Assignment of Real-World Projects An Economical Method of Building Applications for a University and an Effective Way to Enhance Education of the Students精品分析.docVIP

Journal of Information Technology Education Volume 2, 2003 Assignment of Real-World Projects: An Economical Method of Building Applications for a University and an Effective Way to Enhance Education of the Students Ma. Sheila A. Magboo and Vincent Peter C. Magboo University of the Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines sheilaabad@yahoo.co m nelyndron@vasia.co m Executive Summary This paper is about the strategy used by the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics (DPSM) in the integration of real-world projects in the implementation of its software engineering subject, a jun- ior subject in the BS Computer Science program. The strategy involves collaboration between the dif- ferent health professional colleges in the University that will provide the information requirements and DPSM that will provide the necessary training and supervision during project development. This scheme has been quite effective in most situations since the students were able to produce good quality outputs in just a short span of time and at minimum cost to the University. The students also felt more rewarded because they were able to deliver a prototype that is almost the real software the client intended to use. However, there are some minor drawbacks with this scheme especially for the teacher-in-charge who is tasked not only to guide the students during the development of the projects but also to facilitate discus- sions that would enable them to learn about the projects assigned to the other groups and thus, motivate them to serve as critiques as if they were the clients. Furthermore, he must also be present during presen- tation of major project deliverables (Project Plan, Analysis, Design, Test Specification) as well as during project demonstration and installation. Despite all these constraints, knowing that the project was rated highly satisfactorily by the client is enough reward for the teacher-in-charge. Keywords : team projects, student projects,