A collaborative learning platform to assess the use of agile methodologies in engineering studies

Abstract

The success of using agile methodologies for collaborative work in industry, has led to adopt these methodologies for teaching Software Engineering. The curricula has evolved in recent years in order to introduce the use of agile development, so that the students practice their use and train the required skills for project-based collaborative work. Agile methodologies are characterized by being iterative and incremental, with short cycles, constant deliveries and a high level of interaction among team members. These characteristics constitute a challenge for educators and students since, in short periods of time, it is necessary to evaluate and provide feedback to individual and group work, regarding aspects like methodology usage, tools management, and collaboration within the team. For that reason, a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment has been developed to assist academics in evaluating and providing feedback to students. The CSCL environment is based on the collaborative platform GitLab, which has been adapted to implement concepts associated to SCRUM, an agile methodology widely adopted. Additionally, the use of GitLab allows to automatically collect information regarding individual and team work of students. Using GitLab data collected, a Learning Analytics platform has been developed in order to analyse group and individual work during the execution of student projects using SCRUM. The objective is to determine if SCRUM helps students to elaborate better software, by evaluating methodology adoption and quality of the resulting software. A prototype of the platform was developed and used in a Software Engineering undergrad course at a Spanish University, in which 79 students divided into groups of 3-4 people, developed two independent projects. Preliminary results show that the proposed CSCL environment helps in providing insight for evaluating and giving feedback to students. Additionally, the data collected by the CSCL environment showed a good correlation of SCRUM adoption by students and quality of resulting software.