As CASE (computer-aided software engineering) technology begins to mature, there are more and more opportunities to integrate CASE into the computer science classroom.An undergraduate software engineering course taught at Bowling Green in the fall of 1989 was a pioneering attempt to use sophisticated and real-world CASE tools in a semester-long project.To assess the impact of the use of CASE on the students' attitudes, a questionnaire was distributed at completion of the project.In the specific example of undergraduate software engineering education, we found that CASE can be a significant enhancement.Student attitudes were positive and the quality of their work appeared to be better compared to the traditional course.

The continuing demand for the development of new software and maintenance of existing software has made productivity an important issue in the software industry. In the past, increases in productivity have come from the introduction of software engineering techniques. Today, software engineers are looking to CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tools as a possible source of further improvements in productivity. This paper provides an overview of current CASE tools, with a focus on three types of tools: framing environments, programming environments and general environments. Two specific CASE systems are discussed in some detail. CASE systems in the context of software engineering education are also discussed.

Research on instructional methods has suggested that advance organizers (e.g., metaphors) can be an effective tool in teaching certain types of material in some situations. In many cases, teaching computer programming concepts satisfies these criteria. In our research, beginning programming students were trained on the syntax of arrays. A training session consisted of reading a tutorial manual and entering lines of source code into an interactive system. One group was given a metaphorical organizer prior to training (an advance organizer). A second group received the organizer after training. A control group read a passage on computer history prior to training. The groups did not differ on training task performance or on a test of syntactic knowledge (near transfer). However, the advance organizer group did significantly better on a test of semantic knowledge (far transfer). Factors relating to when to use an advance organizer are discussed.

A survey of undergraduate software engineering courses was conducted. The survey covered the issues of course level, course content, course organization, project characteristics, and department demographics. The descriptive statistics show that the typical course focuses on the software development life cycle and includes a project intended for actual use. The project is carried out by teams of students, with student leaders. A factor analysis disclosed that three different sorts of courses are currently being offered. The most predominant course is the Later-Life Cycle course, which focuses on the later stages of the software life cycle. Detailed design, coding, testing, and maintenance receive in-depth coverage in this style of course, and the student's grades are heavily dependent upon the project. The Early-Life-Cycle course emphasizes requirements analysis, specification, and system design. Written reports are an important component of this course, and the project is again a large portion of the students' grades. The third style of course is the Theoretical-Issues course. Software metrics, project management, and legal and ethical issues are covered. The students are upper level, and they use journal articles as a source of materials. The issues of suitable textbooks and sources of materials and training for teaching user-interface design surfaced as problem areas.