OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION

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1 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al. 39 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT THE EXAMPLE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES TECHNIKUM WIEN Robert Pucher, Gerd Holweg, Thomas Mandl, Benedikt Salzbrunn, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Austria 1 Abstract During the last years the number of job vacancies in Computer Science in Austria and Germany is constantly increasing. In Germany the estimated number presently is around vacant jobs (Streim, Pfisterer, 2014). As a result of that situation, companies start seeking employees among Computer Science students, thus creating a pressure on students to start to work with companies while they are still studying. At the same time many companies say they need Computer Science education to be oriented more on practical needs instead of theoretical knowledge. This fact is well known in computer science education. Students who are perfect in answering theoretical questions in an exam not necessarily are able to apply the knowledge in real world projects. In many cases this is the reason why students from traditional programs in computer science show a rather poor performance when starting to work (Pucher, Schmöllebeck, 2007). At the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien the authors developed a concept for the Bachelor s degree in Computer Science and for the Master s Degree in Software Engineering to combine theoretical knowledge with application of it in real world projects. The programs are optimized for students who just finished high school and guide them smoothly into full time work in the last semester of their study. The most important features include: Bachelor s program in Computer Science The first contact to real world problems is made early in the study, usually in the third semester, in selected cases even in the first semester. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and mobile teaching. Most projects are realized using the own lap top computer or own mobile device of the student. This saves costs for the university and adds flexibility (Pucher et al., 2007). Carefully selection of allowed projects. A match has to be done between company needs and educational needs. This issue proved to be crucial for the success of the projects (Pucher et al., 2010). The study program Computer Science is a traditional face to face program, but includes elements of distant education in lessons to allow students to transform theoretical knowledge into practical skills. Master s program in Software Engineering The Master s program Software Engineering is designed for students who work beside their studies. In the Master s program much care is taken to help students to gain theoretical knowledge needed for their practical work, but also to teach in a project based learning environment. KEYWORDS: Computer Science, Job vacancies, Software Engineering 1 robert.pucher@technikum-wien.at

2 40 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications 1. Introduction In the last decades the way how software is being developed by most companies changed a lot. Today agile models together with traditional elements of waterfall models can be found in most cases. Software Engineering today is developed in a robust and flexible way. To fulfil the needs of customers has become the main objective in the development process for software. This fact and the increasing complexity of most computer languages and computer architectures are imposing a high demand on the education of future software engineers. To meet the needs of the software industry became a challenging issue for universities. One challenge particularly can be found in the need of teaching highly sophisticated theoretical subject and to combine this theoretical knowledge with application of the knowledge in real software projects. This combination is a very delicate process. On the one hand companies often tell universities the teaching is fused on theoretical knowledge only; on the other hand software engineers working for a long time in companies feel they lack theoretical knowledge. A second challenge evolved during the last twenty years. Today no business can survive without software, thus the market is creating an immense need for software engineers. However, it can be seen in all universities and also in our own university, the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien (UAS-TW), that the number of software engineers finishing their studies remained more or less constant in the same period. It is easy to see that this development directly supports the current situation in Germany and Austria where many vacant positions for software engineers can be found (Streim, Pfisterer, 2014). 2. Bachelor s Program in Computer Science at UAS-TW During the last fifteen years at the UAS-TW the Bachelor s program in Computer Science was continuously developed and improved by the authors and many other involved teachers. Today the program is highly valued by both, applicants who want to study and companies wishing to cooperate and to get direct access to students and graduates of the program. The number of applicants was steadily increasing and reached the number of five applicants for a single place at university, or in numbers out of 300 applicants only 60 can be accepted in one year. At the same time the offers for jobs highly exceeded the number of graduates (Streim, Pfisterer, 2014), many companies also try to offer attractive internships and very important for the study program companies offer projects in various formats to the university. Presently the number of projects offered, exceeds 100 per year which in turn imposes a remarkable workload on teachers. The reason for the workload is, it turned out projects offered by companies never ever should be taken as they are as part of an educational program. Much care has to be taken when cooperating with companies in terms of projects. If projects just are forwarded to students the theme and the format of the project in many cases do not fit the needs of the program nor do the results fit the needs of the companies.

