On Which Skills do Indian Universities Evaluate Software Engineering Students?

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the types of skills and knowledge assessed in Indian universities' Software Engineering exams, using Bloom's Taxonomy and ACM/IEEE standards to inform educators and employers.

Contribution

It provides a detailed classification of exam questions along cognitive and knowledge dimensions, offering insights for curriculum improvement and training.

Findings

Questions mainly target lower cognitive levels.

Knowledge areas are unevenly represented.

Analysis aids in curriculum and training design.

Abstract

Universities conduct examinations to evaluate acquired skills and knowledge gained by students. An assessment of skills and knowledge levels evaluated during Software Engineering examinations is presented in this paper. The question items asked during examinations are analyzed from three dimensions that are cognitive levels, knowledge levels and knowledge areas. The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy is used to classify question items along the dimensions of cognitive levels and knowledge levels. Question items are also classified in various knowledge areas specified in ACM/IEEE's Computer Science Curricula. The analysis presented in this paper will be useful for software engineering educators to devise corrective interventions and employers of fresh graduates to design pre-induction training programs.