The work-reflection-learning cycle - Department of Computer and ...

Software Engineering student projects: state-of-the-art
powerful tools in distributed software development (Gutwin et al. 2004a; Gutwin et al.
2004b; Herbsleb et al. 2001). Wikis have been found useful for supporting various
aspects of SE work (Louridas 2006; Radziwill and Shelton 2004) including stakeholder
participation in requirements engineering (Decker et al. 2007).
Lightweight collaboration tools that are used in professional work are also used in other
areas of life and/or among young people in particular (Baron 2004; Grinter and Palen
2002; Huang and Yen 2003).
In the thesis P3 provides a brief overview of the research literature on the use of instant
messaging in project work, and P4 and P5 outlines relevant research on the use of wikis
in SE project work as well as in student projects in particular.
As lightweight collaboration technology continuously develops along with their patterns
of use, there is a need for research investigating how these tools support the activities
for which they are used (e.g. in software engineering and project based learning). This
thesis looks into current usage in SE project teams of the following tools: internet
discussion forums (P2), instant messaging (P3), project wikis (P4) and issue trackers (a
type of lightweight project management tool) (P8). Also, the concerted use of tools,
including email, is addressed in several of the papers and is particularly central to the
main argumentation of P7.
Social web spaces like Facebook and MySpace are being actively used among students,
and researchers have recently begun looking into the potential of such tools to support
learning (Durkee et al. 2009; Idris and Wang 2009). From the empirical studies
underlying this thesis there is no indication, informally assessed, that these tools are
currently taken into use in the SE student projects to support project-related
collaboration, or that other use of social web spaces has any significant impact on the
project work. The use of social web spaces was defined to be outside the scope of this
thesis.
3.3 Supporting reflection on SE work
In educational contexts, the need to support reflection on learning processes (e.g. in
project work) has been addressed by traditional approaches such as the use of reflection
notes and diaries (Gleaves et al. 2007). Computerized tools designed to support
reflection have been developed, some focusing on individual action and some on social
discourse, with different ways of recording and representing the reflection and its
subject matter (Kim and Lee 2002). A more recent example is the „challenges
assessment workspace‟ developed for project groups doing distributed teamwork (Xiao
et al. 2008). After each project phase, the team had a structured assignment to
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