2008 Woodie Awards
Faculty member to present results
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: News
Dr. Tim DeClue, professor and chair of the Southwest Baptist University Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) Department, has been invited to share the results of a specialized teaching project at the Central Plains Regional (CPR) meeting of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC).
DeClue's project, completed in the 2006 fall semester, resulted in a research paper titled "A Comprehensive Capstone Project in Computer Science 1: Getting the (Instant) Message."
The paper discusses DeClue's approach to teaching software engineering to beginning computer science and computer information science students.
In the paper, DeClue suggests that one approach to teaching software engineering, which increases success for first-year students, is to choose projects for them which are real-world enough to challenge the students, yet fun enough to motivate those same students to succeed.
The project discussed in DeClue's paper, which every student in his fall class completed, was a working instant messaging system.
"It is extremely unusual for first-year students to complete a project this close to a real-world software system during the first software development course they take," said DeClue. "We used a team approach, did some good design work [and] spent a few hours together in the lab outside of class. Ultimately, every student was able to succeed."
The CPR meeting, to be held Saturday, April 14 at Drury University, will include several members of the CCSC, a non-profit organization focused on promoting quality computer-oriented curricula and effective use of computing in smaller institutions of higher learning which are typically non-research in orientation.
"I am very proud of the class, and given the quality of students we attract to our department, I am happy to share the approach we use at SBU," said DeClue.
DeClue's project, completed in the 2006 fall semester, resulted in a research paper titled "A Comprehensive Capstone Project in Computer Science 1: Getting the (Instant) Message."
The paper discusses DeClue's approach to teaching software engineering to beginning computer science and computer information science students.
In the paper, DeClue suggests that one approach to teaching software engineering, which increases success for first-year students, is to choose projects for them which are real-world enough to challenge the students, yet fun enough to motivate those same students to succeed.
The project discussed in DeClue's paper, which every student in his fall class completed, was a working instant messaging system.
"It is extremely unusual for first-year students to complete a project this close to a real-world software system during the first software development course they take," said DeClue. "We used a team approach, did some good design work [and] spent a few hours together in the lab outside of class. Ultimately, every student was able to succeed."
The CPR meeting, to be held Saturday, April 14 at Drury University, will include several members of the CCSC, a non-profit organization focused on promoting quality computer-oriented curricula and effective use of computing in smaller institutions of higher learning which are typically non-research in orientation.
"I am very proud of the class, and given the quality of students we attract to our department, I am happy to share the approach we use at SBU," said DeClue.
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