Incorporating Playful Activities in the Software Engineering Teaching

Authors

  • Carlos Mario Zapata Jaramillo
  • Maria Clara Gomez Alvarez

Abstract

Software engineering comprises the application of a systematic and disciplined approach to develop software products. Such an approach includes the development of tools, methods, and theories in order to support the software development and management processes. Software engineering teaching has been focused on theoretical concepts and technical issues; communication, teamwork, and negotiation skills have been traditionally left aside. In this context, playful activities appear as an alternative for promoting the learning-by-doing approach as a way to increase the assimilation of concepts by the students. In this paper we propose four playful activities applied to a group of undergraduate students belonging to the system engineering program. We also describe the feedback from the students who participated in these activities. Promising results arise in order to replicate this type of activities in other software engineering subjects and similar knowledge areas.

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Published

2014-03-10