Software Development Teams in Higher Education: an Educator’s View

The development of computer-facilitated learning (CFL) for higher education has grown substantially in recent years. The complexity of modern CFL development has resulted in the need to form teams of people with a range of skills – academics for content knowledge, graphic and interface designers for the human computer interface design, programmers for coding, educational designers who focus on pedagogical issues of teaching and learning, and a project manager to coordinate resources, budgets and time lines of the development process. Each member of the project team brings skills and professional knowledge to the group. In the development of courseware, there are a number of different software engineering models to choose from. Each model is shaped by an underlying set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge acquisition (learning), the most appropriate methodology to achieve a quality outcome, the role of the teacher in the use of the courseware, and a view of the context into which the courseware will be implemented. In this paper, the pedagogical assumptions that underpin five models of software engineering are examined. The majority of programmers are trained in the Linear Sequential Model (LSM) of software design. This model is closely aligned to a linear instructionist model of instructional design and may create conflicts when a programmer is working with an educational designer who is using a constructivist approach. There are other models of software engineering more closely aligned to constructivist approaches but these are less frequently used in the design of courseware in higher education. These issues will be addressed by reference to a number of courseware projects.