An Examination of Distance Education Learning Environments in Two Software Engineering Graduate Courses

Introduction

The Software Engineering Research Network (SERN) is funded by industry and administered by the Industrial Software Engineering Chair at the University of Calgary to support the dissemination of good practice in software engineering. One component of SERN's activities is a thesis-based masters degree program with a specialization in software engineering (SENG) targeted at students with industrial experience in full-time employment. We are currently addressing the challenge of making the MSc program formally available to remote students while maintaining effective ongoing participation. First steps have included developing and offering parallel sections of SENG 611, a six-week graduate course in Requirements Engineering. One section of SENG 611 was delivered on campus, and the other delivered at a distance using facilities provided by WebCT. A second step was to offer SENG 609.04, Design Patterns, as a distance education course that was supported with WebCT and weekly chats using Net Meeting.

Distance Education in Software Engineering

This paper will report on our experiences with two distance education graduate courses in software engineering. We first describe the methods used to prepare the courses for distance delivery. We experimented with several technological tools to facilitate computer mediated communication: WebCT, electronic mail, a list server, and NetMeeting. Second, we will outline and explain the methods used to evaluate the distance learning environments experienced by SENG 611 (Requirements Engineering) and SENG 609.04 (Design Patterns) graduate students. We present a full analysis and report on the data and information collected from students and the instructors, and make recommendations for future research comparing local and distance learning environments. Finally, this paper will discuss web-based data collection methods for educational and psychological research on distance learning.

Methodology

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of information collected from students, both throughout and at the completion of each course, is presented and discussed. Two unconventional data collection procedures, along with a conventional end-of-course evaluation, were used to explore and evaluate the distance learning environments offered to students in the two courses. Students e-mailed weekly learning logs and a final biography of learning to a distance education researcher who took no part in the grading of student achievement in the course. Students recorded three types of information for their learning log: 1) reflections on the outcomes of lecture/sessions (main objectives of lesson, what was important new learning, what was confirmed, what changed for the student, value of topics discussed to student's work life or future career goals), 2) notes on what worked particularly well, and what did not (perhaps according to preferred learning methods, individual learning styles or personality types), and 3) time spent on various course-related tasks, such as reading the textbook, writing responses, participating in project work and group meetings, reading and contributing to the course list server, and constructing and uploading HTML documents. The Biography of Learning is a retrospective narrative account through which the student questions and reflects upon their educational biographies and learning experience throughout the course. The learning logs proved to be a rich data source from which students could conduct a comprehensive review and analysis of their personal learning experience in the course.

Results

The two data collection methods used to gather information from students proved to be very successful. Students provided rich and extensive qualitative and quantitative information about their participation in and perceptions of the courses, the types of tasks and time spent completing them, and reflections on their learning styles and preferences. In the first course, students submitted their learning logs and biography of learning using email. This data collection procedure yielded 5 learning logs and 1 biography of learning per student, and with 21 students, the researcher's task included organizing, sorting, and recording 126 documents. Use of this data collection procedure in the second course was greatly facilitated by employing a web-based, fill-in form that automatically saved student information to individual files which were imported seamlessly into a statistical application for analysis. The 7 students in the second course submitted 42 learning logs and 7 biographies of learning.

Recommendations Based Upon Lessons Learned

In the form of recommendations for research methods and educational practice, we present some lessons learned from the experiments with a distance education model.

Michele Jacobsen
Rob Kremer
Mildred Shaw