Abstract:

The development of software is one of the core disciplines in computer science. Software development can be seen as a complex project process – the individual process steps are often subject of different courses on the bachelor as well as on the master level.

In most curricula the software development process is broken down into a rather huge list of topics like “Requirements Engineering”, “Software Engineering”, “Test Management”, and “Project Management” in order to reduce complexity.

A potential problem of this approach is that the focus is rather on process steps than on the interaction between these process steps or on the process in toto. Often, courses leading to a bachelor degree and a master degree only vary in terms of knowledge.

Our goal was to set up a systemic approach which enables us to link courses on the bachelor and master level in a natural way.

We therefore combined “traditional” learning methods with problem-based learning and learning-by-teaching approaches. Using this combination of learning approaches we are able to reach the dedicated learning outcomes for the levels 6 and 7 (first and second cycle in the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area) in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

Keywords:

Problem-based learning, learning-by-teaching, European Qualifications Framework.