After the review and presentation of position statements by panelists there will be a question and answer session with the audience and a discussion elaborating on the next frontiers in research and practice for global software engineering education. Keywords-GlobalSoftware Engineering Education; Distributed teams; Authentic learning. I. OVERVIEWPreparing Software Engineering students for the realities of current Software Engineering (SE) practice is challenging. This is especially so, when that practice increasingly involves globally distributed teams forced to surmount the challenges posed by the many forms of global distance (temporal, geographic, cultural -including institutional and linguistic aspects). Addressing this new reality in the classroom presents its own challenges that go beyond the global distance problems encountered in SE and include issues such as institutional collaboration, student skill differences, classroom management difficulties and other complications. This panel brings together six participants who have participated in a Working Group at the ITiCSE 2015 conference, which has resulted in a major report on Global Software Engineering Education (GSE-Ed) [1], titled: Challenges and Recommendations for the Design and Conduct of Global Software Engineering Courses: A Systematic Review.The Working Group Report is accompanied by a supporting protocol available online [2]. The challenges of GSE-Ed can be categorized as the working group report has demonstrated, yet, at the same time, experiences tend to be unique based on the characteristics of the participating institutions, the background of students and faculty participants, and the areas of SE addressed. As a result, the challenges of GSE-Ed are best presented from a variety of perspectives, which this panel will provide. The panellists will share their own experiences in teaching software engineering courses and in globalisation initiatives, and provide their personal perspectives on the challenges and solutions in providing such courses. These insights will be backed up by the findings from the panel members' report, as a recent and major review of the literature, that will be summarised for participants. After discussions with the audience, the panel will conclude by identifying emerging topics and recommendations for future developments in Global Software Engineering Courses.

Counteracting sociocultural barriers in global software engineering using group activities

“…84 • GSE challenges: Participants of the activity faced important challenges that GSE has to face: (i) Cultural 21,85 : The teams consisted of international students from different countries, for example, China, Pakistan, and Korea. They have different cultures and languages (language aspect 86 ), an ideal blend for activity on GSE [S7,S9]; (ii) geographic 87 • Communication overload: We also observed an issue with communication overload. 23 Some groups during Activity 1 wrote complete information on the topic due to the uncertainty of time and transfer of information.…”

“… GSE challenges : Participants of the activity faced important challenges that GSE has to face: (i) Cultural 21,85 : The teams consisted of international students from different countries, for example, China, Pakistan, and Korea. They have different cultures and languages (language aspect 86 ), an ideal blend for activity on GSE [S7,S9] ; (ii) geographic 87 : In both activities, the team members were placed at different locations to mimic the geographical challenge [S7,S9] ; (iii) knowledge sharing barriers 81 : In Activities 1 and 2, the main barriers in knowledge sharing were limitation of time, different languages and culture, and unknown talent of multiskilled team members 87 [S8,S9] . Communication overload : We also observed an issue with communication overload 23 . Some groups during Activity 1 wrote complete information on the topic due to the uncertainty of time and transfer of information.…”

“…There is, thus, a strong need to provide an effective method to train and educate students so they can anticipate the challenges and perform well in practical life 11 . That training, however, is not a simple task and is arguably one of the reasons why challenges in GSE still persist 19 . As GSE relies on the development of soft skills, the major problem is to find new approaches and techniques to teach these soft skills as conventional techniques mainly based on didactic learning are outdated 20,21 …”

“…11 That training, however, is not a simple task and is arguably one of the reasons why challenges in GSE still persist. 19 As GSE relies on the development of soft skills, the major problem is to find new approaches and techniques to teach these soft skills as conventional techniques mainly based on didactic learning are outdated. 20,21 Using online simulation and games 21 to increase collaboration between team members has recently gained prominence.…”

Propuesta metodológica y arquitectónica para el desarrollo de juegos serios orientados a la formación de competencias tecnológicas

“…Página | 33 móviles, el cual se integra a las posibilidades del entorno virtual de enseñanza y aprendizaje IDEAS, a partir de las herramientas de autoevaluación que este EVEA dispone. Desafíate permite potenciar el desarrollo de competencias pedagógicas, específicamente relacionadas con acompañar a la autoevaluación del estudiantado en la aplicación de conceptos y recuperación de los conocimientos abordados en determinados procesos educativos(Archuby et al, 2017a(Archuby et al, , 2017c(Archuby et al, , 2018.En Irlanda, se ha diseñado y desarrollado el juego serio GSD Sim, el cual es unjuego serio educativo del tipo simulación, desarrollado por los investigadores Tom Mason, Kevin Farrell, Miles McGuire y Ross McKinley del "Centro de Investigación de Ingeniería de Software de Irlanda".El objetivo principal de GSD SIM consiste en potenciar las habilidades de los jugadores en el desarrollo de software global (GSD, Global Software Development).El juego posibilita al jugador vivenciar de una forma más realista, divertida y entretenida las dificultades que implica el GSD desde el punto de vista de un gerente de proyecto, en un tiempo mucho más corto y a un costo menor que un proyecto de GSD real, permitiendo potenciar la mejora en habilidades y destrezas, formación de competencias tecnológicas, trabajo colaborativo y el feedback(Clear et al, 2016;Noll et al, 2010Noll et al, , 2014Sandí-Delgado & Sanz, 2018a).En Francia, se creó el juego serio Tamagocours, desarrollado por Erick Sánchez del Instituto de Educación Francés. Tamagocours es un juego colaborativo en línea desarrollado con el propósito de ser utilizado para entrenar al personal docente en competencias pedagógicas a nivel de educación superior que les permitan usar e integrar las TIC en los procesos formativos; competencias relacionadas con el uso de recursos digitales en los salones de clase, principalmente asimilar reglas de derechos de copyright para la utilización de material didáctico(Sánchez, 2013;Sánchez et al, 2015;Sánchez & Emin-Martínez, 2014).En Estados Unidos de América, se diseñó y desarrolló el juego serio Cisco Packet Tracer, el cual es un juego serio de simulación utilizado para potenciar competencias tecnológicas y de gestión, a través del entrenamiento y el aprendizaje técnico, de forma visual e interactiva desarrollado por Cisco Systems para ser utilizado principalmente en la Cisco Networking Academy(Cabarkapa, 2015;Frezzo et al, 2009;Janitor et al, 2010).…”