Transitioning to a Large-Scale Distributed Programming Course

Paul Schmiedmayer, Lara Marie Reimer, Marko Jovanovic, Dominic Henze, Stephan Jonas

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our day-today life, businesses, and educational institutions by changing the way we interact with each other in a very short space of time. In the context of teaching, lecturers had to rapidly develop concepts and teaching materials that enable distributed virtual and safe learning experiences. In this paper, we describe the challenges of reorganizing a two-week programming course that we have taught for more than ten years in a classroom setting using face-to-face communication. The course teaches students the basics of developing a software system using the Swift programming language and is a prerequisite for a single semester capstone course. We show how we reworked the course into a distributed format using online sessions and real-time feedback for about 80 students. We describe the remote supervision approaches we used to support students and the process of rethinking the course infrastructure by enabling remote access as well as by offering a semi-automated merge management and code review system. Based on this experience, we provide instructors with insights on how to set up and conduct a distributed software engineering course when face-to-face teaching is impossible.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2020 IEEE 32nd Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2020
EditorsMarian Daun, Elke Hochmuller, Stephan Krusche, Bernd Brugge, Bastian Tenbergen
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages256-261
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781728168074
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2020
Event32nd IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2020 - Munich, Germany
Duration: 9 Nov 202012 Nov 2020

Publication series

Name2020 IEEE 32nd Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2020

Conference

Conference32nd IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2020
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMunich
Period9/11/2012/11/20

Keywords

  • Code Review
  • Online Learning
  • Programming Course
  • Software Engineering Education
  • Swift

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