3 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROJECT BASED LEARNING (PJBL) IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. A SUMMARY OF BEST PRACTICE EXAMPLES Project based Learning (PjBL) was introduced in the curriculum of Computer Science in the year The very first experiences have been disappointing. It took years to develop a framework and educational scheme which has become one of the main reasons for the high success of this particular program Curriculum and PjBL in the Bachelor s Program in Computer Science How much project based learning do students need? This question is difficult to answer. After several approaches the authors propose the following scheme. Figure 1 shows an overview of the curriculum and the respective amount of PjBL in all six semesters of the program. Table 1 gives additional details. The amount of PjBL in the whole curriculum is currently 24% and will be lowered to approximately 23%. This is necessary mainly, because students in the 6th semester always experienced problems in finishing the project. Semester Lesson ECTS Credits Workload in percent of study time Workload in hours Remark 1 ITP % 75 Projects in the field of web engineering 2 ITP % 75 Projects in the field of web engineering mainly 3 ITP 3 4,5 15% 112,5 Projects with a focus on any lesson of this or previous semester 4 ITP 4 4,5 15% 112,5 Projects with a focus on any lesson of this or previous semester 5* ITP % 150 Projects with a focus on any lesson of this or previous semester 5** ITP 5 4,5 15% 112,5 Projects with a focus on any lesson of this or previous semester 6 BOP 22,5 75% 375 Internship in a company or university Table 1. Project Based Learning (PjBL) in the Bachelor s Program Computer Science. * until study year 2014/15 ** starting with study year 2015/16

4 42 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications Figure 1. Project Based Learning in the curriculum of computer science is marked in red and accounts for 24% of the curriculum

5 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al. 43 Especially in the first and in the second semester the projects are dedicated to a very specific teaching propose, namely web engineering and basics of database systems. In the following semesters any subject taught can be the main focus of the project. Teachers have to take care only suitable projects are being made available. In the fifth semester the amount of PjBL just is being reduced to 4 ECTS, the same amount as in the previous two semesters. Please keep in mind the main purpose of these projects it to bridge the gap between teaching and the real world of software development. That is way only such a relatively small amount of time is dedicated to the projects. Other lessons also do include practical use of computer languages for example. However these other lessons differ in a subtle way, they do not use projects which have a real customer. In the 6th semester students are doing an internship where they have to work on a project in the company or university where the internship takes place. The project has to deal with fields previously taught in the study program. A teacher of the university is in charge taking care of that issue What makes projects suitable for teaching purposes? In the first days of PjBL the authors did not pay much attention to the type of project. It was assumed that all projects are going to work. The projects used for teaching in most cases just have been defined by the teacher who was in charge of a given group. Projects mainly had been of the type, Build a WebSite, or program which organizes records of music for your personal use. There was no real customer and there was no real world problem the software or website had to solve. This approach seemed to be justified, because the project was intended to practice programing or other skills. However, the authors now know such an approach must be avoided by all means. The unavoidable inherent problems such an approach imposes onto the project are many. Students do not learn how to find out what a customer really needs, as there is no customer. There is no way to judge, if the solution actually solves the need, as there are no real customers and there is no real need. Very low motivation of students. In many cases the solution which can be achieved with the absolute minimum effort will be reached. Today projects come from three sources mainly. A project, which is accepted in ITP1 to 5, needs to have a real customer. As shown before, it turned out to be absolutely crucial for projects to have someone who really, really is interested in the result of the project. Only and only if that condition is met, real world measures apply. If a customer exists there is someone who complains if the goals are changed or if a project is declared to be a success and in reality there is nothing to show. Motivation to finish the project also is a very crucial factor. Here we suggest relying mainly on intrinsic motivation instead on the more common extrinsic motivation in regular lessons. To rely on intrinsic motivation implies students can select the project by themselves. They themselves chose what to work on Hofmann and colleagues (2010) and Hammerl and colleagues (2010). The

