An approach to Teaching Software Testing Supported by Two Different Online Content Delivery Methods

Abstract

Software testing is an important aspect of software development, which often is left until the end of the software development life cycle. As a result, testing is generally neglected or inadequately performed, resulting in poor quality software products. To ameliorate this, universities are now offering courses in software testing to introduce this important skill to students before they begin their careers in industry. At our university, undergraduate students take software testing in the last semester of their degree program. One of the objectives of this course is to teach students how to perform continuous software testing at each stage and phase of the software life cycle, not just at the end of the development process. This course is delivered using a hybrid approach. We are interested in determining whether presenting this information online in an interactive manner that employs a combination of collaborative learning, gamification, problem-based learning, and social interaction leads to higher levels of knowledge gain in software testing. We conducted a study using (i) an interactive online learning system called SEP-CyLE-Software Engineering and Programming Cyberlearning Environment (Experimental Group) and (ii) a plain static text formatted website with no interactivity (Control Group). We evaluate the data collected and discuss the implications of our findings.