Software engineering is done by individuals within teams and in organisations, with all that those words imply. It is crucial to make this fact, and its implications, concrete to students who aspire to be or work with software engineers. Although frequent collaborations are encouraged throughout degree programmes, final-year group projects remain the favoured mechanism for achieving this goal. This paper describes and reflects on our experience of introducing group projects to balance theory, technology and practice into five different degree programmes. A novel facet of our approach has been to locate these projects in the context of a course on software project management in parallel with the preparation of capstone, individual projects. Hence, the final-year group projects are viewed as essential complements to the individual projects and together they encapsulate the theories and systematic practices of software projects we know as software engineering. We argue that this approach injects realism into what might have been seen by students as abstract primarily by providing students with experience of working as part of a team and so enabling them to engage with large and significant projects.

when it is closed.The core image is never permanently We have exploited and adapted Goldberg's LearningWorks changed; new classes are kept in LearningBooks.framework to produce an environment with new programming tools, visualization tools, and system simulations.The environment is designed to be used via plug-in modules, called LearningBooks, sets of classes and persistent objects, for which we have developed a pedagogic standard that includes, for example, an HTML browser and various

This paper describes how we have extended a module structure of the Smalltalk LearningWorks to provide a programming environment deigned for very large scale technology transfer. The ‘module’ is what we have termed the LearningBook, a set of classes and persistent objects, including an HTML browser, programming and visualization tools, and microworlds. The context for this development is a distance learning university course in object technology which has enrolled over 5,100 mature students in its first year – making it the largest such course in the world. While promoting a systems building approach, we have successfully added support for programming in the small and the needs of the isolated novice. Two principles have applied: (i) the programming environment and its modules fit into a consistent framework for personal management of study and (ii) details of complex facilities, such as the class library, are progressively disclosed as knowledge and sophistication grow. The paper shows how these principles have guided the exploitation of LearningBook modules. To provide context, relevant academic background is given. Early informal feedback is reported and a project currently underway to observe in detail how thousands of learners use the Smalltalk programming environment is sketched.

This paper identifies and describes a number of misconceptions observed in students learning about object technology. It identifies simple, concrete, measures course designers and teachers can take to avoid these misconceptions arising. The context for this work centres on an introductory undergraduate course and a postgraduate course. Both these courses are taught by distance education. These courses both use Smalltalk as an introduction to object technology. More particularly, the undergraduate course uses Smalltalk as a first programming language.Distance education can limit the amount and speed of individual feedback that can be given in the early stages of learning. For this reason, particular attention has been paid to characterizing measures for avoiding elementary misconceptions seen in beginning learners. At the same time we also address some misconceptions observed in postgraduate students. The pedagogical issues discussed are of particular importance when devising an extended series of examples for teaching or assessment, or when designing a visual microworld to be used for teaching purposes.

This paper describes key features of a new multimedia CD-ROM pack produced by television makers in collaboration with computer science educators --- by the BBC for the Open University Computing Department. The pack, The Object Shop, forms an early component of an undergraduate course which introduces object-oriented computing and software development to students new to computing. Building on the results of empirical evaluation, The Object Shop has been designed to help students with no programming experience to understand core object programming concepts. Throughout the CD-ROM, video, animated graphics and an underlying object-oriented simulation of a virtual shopping environment provide an accessible introduction to the central ideas of object-oriented programming. The key power of the multimedia approach is that the student-user is able to gain a sound operational understanding of concepts before learning the details of programming code or syntax. Users can continually monitor their progress through a series of task-based, assessed exercises.

We describe an initial pedagogy for an introductory computing and programming course which adheres to the object-oriented paradigm.Students must satisfy a prerequisite to be competent users of GUI operating systems and simple applications.The paper explains how their prior knowledge and skills are used to consider abstract object-oriented models of the systems they know before embarking on Smalltalk programming.A novel programming and learning environment which constrains visibility of Smalltalk is described.

This paper briefly describes the evolution and content of the Open University's new introductory course in Computing which has been designed for delivery internationally to over 3500 students per year. It replaces a conventional procedural programming course and introduces computing through object technology---specifically, through Smalltalk. Unlike its predecessor it is being designed to be accessible by non-computing majors and with an intention to address the gender imbalance in our student population. Multimedia technologies are used in the delivery of this distance learning course which is being developed by the course team for presentation in 1997.

A crucial aspect of every computer project is the notations used to describe its evolving software. Computer-based systems have become so large and so complex that software tools are needed to process these notations. Some requirements for such tools are presented and an environment for their rapid synthesis is described. The environment is based on the use of a table-driven LL(1) parser that processes the notation. The notation itself is expressed as a form of attribute grammar.

Abstract The formatted syntax notation has been developed for the specification of formatted programming languages. This paper describes how a formatted syntax may be constructed for the purpose of prettyprinting an existing free‐format language. Those aspects of the system of particular relevance to free‐format languages are emphasized and their use explained. Also, a number of deficiencies in the defining metasyntax and formatting symbol repertoire are discussed. Practical enhancements and further areas of research are suggested. The programming language Modula‐2 is used for illustration, and a formatted syntax for it is given.

Abstract This paper describes a portable software tool used for the processing and maintenance of data flow diagrams which form the basis of structured analysis techniques. The tool itself is based on the idea that data flow diagrams can be modelled by means of semantic nets and can be manipulated by a semantic net processor. A major feature of the tool is the facilities it provides for the maintenance programmer.