Abstract:

This paper builds on promoting the application of DevOps principles in education. If everything is becoming software, then we should consider applying success factors in the software industry elsewhere especially in education institutions. Once DevOps is recognized as a viable source of success factors in software development and that foundation argument is established, several tools lend themselves nicely to higher education scenarios. Perhaps one of the most intriguing ones is using the concept of the Andon cord in higher education where the team swarms to solve a developing problem before it becomes a major issue affecting the entire system. Higher education is inundated with issues associated with curriculum development that can cope with the evolution speed of all fields. This paper has two objectives. First it aims at summarizing the foundation for projecting the DevOps principles into education. Second, it uses that foundation to suggest the use of an Andon cord system for a specific scenario in higher education aiming at promoting collaboration among all relevant constituencies to introduce change and improvements once a segment of troubled students is identified in a particular course section. This can be a first step in moving towards more agile curriculum improvements.

Keywords:

Agile education, student success, education continuous improvement, agile curriculum development.