Abstract:

Student application numbers are decreasing due to Computer Science waning in popularity over the last decade. In fact, students think that jobs in “Information Technologies” (IT) are rather boring or too difficult. Having to learn isolated topics and fundamental theoretical concepts further nourish students’ rather negative prejudgement on IT degree programmes.

Following the approach of Gary [1], who states that “repeated, sustained team interactions on scalable complex problems that require constant synthesis and the application of core computing concepts throughout the curriculum place students on a trajectory toward becoming professional software engineers.” , the Institute of “Software Design and Security” at the FH JOANNEUM - University of Applied Sciences is implementing project-based learning in its bachelor’s degree programs.

The first approach was to create and prepare a project for a team of students of the degree programme “Mobile Software Development” in 2021. The goal for the students was to create a web application and acquire the necessary skills to complete the project successfully. The setup of the course mirrored an IT Company with a Scrum-based project management and “State of the Art” development tools. Although the technical aspects and insights of this approach were quite satisfying, several problems occurred in terms of organization, teamwork and collaborative software development.

The lessons learned from the first approach were then used in 2022, providing a more extensive infrastructure, concrete processes and well-defined tasks. Based on this task design, students were empowered to create a software product within just a few weeks.

These innovative initiatives and approaches have eventually led to new curriculum developments meeting the needs of Gen Z. Innovatively developed seminars such as “Barcamp” and “Bootcamp” enrich the first academic year of the new IT Bachelor Degree Programme by problem-based learning and teaching [2], This approach is further outlined in the upcoming semester by featuring events such as a “Hackathon” or a “Start-up Project” which allow students to solve real-world problems for partner companies or NGOs or even start their own company.

References:
[1] K. Gary, "Project-Based Learning," in Computer, vol. 48, no. 9, pp. 98-100, Sept. 2015, doi: 10.1109/MC.2015.268.
[2] FH JOANNEUM Curriculum Software Design & Cloud Computing, https://www.fh-joanneum.at/software-design-and-cloud-computing/bachelor/en/my-studies/curriculum/

Keywords:

Problem-based-learning, project-based-learning, agile, scrum, project management, computer science curricula, education.