Turning Insight into Action: Evaluating Targeted Interventions for a Software Engineering Course Informed by Student Reflections
To consistently tailor course content to meet specific student needs and develop just-in-time interventions, we have developed the reflection-based Course Intervention Development Cycle (CIDC), a framework for analyzing student reflections. In prior work, we developed activity modules targeting common challenges in software engineering courses, such as APIs, GitHub, and MySQL. These extra-credit student support modules (SSMs) contain online resources, such as articles, videos, and practice problems, to help students tailor their learning. In this paper, we apply the method to two sections of a software engineering course and evaluate the impact of the interventions using a structured qualitative and quantitative approach. Our results suggest that students who completed one or more SSMs generally expressed positive perceptions of the module. In their reflections, they described gaining a stronger understanding of core software engineering concepts, identified how the SSMs supported their coursework, and expressed appreciation for access to supplemental resources. Furthermore, software engineering students in the online synchronous course who completed modules related to APIs, GitHub, MySQL, and group work individually reported statistically higher scores than those who did not. Students who took the in-person did not report the same benefits, suggesting that the SSMs may have been more impactful or better aligned with the needs of online students. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Fri 20 FebDisplayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change
15:40 - 17:00 | |||
15:40 20mTalk | Teaching Software Documentation through an Asynchronous Module: An Experience ReportGlobal Papers | ||
16:00 20mTalk | A Framework to Detect, Classify, and Prioritise Student Quality DefectsGlobal Papers Shiman Cui The University of Auckland, Paul Denny The University of Auckland, Andrew Luxton-Reilly The University of Auckland | ||
16:20 20mTalk | Turning Insight into Action: Evaluating Targeted Interventions for a Software Engineering Course Informed by Student Reflections Papers Sandra Wiktor University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Mohsen Dorodchi University of North Carolina Charlotte | ||
16:40 20mTalk | Benchmarking AI Tools for Software Engineering Education: Insights into Design, Implementation, and Testing Papers Nimisha Roy Georgia Institute of Technology, Oleksandr Horielko Georgia Institute of Technology, Fisayo Omojokun Georgia Institute of Technology | ||