The Software Engineering course in Fall 2008 was mostly unchanged from the previous offering. The instructor rating was slightly lower (4.8 versus 4.9). The course notes had only minor changes. The most notable change was the addition of more emphasis on tools: Trac, StatSVN and their use during the projects. The project and labs were focused on very practical applications. All course evaluation metrics were similar or higher than the last offering.
The lab assignments were designed to be mostly done in the 2 hour lab. They focus on UML, JUnit, and programming related aspects of software engineering. The labs were unchanged from last year.
The project involved adding features to UnityJDBC. The projects were less successful than the previous year. They required considerably more engagement on my part, and the final products were less complete. Still, a practical project makes it more interesting. Next time, I need to be developing on Trac live with them to increase the feeling of a real development environment. Students selected groups of 3 to 4 which were a large enough size to allow for group communication without being too cumbersome.
The class was at 10:30-11:30 a.m. Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays in Art 210 with a 2 hour lab on Thursdays from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Of the 10 registered students who started the course, all got a B- or above. The average GPA was 3.26. Like COSC 304, the marks are lower in the course compared to Fall 2007. Marks are lower across the board on the exams and the projects. This may be related to student ability. Charts showing the mark breakdown are below.
Overall, the course went quite well with few negative suggestions or areas for improvement. The course could be improved by removing less important areas in the notes instead of skipping over them during the lecture.
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