TY - GEN
T1 - A study of first year undergraduate computing students’ experience of learning software development in the absence of a software development process
AU - Higgins, Catherine
AU - O’Leary, Ciaran
AU - McAvinia, Claire
AU - Ryan, Barry
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Despite the ever-growing demand for software development graduates, it is recognised that a significant barrier for increasing graduate numbers lies in the inherent difficulty in learning how to develop software. This paper presents a study that is part of a larger research project aimed at addressing the gap in the provision of educational software development processes for freshman, novice undergraduate learners, to improve proficiency levels. As a means of understanding how such learners problem solve in software development in the absence of a formal process, this study examines the experiences and depth of learning acquired by a sample set of novice, freshman university learners. The study finds that without the scaffolding of an appropriate structured development process tailored to novices, students are in danger of failing to engage with the problem solving skills necessary for software development, particularly the skill of designing solutions prior to coding.
AB - Despite the ever-growing demand for software development graduates, it is recognised that a significant barrier for increasing graduate numbers lies in the inherent difficulty in learning how to develop software. This paper presents a study that is part of a larger research project aimed at addressing the gap in the provision of educational software development processes for freshman, novice undergraduate learners, to improve proficiency levels. As a means of understanding how such learners problem solve in software development in the absence of a formal process, this study examines the experiences and depth of learning acquired by a sample set of novice, freshman university learners. The study finds that without the scaffolding of an appropriate structured development process tailored to novices, students are in danger of failing to engage with the problem solving skills necessary for software development, particularly the skill of designing solutions prior to coding.
KW - Freshman University Students
KW - Software Development Education
KW - Software Development Process
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067098065&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://arrow.tudublin.ie/schfsehcon/27/
U2 - 10.5220/0007655302310240
DO - 10.5220/0007655302310240
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85067098065
T3 - CSEDU 2019 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
SP - 231
EP - 240
BT - CSEDU 2019 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
A2 - Lane, H.
A2 - Zvacek, Susan
A2 - Uhomoibhi, James
PB - SciTePress
T2 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2019
Y2 - 2 May 2019 through 4 May 2019
ER -