Collaborative Research: Exploring Brownfield Programming Assignments in Undergraduate Computing Education

该项目旨在通过帮助计算机科学专业的本科生培养成功从事软件开发职业所需的软技能，为国家利益服务。最常见的软件开发项目类型被称为布朗菲尔德项目，其中软件解决方案是在现有的软件系统中开发的。在Brownfield项目中，开发人员修改、调试、细化和扩展他们最初可能没有参与编写的现有代码库。尽管大多数现代软件设计项目都是布朗菲尔德项目，但本科计算机科学课程几乎完全侧重于教学生从零开始编写代码。这种对“从零开始设计”的强调导致毕业生缺乏当今软件行业所需的关键软技能。这些技能包括计划、反思和指导编程过程的能力；定位、评估和应用所需信息的能力；以及在团队环境中提问和回答问题的能力。该项目旨在让教师、学生、教育专家和专业软件开发人员参与设计Brownfield编程作业和教学策略，以帮助计算机科学课程的本科生获得这些技能。该项目包括一系列严谨的研究，将为这种教育方法的教育有效性提供见解。这些研究的结果将为将布朗菲尔德项目整合到其他学院或大学以及其他STEM领域的本科STEM教育中提供信息。布朗菲尔德教学法将运用社会学习理论。它将要求学生首先完成一系列多媒体教学模块，这些模块对目标软技能（即元认知、信息素养和沟通）提供明确的指导。然后，学生将被分配到团队中，并负责修复现有代码库中的错误和实现功能。一个专门的仪表板将通过战略提示和指导来支撑这个过程。仪表板还将记录有关学生软件开发过程、搜索查询以及与队友在线互动的数据。该项目将采用参与式设计过程进行迭代改进，使教学方法具有教育效果，并易于适应各种教学环境。通过试点研究和一项准实验研究，涉及7个不同机构的10名教师和4500多名学生，该项目将深入了解这种教学法的教育效果。本研究将探讨软技能的形成与编程能力的发展之间的关系。此外，该项目将为衡量软技能发展和对软技能和技术技能发展之间相互作用的新理解提供新的方法。它还旨在发展关于元认知、信息素养和沟通技能在自我调节学习和技术技能发展中的集体贡献的新理论。通过该项目开发的教学方法和技术可能有助于作为支持和评估其他STEM学科棕地项目的模型。因此，该项目通过帮助培养拥有21世纪STEM工作技能的毕业生来解决国家优先事项。该项目由美国国家科学基金会改善本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源（IUSE: EHR）支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有本科生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by helping undergraduate computer science students develop the soft skills needed for successful careers in software development. The most common type of software development project is called a Brownfield project, in which a software solution is developed within an existing software system. In a Brownfield project, developers modify, debug, refine, and expand an existing code base that they may not have been originally involved in writing. Although most modern software design projects are Brownfield projects, undergraduate computer science curricula focus almost exclusively on teaching students to write code from scratch. This emphasis on "design from scratch" leads to graduates who lack key soft skills required in the software profession today. These skills include the ability to plan, reflect on, and direct the programming process; the ability to locate, assess, and apply needed information; and the ability to ask and answer questions in team settings. This project aims to involve instructors, students, education experts, and professional software developers in designing Brownfield programming assignments and teaching strategies that will help undergraduates in computer science courses gain these skills. The project includes a series of rigorous research studies that will provide insights into the educational effectiveness of this educational approach. The findings from these studies will inform efforts to integrate Brownfield projects into undergraduate STEM education at other colleges or universities and in other STEM fields. The Brownfield pedagogy will apply social learning theory. It will require students to first complete a series of multimedia instructional modules that provide explicit instruction on the targeted soft skills (i.e. metacognition, information literacy, and communication). Students will then be placed on teams and tasked with fixing bugs and implementing features in an existing code base. A specialized dashboard will scaffold the process through strategic prompts and guidance. The dashboard will also log data about the students' software development processes, search queries, and online interactions with teammates. The project will use a participatory design process for iterative improvements that enable the pedagogy to be educationally effective and readily adaptable to a variety of instructional contexts. Through pilot studies and a quasi-experimental study involving 10 instructors and over 4,500 students at seven diverse institutions, the project will gain insight into the pedagogy's educational effectiveness. The study will explore the relationships between formation of soft skills and development of programming abilities. In addition, the project will contribute novel approaches to measuring soft skills development and new understandings of the interplay between soft and technical skills development. It also aims to develop new theories about the collective contributions of metacognitive, information literacy, and communication skills in self-regulated learning and technical skills development. The pedagogy and technologies developed through this project may be useful as a model for supporting and assessing Brownfield projects in other STEM disciplines. As a result, the project addresses a national priority by helping to produce graduates who possess 21st century STEM workplace skills. This Engaged Student Learning project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all undergraduate students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.