ABSTRACT
This article presents the results of observations and analyses of students’ learning model-driven system development from two related courses taught at a university in Norway and at a university in the United States in 2015, and consequently, in an updated version in 2016. The motivation of this article is to understand and analyse how effective the current practice of teaching and learning modelling and model-driven software development is in university settings, and to offer some pedagogical insights and lessons learnt from teaching two different model-related graduate courses at two different universities. Empirical data of learning was collected through interviews, observations, document analysis and a survey questionnaire. The aim of these two courses is providing students with the competence of problem solving in modelling. Topics of models in these courses cover a full spectrum of modelling techniques, from business architecture models, requirements models, system and software architecture, to design models. The courses have evolved from an initial focus on modelling for analysis and design to the current focus on using executable models for software production. The result is a complete enterprise architecture modelling approach education from business architecture to software architecture to functioning software.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
2. http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/huang/ (Replace with FAU course catalog reference).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Arne J. Berre
Arne J. Berre is Chief Scientist at the Software and Service Innovation department at SINTEF Digital and Associate Professor II at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo (UiO), Norway. He received a PhD (Dr. Ing) in Computer Science from the the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1993. His research interest is in model-based development and interoperability for digital platforms with Big data, Internet of Things, High Performance Computing, Cloud and AI/Machine Learning. He has been teaching the course “Model-based system development” at UiO since 1996.
Shihong Huang
Shihong Huang is a Professor in the Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (CEECS) at Florid Atlantic University (FAU), USA. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of California, Riverside. Her research is broadly in software engineering and specifically in self-adaptive systems, brain computer interaction (BCI) and health informatics. She is a core contributor to the 2014 OMG standard “Essence—Kernel and Language for Software Engineering Methods.” She has been teaching software engineering courses at FAU since 2004.
Hani Murad
Hani Murad holds a M.Sc. in Informatics and M.Phil. in health economics, policy and management from the University of Oslo (UiO). Currently, he is a tutor for both bachelor and masters informatics students at UiO and has supervised numerous students’ projects in interaction design from ideation to implementation phase. Research interests include expansive learning, developing user-friendly interfaces to support collaborative learning and co-operative work (CSCL, CSCW) and exploring how digital artefacts may mediate knowledge building and management in organizations.
Hanieh Alibakhsh
Hanieh Alibakhsh graduated from the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET) in Karaj, Iran and holds a M.Sc. in informatics from the University of Oslo (uiO), Norway. She is interested in modeling languages and human factors in software development. The reported analysis on teaching modelling for requirements engineering and model-driven software development courses has a foundation in her master thesis at the UiO. Hanieh Alibakhsh is now a digital business integration consultant at Accenture, Norway.