This innovative practice full paper describes the integration of Ph.D. students into departmental operations using Agile approaches, i.e., Serum, Serum is an agile framework originally developed for managing software development projects, but in recent years has been adapted into a framework used in classroom experiences and a management technique for non-engineering project-based work. In this work, Serum was adapted at the department operations level to enhance the efficacy of department projects and processes. A Ph.D. student acted as the Scrum Master for one of the teams. This provided the Ph.D. student with a unique experiential learning opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting, significantly enhancing their learning experience. The benefits for the Ph.D. student included the development of soft skills that made them a more well-rounded Ph.D. student and the creation of meaningful relationships with the faculty members on their team which increased their sense of belonging within the department. Additionally, the Ph.D. student gained insight into the intricacies of university operations, which is valuable training for a student who seeks a career in academia. This paper aligns with a desire to improve the experience of engineering and computing education of graduate students outside of the typical classroom and research domains.

Over the years, Agile approaches have been proven successful in industry settings, as documented in the literature. In response to this success, education professionals have developed ways to introduce Agile practices into engineering classrooms with similar success. These practices have been most popular in project-based courses because they enhance student learning and prepare students for using Agile practices in industry after graduation. The Scrum approach is one of the most popular Agile methods in industry and classroom adoption. Modified versions of Scrum are utilized within the classroom to align with student needs, familiarity with Scrum, and the materials presented within the class. As a result of this adaptation, many different Scrum-based implementations are found in classrooms. The popularity of this approach has led to numerous publications detailing individual experiments using Scrum in the classroom, with most of these adoptions occurring in engineering classrooms. This paper presents a literature review of Scrum applied in the classroom. This work explores the advantages of using Scrum in the classroom, providing details on the type and level of university classroom used for implementation. Information on methods of implementation, appropriate class subjects, and student educational levels are provided within this paper. This guide can be used by those looking to utilize Scrum within their classroom as a stand-alone practice. The findings of this paper demonstrate that Scrum can be used in correlation with a wide variety of classroom structures and topics. This paper is intended to guide future educators who wish to implement Scrum into classes and educational programs.

Universities, faculty, and students use Learning Outcomes (LO) to create a shared understanding of the content provided in an individual course, known as Outcome-Based Education (OBE). One area of interest in OBE is evaluating whether the instructor and individual student performance have met the LO, which is integral to ensuring all invested parties are on the same page about class content and student performance. This work proposes a system for the management and evaluation of LO. Primarily, this work defines an ontology to support the management and evaluation of LO via Knowledge Graphs (KG). The KG links individual LO with individual assessment items. Two state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing models, BERT and ChatGPT, are evaluated in respect to their effectiveness in automating this linking. This data allows the educational professional to reflect on how well their assessments match the course's LO. The second part of this system harnesses student data to measure performance in relation to LO. In this Work-in-Progress paper, the system is prototyped and tested on the midterm results of a course in the Software Engineering curriculum. Student performance is documented in relation to each assessment question on the exams to measure student mastery of course material. Through this approach, courses can be evaluated and improved to deliver better quality education to all students. This includes improvements at the course level and possibilities for early intervention to ensure student success. This paper details the development of this system and through its implementation shows how it benefits engineering educators and their students.

In this paper, we propose an innovative practice based on agile software development methods. This research approach introduces agility into learning of research in an academic environment, resulting in an Agile Research Team. Such a research team follows an agile approach, based on modifications to the Scrum approach, to collaboratively learn about research, and to manage research projects and the researchers involved. Success in research requires self-motivation, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Traditional research occurs in top-down research groups that are led by a leading researcher, who oversees postdoctoral researchers and Ph.D. students, who in turn manage graduate and undergraduate level students. It is up to individual researchers to stay motivated, to acquire the necessary skills to conduct research, and, oftentimes, to decide what the following steps are. Much like effective research groups, agile software development approaches rely on individuals to form self-organizing and motivated teams to deliver technical excellence. Agile software development teams also require an environment of sharing knowledge between senior and junior developers. Agile approaches can facilitate the efficient exchange of knowledge due to a strong dependency on face-to-face communication and teamwork. With the emerging adoption of agile methods for software development in industry and its ability to expedite projects’ delivery, we argue that such approaches can potentially provide similar benefits for researchers and students in academia. The advantages that agile methods provide are twofold: the ability to respond faster to change, and a shorter feedback loop, which facilitates the learning of how to conduct research. This paper explores the impactful benefits of using an agile approach to manage research team projects to keep researchers motivated, enhance the learning of knowledge and research skills, increase scalability, and foster inclusivity. This paper will also present the roles, responsibilities, and processes defined for managing an Agile Research Team to support adoption of the approach with other research teams. In addition, results and lessons learned are presented following our experience with using the approach as described in this work.