Student Learning and Use of Tools in an Undergraduate Software Testing Class

Although practical training in software testing tools and methodologies are vital for ensuring software quality in industry, academic course curricula do not appear to be providing students with enough hands-on experience in software testing. Furthermore, there are few research studies that discuss how different pedagogical approaches to such training are helping students to improve their testing skills. In this paper we describe how testing tools are introduced and used in an undergraduate testing course at Florida International University. As part of a semester-long course project, students access self-study tutorials on black-box and white-box testing tools via WReSTT – a Web-Based Repository of Software Testing Tutorials. We have captured the results of their experience in a case study. Our findings suggest that code coverage tools and techniques are an effective motivator for students to improve the quality of their test cases.