A Semester Long Classroom Course Mimicking a Software Company and a New Hire Experience for Computer Science Students Preparing to Enter the Software Industry

Students in a Computer Science degree programs must learn to code before they can be taught Software Engineering skills. This core skill set is how to program and consists of the constructs of various languages, how to create short programs or applications, independent assignments, and arrive at solutions that utilize the skills being covered in the language for that course (Chatley & Field, 2017). As an upperclassman, students will often be allowed to apply these skills in newer ways and have the opportunity to work on longer, more involved assignments although frequently still independent or in small groups of two to three students. Once these students graduate and enter the software industry they will find that most companies follow specific development methodologies from one of the many forms of Agile through Waterfall. All while working in large groups or teams where each developer is responsible for specific pieces of the functionality, participating in design meetings and code reviews, as well as using code versioning systems, such as git, a program management system, such as Jira, all in a very collaborative environment. This study will develop a course that will allow students to apply these skills in a more realistic setting while remaining on-campus and monitoring the students’ beliefs on their preparedness for the world outside of the computer science building