6 44 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications sources of the projects are today are defined as follows. 1. One possibility is that students themselves suggest a project. In this case the customer is the student who is interested in the result. These types of projects need much care in the phase of definition, as students seldom do have enough knowledge and/or experience to judge what is appropriate in the given semester, how large the project should be and many other factors which have to be taken into account. The advantages of this approach are the high levels of motivation usually being found in that type of project. Special care has to be taken in semester one and two in that way that project ideas have to be discussed in detail with students before approval. It turned out that students coming from school very often have low or even no experience in effort estimation, project routines and teamwork. Therefore the approval process can be very time consuming, not every idea can be accepted and projects have to be adapted in a brainstorming session between students and teacher or students are asked to choose from the given projects as described in possibility two and three. 2. The second possibility is to use projects which come from companies. These projects need an extremely high level of attendance throughout the whole semester. Companies need to be guided through the process as they usually are not familiar with constrains of the semester and ECTS structure of University s. Imagine the semester is over, but the project has to continue for reasons found in the company. Such conditions bring projects into a very unwanted and difficult to resolve situation. The projects in almost all cases have to be restructured to fit into one semester, the effort has to be adjusted to fit the number of ECTS credits (=time), the expectation of the company has to be lowered in many cases, as student projects seldom yield a final software product. In higher semesters one solution can be that students directly work with the company and are integrated into the processes in the company. However these projects also need high level of attendance as it is necessary to ensure the topic of the project matches the educational needs of the university. 3. The third possibility is to use projects for the needs of the faculty. However these projects face the same problems as the projects with companies and furthermore student do not like these projects because they do not gain experiences with companies nor are they interested themselves in the result of the project. One has to keep in mind; in such a scenario one of the main efforts in teaching is to organize the projects. Only if enough time is available to organize the projects the lesson will yield the desired results How to teach PjBL In the first days of PjBL we tried to organize the projects similar to ordinary face to face lessons. Computer rooms had been reserved for a given period per week; teachers had been assigned to be there and to help students. However this approach utterly failed. Students kept complaining they needed more time. Teachers complained they are not able to pay attention to all students simultaneously. Both teachers and students said, the general computers in the room are not

7 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al. 45 suitable to do a real project, as an individual project always needs a special configuration, which often was impossible to get in a general computer lab. Over the years the form of teaching evolved to the present system. Today teaching is based on the following key elements. 1. Teachers with profound IT knowledge and knowledge of related areas needed in the project. Coaching instead of teaching did not work very well. The teacher needs to be the person who can help students if they run into problems. Please keep in mind; this also needs to be addressed when students are offered projects. There must be a pool of persons with different knowledge. No project can be offered if you are not able to support the project by a skilled person! 2. One person who is responsible of organizing the projects. As the process of creating and assigning and monitoring projects is one of the most important parts in teaching one person is needed for that task. The main responsibilities for that person are to keep contact with industry to define projects and t ensure the projects are suitable for teaching, to assist students in creating their own projects, to form suitable groups and assign a suitable teacher for a chosen project. 3. Bring your own device (BYOD). Students use their own laptop computer, tablet or smart phone for the project. If they do not own a suitable device they can get a device from the university. 4. Mobile working. Teaching in a classroom environment is something one might imagine in a traditional face to face program. However in PjBL it turned out to be far more effective if teaching takes place in all possible ways supported by modern IT infrastructure. Students can ask questions via and get an answer later on, as teachers often need to do literature research to find appropriate answers. Face to face communication can be beneficial, for that purpose is advisable to reserve a meeting room just in case a specific group wants to do face to face meetings. 5. Project management throughout the whole lesson. Although traditional coaching is not the preferred method of teaching PjBL as practiced in ITP it is essential in project management and planning issues. Students prior knowledge differs a lot. Aside support concerning project specifics and IT topics many students need help in general project management tasks. This is done on demand and commonly students are asked to work according their gut feeling, supervised by the teacher. By no later than ITP3 students know from parallel courses how to handle project management tasks Financial aspects of PBL As this special type of PjBL is different from all other forms of teaching in a traditional face to face program, the authors also want to give profound insight into the organizational and financial aspects of teaching with projects. As explained previously, the selection and preparation process of projects needs time, attention and a skilled teacher who is mainly responsible for these tasks. Table two shows details on teaching time needed, on the number of students taking part and on the number of projects organized.

