Imprinting Community College Computer Science Education with Software Engineering Principles

Abstract

Although the two-year curriculum guide includes coverage of all eight software engineering core topics, the computer science courses taught in Alabama community colleges limit student exposure to the programming, or coding, phase of the software development lifecycle and offer little experience in requirements analysis, design, testing, and maintenance. We proposed that some software engineering principles can be incorporated into the introductory-level of the computer science curriculum. Our vision is to give community college students a broader exposure to the software development lifecycle. For those students who plan to transfer to a baccalaureate program subsequent to their community college education, our vision is to prepare them sufficiently to move seamlessly into mainstream computer science and software engineering degrees. For those students who plan to move from the community college to a programming career, our vision is to equip them with the foundational knowledge and skills required by the software industry. To accomplish our goals, we developed curriculum modules for teaching seven of the software engineering knowledge areas within current computer science introductory-level courses. Each module was designed to be self-supported with suggested learning objectives, teaching outline, software tool support, teaching activities, and other material to assist the instructor in using it.