Masashi Shuto, Hironori Washizaki, Katsuhiko Kakehi, Yoshiaki Fukazawa, Shoso Yamato, Masashi Okubo, “Learning Effectiveness of Team Discussions in Various Software Engineering Education Courses,” Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, short paper, Dallas, USA, April 5-6, 2016. (CORE Rank C)(to appear)

One effective method for students to learn skills necessary for software intensive development is to work in teams to complete software tasks. Previously we examined the educational effectiveness as a function of personal characteristics, but the findings were inconclusive. This study investigates the influence of team discussions on learning effectiveness in various types of software engineering education courses. Because we hypothesize that team discussions impact learning and are related to educational effectiveness, we asked students to answer questionnaires inquiring about how much students contribute to discussions. As a result, the relationship between learning effectiveness and the number of comments during a discussion, which may be explained by personal characteristics, is discovered. Additionally, upon comparing two learning courses (a system development course and a IT management course), two antithetical results are elucidated. We expect that this research will help improve the effectiveness of educators leading student team discussions.