Assessing Students’ Acceptance of Case Method in Software Engineering Education – A Survey

AbstractCase Method (CM) is a teaching technique that uses real cases as a tool for delivering a particular subject. Software Engineering (SE) is a discipline that concerns the principles, methods and tools for developing and improving software. SE education therefore tends to be too theoretical. To impose realism where the students can be exposed to real scenarios and learn to apply those theories through discovery, CM is seen as necessary for SE education. This paper presents a survey conducted to a set of students who employed CM in learning SE. The objective of the survey was to assess the degree of acceptance among SE students on the usage of CM. The participants were Undergraduates and Masters that comprise local, international and matured students. The data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and qualitatively through content analysis. The results indicate that CM can be useful for SE education. The participants accepted CM because it improves the understanding of subject matter, enhances interpersonal skills and provides meaningful learning experience. Nonetheless, CM is seen as effective only when certain conditions are met. The results can be used by SE educators to enhance teaching and learning in future