Reflective Design Learning
NAU’s project focused on better learning methods for SICCS students
The work being done on this project at Northern Arizona University serves to explore ways of enhancing design learning in undergraduate computer science courses. The project focuses on utilizing reflection-based learning for students in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems.
Principal Investigator
John Georgas
Collaborators
James Palmer
Overview
Designing, as an activity, and design, as an outcome, are central elements in computer science and software engineering, shaping both the functional and non-functional qualities of software systems. This project is investigating strategies to better foster design learning in undergraduate computer science courses, and centers on constructivist learning theories, particularly reflection-based learning. Our approach focuses on the centrality of structured reflection over a design problem — called a design challenge — to result in a reflective narrative — called a design story.
Contributions
Our work thus far has focused on developing the foundations of supporting reflective design learning in computer science courses. We are working on refining a structured reflection framework that is useful in guiding learners in their self-reflection over design challenge solutions and on creating a web application that supports the digital collection and archival of design stories.
Structured reflection
To support the creation of design story narratives, we are pursuing a structured reflection strategy. This strategy is embodied in a set of categorized questions that provide assistance to learners in identifying important aspects of their overall design experience and the specific design decisions they have made. The development of this framework is informed by our understanding of both general design as well as design in the context of software architecture.
Funding
This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number TUES-1245427.
Related publications
Georgas, J.C., Palmer, J.D., and McCormick, M.J. Supporting Software Architecture Learning Using Runtime Visualization. In Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T 2016), Dallas, TX, USA, April 5-6, 2016.
Wilkins, T.V. and Georgas, J.C. Drawing Insight from Student Perceptions of Reflective Design Learning. In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2015), Florence, Italy, May 20-22,
2015.
Georgas, J.C. Toward Infusing Modular and Reflective Design Learning throughout the Curriculum. In Proceedings of the 26th IEEE-CS Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T 2013), San Francisco, California, May 19-21, 2013.