2014 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
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Abstract

Software development has become increasingly globalized because of technological innovation, the evolution of work and business processes, as well as prevailing educational systems and national policies [1]. This paper addresses the challenges faced when creating realistic opportunities for students to participate in team working on a globally distributed software engineering project. We examine the experience of one set of students who undertook a single semester software development project, the technical objective of which was to create a product using online collaboration tools [2]. The students involved were studying at two widely-separated universities: Robert Gordon University (RGU), UK, and the International Institute for Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B), India. A classroom-based action research approach has been used to evolve and reflect on the project [3]. Detailed student feedback was canvassed using an open-ended questionnaire. The students report favourably on acquisition of employability, collaboration and professional skills. A number of challenges remain in areas of project management, the use of collaborative technology and of scaling the project to larger classes, while retaining a manageable supervision overhead.
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