Industry-based web services project as a classroom teaching tool

Abstract

Two of the problems that plague educators of computer programming are: fitting problems of sufficient complexity into a single course, and preparing students to work on real-world project teams. In a recent offering of a graduate-level XML (eXtensible Markup Language) programming course, the author tackled both these problems by treating the students as members of a project team that needed to develop a Web Services solution to an actual industrial problem.The XML Programming class initially introduced students to both fundamental work with SAX (Simple API for XML) and DOM (Document Object Model), and the problem domain for their project. In the second half of the course the students worked on their portion of an enterprise-wide project. The instructor, acting as project manager, described the entire project and the portion the team would work on, arranged visits by the actual client, and coordinated the activities. Students interviewed the client and conducted research in order to complete their requirements gathering.While students studied the web services protocol stack, they designed and developed the actual services. Students interacted with one another, depending on and helping one another so that the team could achieve its goal. The class team also interacted with other teams ensuring that APIs and other project standards were maintained.Students finished the course not only with a sense of true accomplishment but they also:Gained first-hand knowledge of the plusses and minuses of working with cutting-edge technologies;Worked as part of a cohesive team driven toward a common goal;Dealt with the issues of working with other teams and their products;Interacted directly with a client, dealing with fixed resources and all the ugliness and uncertainty that come with real world problems.

Software development concerns in the building of service-oriented based enterprise systems

“…The work on the development of a prototype on a SOA extends the concept of Service Oriented Architecture by producing a Web Service prototype modeled using the Service Oriented Architecture design. The development of the prototype on a SOA follows alongside Zilora's [9] work as it relates to the implementation of a Web Service from the perspective of the project itself. Our work takes this in a different direction by presenting the results of a three man project team to create a prototype for the purposes of evaluating the performance of an entirely open source SOA implementation.…”

The Teaching--Research--Industry--Learning Nexus in Information and Communications Technology

“…Real world projects can also be incorporated into other courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Song [1996] and Zilora [2004] both describe initiatives where postgraduate students undertake software development for clients from industry as part of programming courses, and Schilling and Klamma [2010] report on a project management course where both undergraduate and postgraduate students develop prototype systems for clients from industry. James [2005] discusses a long standing initiative that allows students to take a summer campus-based internship where they work on projects for industry.…”

“…The main types of initiatives that have been reported on are:  Incorporation of real world projects into courses [e.g. Bruhn and Camp 2004;James 2005;Schilling and Klamma 2010;Song 1996;Zilora 2004 Several papers have also reported on the extent and value of ICT academics undertaking consultancy and industry-based research [e.g. Grant and Wakeliin 2009;Oyebisi and Ilori 1996].…”

“… Many of the research-based, research-oriented and industry focused initiatives require students to demonstrate strong teamwork skills. Active attention to this is important; therefore, teachers must proactively address team work skills [Zilora 2004].  Many of the approaches described in this literature review are labor intensive.…”

Web Enabled Service Implementation - Telephone Directory Prototype

“…The work on the development of a web service prototype extends the concept of Service Oriented Architecture. The development of the prototype on SOA follows alongside Zilora's [16] work as it relates to the implementation of a Web Service from the perspective of project lifecycle. Furthering Zilora's research, our project team takes a real-world perspective on a single project implementation.…”