Overview of Software Engineering Education Knowledge
This chapter describes the body of knowledge that is appropriate for an undergraduate program in software engineering. The knowledge is designated as the SEEK (Software Engineering Education Knowledge).
1. Process of Determining the SEEK
The development model chosen for determining SE2004 was based on the model used to construct the CCCS volume. The initial selection of the SEEK areas was based on the SWEBOK knowledge areas and multiple discussions with dozens of SEEK area volunteers. The SEEK area volunteers were divided into groups representing each individual SEEK area, where each group contained roughly seven volunteers. These groups were assigned the task of providing the details of the units that compose a particular educational knowledge area and the further refinement of these units into topics. To facilitate their work, references to existing related software engineering body of knowledge efforts (e.g. SWEBOK, CSDP Exam, and SEI curriculum recommendations) and a set of templates for supporting the generation of units and topics were provided. After the volunteer groups generated an initial draft of their individual education knowledge area details, the steering committee held a face-to-face forum that brought together education knowledge and pedagogy area volunteers to iterate over the individual drafts and generate an initial draft of the SEEK (see Appendix B for an attendee list). This workshop held with this particular goal mirrored a similar overwhelmingly successful workshop held by CCCS at this very point in their development process. Once the content of the education knowledge areas was stabilized, topics were identified to be core or elective. Topics were also labeled with one of three Bloom's taxonomy's levels of educational objectives; namely, knowledge, comprehension, or application. Only these three levels of learning were chosen from Bloom's taxonomy, because they represent what knowledge may be reasonably learned during an undergraduate education. After the workshop, a draft of the SEEK was completed. Subsequently, the SEEK draft went through an intensive internal review (by a group of selected experts in software engineering) and several widely publicized public reviews. After the completion of each review, the steering committee iterated over the reviewer comments to further refine and improve the contents of the SEEK.
1. Process of Determining the SEEK
The development model chosen for determining SE2004 was based on the model used to construct the CCCS volume. The initial selection of the SEEK areas was based on the SWEBOK knowledge areas and multiple discussions with dozens of SEEK area volunteers. The SEEK area volunteers were divided into groups representing each individual SEEK area, where each group contained roughly seven volunteers. These groups were assigned the task of providing the details of the units that compose a particular educational knowledge area and the further refinement of these units into topics. To facilitate their work, references to existing related software engineering body of knowledge efforts (e.g. SWEBOK, CSDP Exam, and SEI curriculum recommendations) and a set of templates for supporting the generation of units and topics were provided. After the volunteer groups generated an initial draft of their individual education knowledge area details, the steering committee held a face-to-face forum that brought together education knowledge and pedagogy area volunteers to iterate over the individual drafts and generate an initial draft of the SEEK (see Appendix B for an attendee list). This workshop held with this particular goal mirrored a similar overwhelmingly successful workshop held by CCCS at this very point in their development process. Once the content of the education knowledge areas was stabilized, topics were identified to be core or elective. Topics were also labeled with one of three Bloom's taxonomy's levels of educational objectives; namely, knowledge, comprehension, or application. Only these three levels of learning were chosen from Bloom's taxonomy, because they represent what knowledge may be reasonably learned during an undergraduate education. After the workshop, a draft of the SEEK was completed. Subsequently, the SEEK draft went through an intensive internal review (by a group of selected experts in software engineering) and several widely publicized public reviews. After the completion of each review, the steering committee iterated over the reviewer comments to further refine and improve the contents of the SEEK.
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