In my previous post I noted how students and professors are often talking past each other, where some the former want to learn immediately applicable knowledge and the latter want to teach long-lasting fundamentals. I also noted that there is no contradiction here, which begs the question what professors mean when the say they want to teach fundamentals? Students may hear “irrelevant stuff nobody cares about” but that’s obviously not it. So let me explain.
Continue reading “What is Meant by “Teaching Fundamentals”?”The Art of Inviting Industry Speakers to Class
Over the last 10 years, I have consistently invited industry speakers to class, to talk about their experiences, to change the pace, and to lighten up the teaching. We recently passed the 100 external speaker mark! (Also includes some academic speakers.) Time to reflect on what makes a good industry talk that enriches student learning.
Continue reading “The Art of Inviting Industry Speakers to Class”The Uni1 Project (2016)
Abstract: The aim of this project outline is to describe how universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) can work with businesses to conduct teaching projects for and with students. Both parties stand to benefit; the projects generate recruitment, outsourcing and innovation (ROI) for businesses and provide HEIs with new partners for cooperation, a source of funds, and a boost to the attractiveness of their teaching.
Keywords: Industry university collaboration, research-to-industry transfer, business model, teaching
Reference: Dirk Riehle. “The Uni1 Project (2016).” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Dept. of Computer Science, Technical Report, CS-2018-05. Erlangen, Germany, 2018.
The report is available as a local PDF file and on FAU’s OPUS server.
Please note that this report is a translation to English (by FAU’s Sprachendienst) of the prior report Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016).
What is it About the WTFPL That Students Always Choose it as The Example?
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Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016)
Abstract: Dieses Projektkonzept schildert, wie Hochschulen mit Unternehmen Projekte mit Studierenden zu beidseitigem Gewinn durchführen können. Unternehmen profitieren durch Recruiting, Outsourcing und Innovation („ROI“), welche sich durch die Projekte ergeben. Hochschulen gewinnen neue Partner, verdienen an den Projekten und bieten attraktivere Lehre.
Keywords: Industrie-Hochschul-Kooperation, Forschungstransfer, Geschäftsmodell, Lehre
Reference: Dirk Riehle. “Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016).” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Dept. of Computer Science, Technical Report, CS-2016-04. Erlangen, Germany, 2016.
The paper is available as a local PDF file and on FAU’s OPUS server.
See also the Uni1 website.
One Student’s First Encounter with Academic Writing
Non Sequitur #DesignPatternsHumor
A colleague earlier today showed me this student answer from one of his exams:
The student answer for “name a design pattern” is “hotel” and the answer for “that pattern’s intent” is “book hotel”. Repeat for a second pattern called “flight” and its intent “book flight”.
Talk Slides: Teaching Agile Methods with Industry Partners
I’m at ECSEE 2014, the European Conference on Software Engineering Education, and I just held a talk on how we teach agile methods at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. Key to our projects is the involvement of industry partners, who provide high-level project requirements to the different student teams. Here are the slides to my talk on The Educational Software Engineering Tripod: Students, Teachers, and Industry as a PDF and later on Slideshare below.
Exemplary Research Papers?
I teach a hands-on lab course on how to do research. Students perform a small research project and write a paper about it, preparing them for the research work of their final thesis.
I want to revise the set of example research papers I’m using. We study these research papers as good examples of how to perform and present research. (Think: “Best XYZ ever!”) So I thought I’d ask you: What research papers would you consider exemplary for these particular aspects of a paper:
Teaching Materials for Agile Methods Course
Update 2018-08-01: The old materials are not available any longer; please watch this space for the new release!
I finally put my teaching materials for my agile methods course on this website. The slides are available in “source” form, i.e. Open/LibreOffice format, as well as PDFs. I also added supplementary materials like the videos I use for illustration purposes. The slides are made available using the Creative Commons BY-SA license and are based on a course I’ve been giving several times now. It is far from being perfect but obviously good enough for a real course. Feel free to use or copy from the slides for your own courses!
My goal is to keep improving the slides. I expect there to be a new version every year or maybe every semester. For me, this is an experiment. I honestly don’t know how to collaborate around a format like ODP and ODT. It sure doesn’t feel like source code. So, my best suggestion is that if you find this useful and would like to see it improve in a direction that suits you, please let me know of your suggestions. I might then incorporate the suggested changes into the slide set. In general, my philosophy is that the content will grow, but ideally in a consistent fashion.