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Encouraging Students to Adopt Software Engineering Methodologies: The Influence of Structured Group Labs on Beliefs and Attitudes
Author(s) -
Landry Jeffrey P.,
Pardue J. Harold,
Doran Michael V.,
Daigle Roy J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2002.tb00678.x
Subject(s) - deliverable , software engineering , test (biology) , software , empirical research , process (computing) , software engineering process group , computer science , engineering management , software development , software development process , psychology , engineering , systems engineering , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology , programming language , operating system
This study proposes that structured labs using groups can help foster individual student acceptance of software engineering methodologies. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is employed in an empirical test using students in freshman and sophomore‐level programming courses. Our findings suggest that a structured group lab experience does influence a student's belief system regarding the usefulness of a software engineering methodology, leading to an individual decision to accept and use the methodology on a voluntary basis. On average, the software engineering methodology was accepted by the students sampled. We recommend that structured group labs be designed to use peer groups, reinforce successful results, and use an iterative process design with phase‐by‐phase deliverables.