Assessing Work-Based Learning in the Senior Years of a Software Engineering Graduate Apprenticeship Program
The software engineering degree apprenticeship program at [redacted] has a large emphasis on work-based learning (WBL), with around 80% of the students’ time over four years spent at the workplace. This work-based aspect of the program takes a more prominent role in the final two years, by which time the apprentices are undertaking increasingly larger and more prominent roles at the workplace.
In this report we present how we addressed the challenge of structuring and assessing WBL in these senior years such that there is a balance between professional competency attainment and ranked academic achievement, while providing a flexible structure. Basing our design on a model of WBL presented by Raelin in 1997, we outline our rationale for dividing the assessments into: workplace projects, workplace journal, and a portfolio of artefacts. The projects are categorized into different types both for flexibility and to encourage academia-industry collaboration, the workplace journal encourages higher forms of reflection, while the portfolio assessment encourages and assesses the attainment of professional competencies. Having put this structure of WBL assessments into practice, we then present our experience of implementing it, an analysis of student feedback, and the adjustments made in response to this feedback cycle.
With an increasing focus on work-ready skills and competency-based learning in software engineering education, we expect the theory-informed structure we developed, and our experience of running and adapting it, may serve as an exemplar for developing a WBL program at research-led institutions.
Mon 28 AprDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
11:00 - 12:30 | Experiential LearningCSEE&T at 206 Chair(s): Michael Hilton Carnegie Mellon University Due to a last minute change, the presentation of the paper “Robotics Software Engineering Education: An Experience Report” (originally scheduled to be presented in the ‘Gamification and Engagement in Learning’ session at 16h on Tuesday) is being moved to this session as a 4th paper to be presented at noon. | ||
11:00 20mTalk | Assessing Work-Based Learning in the Senior Years of a Software Engineering Graduate Apprenticeship Program CSEE&T Syed Waqar Nabi University of Glasgow, Oana Andrei University of Glasgow, Matthew Barr University of Glasgow, Quintin Cutts University of Glasgow, UK, Joseph Maguire University of Glasgow ,UK, Alistair Morrison University of Glasgow, Jack Parkinson University of Glasgow, Derek Somerville University of Glasgow, Tim Storer University of Glasgow | ||
11:20 20mTalk | Beyond the Classroom: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry with a Hands-on Learning Approach CSEE&T Mingyang Xu University of Waterloo, Ryan Liu University of Waterloo, Mark Stoodley IBM Canada, Ladan Tahvildari University of Waterloo Pre-print | ||
11:40 20mTalk | The Development of Reflective Practice on a Work-Based Software Engineering Program: A Longitudinal Study CSEE&T Matthew Barr University of Glasgow, Syed Waqar Nabi University of Glasgow, Oana Andrei University of Glasgow Pre-print | ||
12:00 20mTalk | Robotics Software Engineering Education: An Experience Report CSEE&T Meenakshi Manjunath Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Jeshwitha Jesus Raja Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Rainer Herrler Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Marian Daun Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt |