Abstract:

Remote working in software development teams is not a new practice in the tech sector. However, teaching students to become remote software developers was brought rapidly into focus when the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 and all on-campus teaching ceased.

This paper describes a Level 5 (Diploma) stage module at the University of Hull, Department of Computer Science and Technology, which had to adapt in 2020 and plan for remote delivery in 2021. The module realtes to Agile Software Development, a software engineering approach that relies extensively on team collaboration and visibility of work in progress.

Reflections are provided on how the rapid pivot to on-line working in 2020 influenced the module design for 2021. The module embedded a “live” client brief from a global IT Consultancy, which equally had to switch its graduate training programme to agile and remote during the pandemic. The paper details the technology and software support that we used in the module and reflects on successes and lessons learned. A wider reflection on keeping students engaged when working in a remote setting is drawn from observations across a variety of approaches to module design and delivery in the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

Keywords:

Remote Teams, Online collaboration, Module Design, Agile Development.