Design of the Inspection Process Using the GitHub Flow in Project Based Learning for Software Engineering and Its Practice

TL;DR

This paper proposes a structured inspection process using GitHub pull requests to enhance feedback in project-based learning for software engineering, improving the accuracy and effectiveness of feedback on learners' artifacts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inspection process leveraging GitHub pull requests specifically designed for educational settings in software development PBL.

Findings

Effective feedback at precise artifact locations

Improved learning outcomes in PBL environments

Validated process through real-world application

Abstract

Project based learning (PBL) for software development (we call it software development PBL) has garnered attention as a practical educational method. A number of studies have reported on the introduction of social coding tools such as GitHub, in software development PBL. In education, it is important to give feedback (advice, error corrections, and so on) to learners, especially in software development PBL because almost all learners tackle practical software development from the viewpoint of technical and managerial aspects for the first time. This study regards inspection that is conducted in general software development activities as an opportunity to provide feedback and proposes the inspection process using the pull request on GitHub. By applying the proposed process to an actual software development PBL, we enable giving feedback to the accurate locations of artifacts the learners created.