%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Forum for Academic Software Engineering % % (The Electronic Version) % % % % Volume 2, Number 1, January 1992 (FASE No. 2) % % % % _____________________________________________________________________ % % % % 1 A 1 credit-hour software engineering course to serve student % % clients? % % % % 2 Several items of interest from the Software Engineering Institute % % % % _____________________________________________________________________ % % % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1================================1================================1 Subject: A 1 credit-hour software engineering course to serve student clients? From <@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu:FFPJK@ALASKA.BITNET> I just received the first issue of FASE. Looks good, and seems like a good idea. I'll try to be an active contributor. For starters, I have a question for the experts. Here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks we have a small rocket launching range called Poker Flats. The first launch of a student-designed and built rocket is due in about a month. The students developed the payload and its software, plus some associated software for analysis and some other range operations. They hope to do more of the same over the next few years. I have been asked to develop a 1 credit-hour software engineering course to serve these student clients, and I'll be offering what I developed next semester (starting January 1992). My questions are: 1) does anyone know of an existing course that might fill this bill (about 12 students, by the way), and if so how do I get to look at it? 2) any great ideas for such a course (now tentatively called "Software Development Methods for Aerospace Applications". Pete Knoke 2================================2================================2 Subject: Several items of interest from the Software Engineering Institute From: Dr. Lionel Deimel Graduate Curriculum Project, SEI I. POST-SIGCSE TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM WORKSHOPS As usual, the SEI is offering a set of workshops following the SIGCSE Technical Symposium, on Saturday, March 7, 1992, in Kansas City. (Other workshops are also offered, and participants can freely choose among the offerings.) The emphasis of our workshops this year is on teaching software engineering: Tutorial #1 (8:30-10:00 am): "Presentation Techniques for Instructors," presented by Joseph Delgado. Dr. Delgado, an instructional designer, offers the course most of us have never had on making more effective presentations to students. Tutorial #2 (10:30 am-noon, 1:30-3:00 pm): "Helping Your Students Develop Communication Skills," presented by Linda Pesante. Ms. Pesante, a technical writer, editor, and teacher, suggests ways of helping students in technical courses become better communicators. A new SEI video on teaching writing will be shown for the first time. Tutorial #6 (3:30-5:00 pm): "Techniques and Resources for Teaching Software Engineering Project Courses," presented by James Tomayko. Dr. Tomayko describes various ways of organizing students on software engineering projects and discusses the use of SEI resources available to assist instructors. All the presenters are on the SEI staff. Registration fees for these tutorials are modest. Registration can be accomplished using either the Computer Science Conference or SIGCSE Technical Symposium brochures. When registering, be aware that in the SIGCSE brochure, #2 is identified as a 90-minute tutorial and #6 is identified as a half-day tutorial. These errors do not occur in the CSC brochure, although #2 is listed in two parts. If you use the SIGCSE registration form, some confusion may result. II. INSPECTIONS VIDEOTAPE Many readers of this digest have seen our recent videotape and report Educational Materials package "Scenes of Software Inspections: Video Dramatizations for the Classroom" (CMU/SEI-91-EM-5, or EM-5 for short). I am happy to report that the videotape has been used successfully at both a number of universities and a number of corporations. One industry user reported that all of the problems with software inspections dramatized on the tape have been seen in her organization, so that the scenes were considered quite realistic. Least popular (and probably least realistic) is the scene of the discussion between the moderator and project manager. Of the "group process" scenes, the two of the business meeting have been used most often. Additional reports of experiences with EM-5 will also be appreciated. III. PROGRAM READING Educational Materials package "Reading Computer Programs: Instructor's Guide and Exercises" (CMU/SEI-90-EM-3) has not been used much in the classroom, so far as we know. (The report advocates teaching program reading and includes a 100-page Ada program, available on diskette, and graduated questions based on the program.) We recently had a report of an instructor whose grader read the program. Although the grader concluded that the program was too long to use in the course--a programming languages course--the grader suggested that all student graders be required to read the program as training for being a grader. Certainly EM-3 was not provided with this application in mind, but the program it contains may indeed be valuable as a training aid for use with student assistants. Teachers may wish to discuss the program with graders to communicate to their assistants what they consider to be important issues in student programs. Reports of other experiences with EM-3 are eagerly solicited. IV. SIXTH SEI CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION The dealine for submitting papers and panel proposals for the 1992 CSEE is March 16, 1992. The conference is being held this year in San Diego on October 5-7. See page 6 of the December 1991 "SIGCSE Bulletin" for complete details. Comments and requests for further information may be sent to education@sei.cmu.edu End=============================End=============================End %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % % % Managing Editor: Pen-Nan Lee % % fase@cs.uh.edu % % % % % % % % % % % % % % Organization Committee % % % % Keith Pierce % % University of Minnesota, Duluth % % Currently on leave at the Software Engineering Institute % % Carnegie Mellon University % % Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 % % Telephone: (412)268-8145 % % Fax: (412)268-5758 % % Email: krp@sei.cmu.edu % % % % % % Laurie Werth % % Dept. of Computer Science % % Taylor Hall 2.124 % % University of Texas at Austin % % Austin, Texas 78712 % % Telephone: (512) 471-9535 % % Fax: (512)471-8885 % % Email: lwerth@cs.utexas.edu % % % % % % Pen-Nan Lee % % Dept. of Computer Science % % University of Houston % % Houston, TX 77204-3475 % % Telephone: (713)749-3144, 749-4791 % % Fax: (713)749-2378 % % Email: pnlee@cs.uh.edu % % Email: fase@cs.uh.edu % % % % % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%