8 46 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications Year Semester Study year ECTS 3 3 4,5 4, /15 Projects Students Teaching [h] Organizing [h] 2013/14 Projects Students Teaching [h] Organizing [h] 2012/13 Projects Students Teaching [h] Organizing [h] 2011/12 Projects Students Teaching [h] Organizing [h] , , , , , , , , , Table 2. Details on PjBL Projects Table 2 shows many details on PjBL projects. As one might expect, the amount of time needed for teaching and organizing the projects is in the same range as for teaching in small groups. But students only seldom do need computer equipment provided by the university; they need almost no rooms, and most important they do not need support for devices at all. The overall costs are considerably lower than in traditional face to face teaching. For more details on BYOD see Pucher and colleagues (2007). 3. Master s Program in Software Engineering at UAS-TW The Master s program in Software Engineering not only differs on the level of skill, but also in the form the program is organized. The program lasts four semesters, is especially designed to allow students to work besides their study and uses elements of blended learning to make that possible. More details can be found here (Pucher, Schmöllebeck, 2013). The present form of the Master s program only exists for one year now; therefore the authors still are in the process of fine tuning the lessons in PjBL as only limited statistical data is available. The profile of interest of students who work and do a master s degree besides their work is very different from the profile of bachelor students. The students in the given program are particularly interested in a profound theoretical background to practical work they are already doing and are therefore capable of doing it. This different background of students does have a profound influence on PjBL elements of the Master s program.

9 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al. 47 Figure 2. Master s Program Software Engineering, PjBL elements marked in red

10 48 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications In the first two semesters teaching is organized mainly as blended learning; only one lesson is organized as PjBL lesson. It is the lesson in interaction design, mainly because interaction design hardly can be taught effectively without having a real customer (Pucher et al., 2008). After the first two semesters a relative large block accounts for the master s project and the master s thesis, both are being taught as PjBL lessons. One of the most critical aspects of interaction design is the selection of useful projects. These projects have to fit within one semester and should need more or less the amount of time reserved through the assigned number of ECTS credits multiplied by the number of students involved. It is easy to imagine how difficult it is to find such real world projects. At the moment the authors are still experimenting to find a practical way to solve this problem and are not able to provide exact guidelines of best practice. However, in any case one person is needed who devotes a significant amount of time into the process of organizing the projects. The second module where PjBL lessons are used is the master s project, a lesson intended to be an integral part of the master s thesis. Here one of the main issues is the border of the semester. Students tend to expect a mark at the end of the semester and to stop working on the master s project as soon as they got their mark. The master s project then is considered to be finished and the work on the master s thesis is started. This strict separation is something the authors did not intend and leads to artificial and unnecessary artefacts. In the study year 2104/15 nine students in the master s program worked on a project in a company they found by themselves, 21 students selected a project provided by the faculty. The number does not reflect the number of students working in companies, as many of them chose a project provided by faculty. Again here the process of finding suitable projects needs to be considered as a critical task. Number of students Number of projects Projects provided and suggested by faculty ECTS Number of teachers Teaching total [h] Project organizing total [h] 29,00 28,00 34,00 16,50 9,00 449,90 132,50 Table 4. Details on Master s Project 2014/15 In a Master s program it is proved to be even more critical as in a Bachelor s program to provide suitable projects and skilled teachers. Although the program is in its first year, the following suggestions already can be given at present time: 1. Teachers with profound IT knowledge and knowledge of related areas needed in the project and in interaction design. The teacher needs to be the person who can help students if they run into problems. Please keep in mind; this also needs to be addressed when students are offered projects. There must be a pool of persons with different knowledge. No project can be offered if you are not able to support the project by a skilled person! 2. One person or a pool of persons who is/are responsible of organizing and suggesting the projects. As the process of creating and assigning and monitoring projects is one

