Rolling: A new technique for the practical teaching in computer science university degree | Education and Information Technologies Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Rolling: A new technique for the practical teaching in computer science university degree

  • Published:
Education and Information Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper we describe a new methodology for practical teaching in the Computer Science University Degree. The methodology is based on the Rolling technique. This technique consists in assign, in a rotary process, tasks, activities and responsibilities to students along an established calendar with the aim of developing a software product. Practical teaching is supported by a student-teacher contract that describes the goal, rules, plan with stages and activities, responsibilities and even the assessment method. Students are organized in groups and teams, emulating a company organization. They develop all the activities of the software engineering process in order to obtain a commercial product (the goal). In this process, students take different responsibilities over the software verification and validation, activities and tasks, and over groups and teams leadership. Along the teaching process, comprehensive information about the working team, time invested, deliverables in each stage, and work/students assessment is gathered. The methodology has been tested for 4 years at the University of Córdoba and the results, described in this paper, have shown an improvement in the students learning as well as in the acquisition of attitudes and skills mandatory for their professional development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
¥17,985 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Japan)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

  • Alfonseca, E., Carro, R. M., Martín, E., Ortigosa, A., & Paredes, P. (2006). The impact of learning styles on student grouping for collaborative learning: a case study. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 16(3–4), 377–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, D. R. (2005). The effect of group projects on content-related learning. Journal of Management Education, 29(2), 248–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benarek, G., Zuser, W., & Grechenig, T. (2005). Functional group roles in software engineering teams. In Proceedings of the ACM 2005 Workshop on Human and Social Factors of Software Engineering (HSSE’05), 1–6.

  • Casey, V., & Richardson, I. (2009). Implementation of global software development: a structured approach. Software Process Improvement and Practice, 14, 247–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castro-Garrido, P., Matas Miraz, G., Luque Ruiz, I., & Gómez-Nieto, M. A. (2010). Encouraging Learning and Student Motivation through NFC-based Pervasive Games. Education and Information Technologies. In revision.

  • Coffield, F., & Edward, S. (2009). Rolling out ‘good’, ‘best’ and ‘excellent’ practice. What next? Perfect practice? Educational Research, 51(3), 371–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins-Sussman, B., Fitzpatrick, B. W., & Pilato, C. M. (2004). Version Control with Subversion. Next Generation Open Source Version Control. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

  • Council of Europe (1997). Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education in the European Region. Lisbon. http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/Lisbon_convention.pdf.

  • Deibel, K. (2005). Team formation methods for increasing interaction during in-class group work. In Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on innovation and technology in computer science education (pp. 291–295). New York: ACM.

  • Del Soldato, T., & Boulay, B. (1996). Implementation of motivational tactics in tutoring systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 6(4), 337–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission of Education & Training (2009). European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc48_en.htm.

  • European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education [ENQA] (2003). Quality procedures in European Higher Education, Helsinki: ENQA. http://www.enqa.net/texts/procedures.pdf.

  • Goldschmid, M. L. (1971). The learning cell: an instructional innovation. Learning and Development, 2, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodnight, J. E., Elam, E. L. R., & Russell, D. L. (2008). The rolling cell model: An application and evaluation. Marketing Education Review, 18(3), 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hübscher-Younger, T., & Narayananb, N. H. (2003). Authority and convergence in collaborative learning. Computers & Education, 41, 313–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inaba, A., Supnithi, T., Ikeda, M., Mizoguchi, R., & Toyoda, J. (2000). How can we form effective collaborative learning groups? Available from http://www.ai.sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp/indexe.html.

  • Issroff, K. (1995). Investigating computer-supported collaborative learning from an affective perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, The Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University.

  • Johnston, L., & Miles, L. (2004). Assessing contributions to group assignments. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29(6), 751–768.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A., & Issroff, K. (2005). Learning technologies: affective and social issues in computer-supported collaborative learning. Computers & Education, 44, 395–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joomla!. http://www.joomla.org/. [Last accessed: July, 2010].

  • Keyes, J. (2004). Software Configuration Management. Auerbach Publications. CRC Press.

