Conceptual modelling can be used as a starting point for designing software systems and to better understand the domain knowledge related to requirements. This can act as a first step in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) which is an approach to software development where code (or another artefact such as documentation or test cases) is automatically generated from a model. Assuming that the code or other artefacts are generated correctly from the designed conceptual model by the transformation engine, there is still no guarantee that the model correctly reflects the requirements for the system. This validation can take the form of model simulation, where the user can simulate real-world scenarios on the model. It has been found that students often struggle with modelling. Previous research has found that the use of a model simulation tool can improve student performance in terms of understanding the behavioural and structural aspects of a model and check the output for correctness. However, due to the exploratory nature of simulation tools, it is possible that some patterns of interacting with a model simulation tool are more typical of high achieving students than low achieving students. To this end, this research aims to analyse students' interaction behaviours in a model simulation tool in order to understand which approaches to model validation are most fruitful for good performance in an conceptual modelling course. This is done by collecting students' recorded user logs in a simulation tool and developing a process model using process mining. The results show that highperforming students show different interaction behaviours than average and low-performing students. Several recommendations for teaching conceptual modelling are derived from the identified interaction behaviours.

Software testing is an important part of the software development lifecycle. As it is a highly sought-after skill in the industry, it is not surprising that there has been a great deal of research into the teaching of software testing in higher education. Most of this research proposes or evaluates pedagogical approaches or software testing tools to assist teachers in educating the next generation of software engineers. These evaluations are often limited to measuring teachers’ opinions about the use of a novel pedagogical approach or an educational tool and students’ acceptance and performance in terms of desired software testing skills. While tools and pedagogical approaches address specific aspects of a course, to date, little attention has been paid to the opinions of the students about all the individual aspects of a software testing course. This paper aims to address this missing student perspective by taking a holistic view of software testing course designs. To address this gap, an exploratory study was performed by distributing a questionnaire to 103 students from ten different courses to gauge their opinions on a software testing course they are enrolled in. The results show that students generally have a positive perception of the different aspects of their software testing course. However, several areas for improvement were suggested based on the gathered data.

In Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), code is automatically generated from a model. However, even assuming that the code generated is error-free, there is no guarantee that the model used correctly reflects the requirements of the software system. This requires validation in the form of model testing. Although the practice of teaching modelling to students has been well researched, students still often struggle with modelling. Preliminary results of the thesis show that students' models often contain deadlock situations and that students' cognitive strategies when designing test cases for models often lack in testing for undesired scenarios. This thesis therefore looks at the challenge of teaching conceptual modelling via a new perspective, namely that of model testing. The thesis investigates whether teaching conceptual modelling via a testing perspective can be beneficial for students' modelling skills. Hereunto, we have designed two tools that provide feedback on model testing. These tools are being evaluated in terms of teaching students desired modelling skills. One of the tools had already been found to yield an increase for students' model coverage. The other tool will firstly be evaluated in a similar way. After which both tools will be evaluated in terms of yielding other desired modelling skills such as model evaluation capabilities.

Software testing is an indispensable component of software development, yet it often receives insufficient attention. The lack of a robust testing culture within computer science and informatics curricula contributes to a shortage of testing expertise in the software industry. Addressing this problem at its root -education- is paramount. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive mapping review of software testing courses, elucidating their core attributes and shedding light on prevalent subjects and instructional methodologies. We mapped 117 courses offered by Computer Science (and related) degrees in 49 academic institutions from four Western European countries, namely Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The testing subjects were mapped against the conceptual framework provided by the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 standard on software testing. Among the results, the study showed that dedicated software testing courses are offered by only 39% of the analysed universities, whereas the basics of software testing are taught in at least one course at every university. The analysis of the software testing topics highlights the gaps that need to be filled in order to better align the current academic offerings with the real industry needs.

It is important to properly test developed software because this may contribute to fewer bugs going unreported in deployed software. Often, little attention is spent on the topic of software testing in curricula, yielding graduate students without adequate preparation to deal with the quality standards required by the industry. This problem could be tackled by introducing bite-sized software testing education capsules that allow teachers to introduce software testing to their students in a less time-consuming manner and with a hands-on component that will facilitate learning. In order to design appropriate software testing educational tools, it is necessary to consider both the software testing needs of the industry and the cognitive models of students. This work-in-progress paper proposes an experimental design to gain an understanding of the cognitive strategies used by students during test case design based on real-life cases. Ultimately, the results of the experiment will be used to develop educational support for teaching software testing.