Student perspectives on a real world project
Sofya Poger, Frances K. Bailie · 2006
This paper reveals students ’ reaction to their work on an Assessment System for use by the Computer Science Department at Iona College. It describes their reactions to various aspects of the software project, both positive and negative and also describes feedback on their skills from some of their current employers. 1. THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROJECT At Iona College, both undergraduate and graduate students complete a two course capstone experience. The first course is dedicated to the design and analysis of a software project and the second to its implementation. This arrangement is typical of many Computer Science programs and shares both the successes and frustrations of other institutions. Among the primary goals of our capstone experience is to prepare our students to tackle the real world problems they will encounter in their future careers. Overall, the educational community has failed to meet the demands of the IT community, since in many programs, theoretical knowledge is stressed to the detriment of the skills required in the workforce (Varol & Bayrak, 2005). Typical project courses face numerous challenges. If the student knows that the software will never be used beyond the course, there is little incentive to produce a robust system, other than passing test data designed by the instructor. If the course material is of little interest, the motivation to excel is limited. Often, even if the student has the determination to succeed, they have other courses to complete and lack the time that a professional can dedicate to the project (Coppit & Haddox-Schatz, 2005). One way to face some of these challenges is to create a situation for “... students to understand the concepts and see themselves in their future