  • Luque Ruiz, I., Peña Carrilero, M. J., & Gómez-Nieto, M. A. (2008). A Learning Model in Computer Engineering Based on Collaborative Work for Enhancing of Students Abilities and Skills. Proceedings of INTED 2008 International Conference. 18–32.

  • Matas Miraz, G., Luque Ruiz, I., & Gómez-Nieto, M. A. (2009a). Students Collaborative Work driven by Self-Students Goals. Proceedings of INTED 2009 International Conference, 3150–3159.

  • Matas Miraz, G., Castro-Garrido, P., Luque Ruiz, I., & Gómez-Nieto, M.A. (2009b). Web-Based Management System for the Monitoring, Compliance and Evaluation of University Tutorials. Proceedings of EDULEARN2009: International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. 2394–2402

  • Matas Miraz, G., Luque Ruiz, I., & Gómez-Nieto, M. A. (2009c). University of things: applications of near field communication technology in university environments. Journal of E-Working, 3, 52–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matas Miraz, G., Castro-Garrido, P., Borrego-Jaraba, F., Luque Ruiz, I., & Gómez-Nieto, M. A. (2010). Ubiquitous Services for Future University. Proceedings International Association of Technology, Education and Development, INTED 2010, 5486–5495.

  • Meng-Hsiang, H., Chen, I. Y. L., Chiu, C.-M., & Ju, T. L. (2007). Exploring the antecedents of team performance in collaborative learning of computer software. Computers & Education, 48, 700–718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michaelsen, L. K., & Black, R. H. (1994). Building learning teams: The key to harnessing the power of small groups in higher education. In S. Kadel & J. Keehner (Eds.), Collaborative learning: A sourcebook for higher education (Vol. 2, pp. 65–81). State College: National Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moodle Trust. http://moodle.org/. Accessed April, 2010.

  • Moreno, L., Gónzalez, C., Castilla, I., Gónzalez, E., & Sigut, J. (2007). Applying a constructivist and collaborative methodological approach in engineering education. Computers & Education, 49, 891–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muehlenbrock, M. (2006). Learning group formation based on learning profile and context. International Journal on e-Learning, 5(1), 19–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • NFC Forum Organization. Technical Specifications. http://www.nfc-forum.org/home. Accessed June, 2010.

  • Oakley, B., Felder, R. M., Brent, R., & Elhajj, I. (2004). Turning student groups into effective teams. Journal of Student Centered Learning, 2(1), 9–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, D. L., & Goodnight, J. E. (2009). The rolling learning cell: a method to integrate individual assessment and team grading components in information systems curriculum team projects. Information Systems Education Journal, 7(37), 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sancho-Thomas, P., Fuentes-Fernández, R., & Fernández-Manjón, B. (2009). Learning teamwork skills in university programming courses. Computers & Education, 53, 517–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slavin, R. E. (1988). Cooperative learning and student achievement. Educational Leadership, 46, 31–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slavin, R. E. (1990). Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slavin, R. E., & Karweit, N. L. (1985). Effects of whole class, ability grouped, and individualized instruction on mathematics achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 22(3), 351–367.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. A. (1995). Cooperative learning: Effective teamwork for engineering classrooms. In Proceedings of Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE 95), 1, 13–18.

  • Wang, Q. (2009). Design and evaluation of a collaborative learning environment. Computers & Education, 53, 1138–1146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN) and FEDER (Project: TIN2009-07184). This work was awarded with the First prize in the II Call for Teaching Innovation Awards of the Social Council of the University of Cordoba.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing and Numerical Analysis, University of Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Albert Einstein Building, 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    Irene Luque Ruiz & Miguel Ángel Gómez-Nieto

Authors
  1. Irene Luque Ruiz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Miguel Ángel Gómez-Nieto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irene Luque Ruiz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Luque Ruiz, I., Gómez-Nieto, M.Á. Rolling: A new technique for the practical teaching in computer science university degree. Educ Inf Technol 17, 49–77 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-010-9144-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-010-9144-6

Keywords