11 OPTIMIZING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT Pucher et al. 49 of the most important parts in teaching one person is needed for that task. The main responsibilities for these persons are to keep contact with industry to define projects and to ensure the projects are suitable for teaching, to assist students in creating their own projects, to form suitable groups and assign a suitable teacher for a chosen project. 3. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), mobile working and teaching. Students use their own laptop computer, tablet or smart phone for the project. If they do not own a suitable device they can get a device from the university. Keep in mind in many cases the university has to provide a suitable server infrastructure to support the projects. Students can ask questions via and get an answer later on, as teachers often need to do research to find appropriate answers. Face to face communication can be beneficial, for that purpose is advisable to pre-reserve meeting rooms, just in case a specific group needs to do face to face meetings. In the next three years the authors expect to gather enough data to suggest a robust and valid scheme of teaching including financial aspects. 4. Conclusion Teaching computer science is a complex task. Universities need to adapt to the needs of companies and students. Students start studying and increasingly get into contact with companies very early. In a Master s program in Computer Science almost all students need or want to work besides there study. Companies want students who not only have a theoretical knowledge, but are able to practically apply their knowledge right away from starting to work. A carefully selected path to combine real world projects with theoretically gained knowledge and organisational measures to allow students to work besides their studies allows fulfilling these needs.

12 50 V.2 - N.2-3 DIGITAL UNIVERSITIES International Best Practices and Applications References Hammerl Barbara, Pucher Robert, Mense Alexander, Wahl Harald, Schmöllebeck Fritz (2009), Intrinsic Motivation and Education for Sustainability Intrinsic Motivation, in Reena Raj (Ed.), An Essential Key to Success, India, Icfai University Press, pp Hofmann Alexander, Tesar Michael, Pucher Robert, Schordan Markus, Mandl Thomas, Kaufmann Christian (2010), R&D Projects and E-Learning to improve students motivation. Proceedings of Online Educa Berlin 2010 Pucher Robert, Schmöllebeck Fritz (2013), Experiences with Master Degree Courses for Students Who Work. Proceedings VI International Guide Conference 2013, Athens, 3-4 October Pucher Robert, Schmöllebeck Fritz, Mense Alexander (2010), Can undergraduate Students be integrated into large research projects? Proceedings of the International Conference PBL 2010, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brasil, 8-11 February Pucher Robert, Brezowar Gabriela, Wahl Harald, Mense Alexander, Schmöllebeck Fritz (2008), User centered design in software projects - can it be taught? Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Aided Blended Learning ICBL, Florianopolis, Brazil, 3-5 November Pucher Robert, Kollmitzer Christian, Schmöllebeck Fritz (2007), Should Computer Science Students Use Their Own Laptop Computers in Project Based Learning? Proceedings of the International Conference ICL (Interactive Computer Aided Learning), Villach, Austria, September Schmöllebeck Fritz, Pucher Robert (2007), Problem und Project Based Learning an der Fachhochschule Technikum Wien, in Jörg Zumbach, Agnes Weber, Gunter Oloswski (Eds.), Problembasiertes Lernen, Konzepte, Werkzeuge und Fallbeispiele aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum, Bern, h.e.p. verlag ag, pp Streim Andreas, Pfisterer Stephan (2014), In Deutschland fehlen IT-Experten