2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Developing a Process for Software Engineering Curriculum Modernization

Presented at Software Engineering Division (SWED) Technical Session #1

The Schulich School of Engineering has recently undertaken staged redesign and implementation of a new software engineering curriculum. Stakeholders were asked to consider a set of formulated questions for their topic and related list of courses. Consultation comments, suggestions, and previous feedback were evaluated and incorporated into the proposal. The proposed curriculum changes were rolled out in a staged approach. The rollout of the new second year curriculum started in Fall 2022 with the new third year curriculum beginning in Fall 2023. An initial survey was conducted to evaluate student feedback on course content and experience. Using a quasi-experimental post-test only design, students who experienced both the new and/or the old curriculum were asked to rank their academic experience including factors such as course content, workload, stress, engineering identity, graduate attributes, and more. This paper will outline and discuss the process that was undertaken to evaluate, design, consult, implement, and now re-evaluate multi-year curriculum changes, including a continual improvement process.

Authors

Dr. Emily Marasco University of Calgary [biography]

Dr. Emily Marasco is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) of software engineering and the SSE Teaching Chair in Engineering Education Innovation – Digital Transformation. She is the founder of the ADAPT Lab: Advancements in Digital Applications and Pedagogical Transformation. Her current research and teaching interests are in the area of learning engineering, including the use of gamification, blended learning, and interactive digital learning tools as methods for enhancing creativity within software and computer engineering. Her pedagogical initiatives for digital transformation in education include digital and AI literacy, integration of cognitive diversity, and accessibility best practices.

Dr. Marasco is active as a science communicator and outreach speaker in the local education community. She has been recognized as the 2018 ASTech Outstanding Leader of Tomorrow and received the 2016 Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Graduate Award for women in engineering. She was most recently recognized as one of Calgary’s 2019 Top 40 Under 40 recipients.
Ms. Milana Hayley Grozic University of Calgary; The University of British Columbia [biography]

Ms. Milana Grozic (she/her) is a second year psychology major at The University of British Columbia. Her research attempts to merge the fields of engineering and psychology - focusing specifically on engineering education. Her passion for the human psycho extends far beyond psychology and she is proud to bring her unique perspectives into engineering education research.
Yves Pauchard University of Calgary
Dr. Mohammad Moshirpour University of Calgary [biography]

Dr. Mohammad Moshirpour is an instructor of Software Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineer, University of Calgary. His research interests are the area of software architecture, software requirements engineering, design, implementation and analysi

Download paper (1.79 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session