Embracing Experiential Learning: Hackathons as an Educational Strategy for Shaping Soft Skills in Software Engineering

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2502.07950v1
• Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:58:33 GMT
• Title: Embracing Experiential Learning: Hackathons as an Educational Strategy for Shaping Soft Skills in Software Engineering
• Authors: Allysson Allex Araújo, Marcos Kalinowski, Maria Teresa Baldassarre,
• Abstract summary: We report preliminary empirical evidence from a seven-day hybrid hackathon involving 40 students.<n>We assess how the hackathon experience promoted innovative and creative thinking, collaboration and teamwork, and knowledge application among participants through a structured questionnaire designed to evaluate students' self-awareness.<n>For industry, our discussion has implications around developing soft skills in future SE professionals, thereby enhancing their employability and readiness in the software market.
• Score: 3.02243271391691
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: In recent years, Software Engineering (SE) scholars and practitioners have emphasized the importance of integrating soft skills into SE education. However, teaching and learning soft skills are complex, as they cannot be acquired passively through raw knowledge acquisition. On the other hand, hackathons have attracted increasing attention due to their experiential, collaborative, and intensive nature, which certain tasks could be similar to real-world software development. This paper aims to discuss the idea of hackathons as an educational strategy for shaping SE students' soft skills in practice. Initially, we overview the existing literature on soft skills and hackathons in SE education. Then, we report preliminary empirical evidence from a seven-day hybrid hackathon involving 40 students. We assess how the hackathon experience promoted innovative and creative thinking, collaboration and teamwork, and knowledge application among participants through a structured questionnaire designed to evaluate students' self-awareness. Lastly, our findings and new directions are analyzed through the lens of Self-Determination Theory, which offers a psychological lens to understand human behavior. This paper contributes to academia by advocating the potential of hackathons in SE education and proposing concrete plans for future research within SDT. For industry, our discussion has implications around developing soft skills in future SE professionals, thereby enhancing their employability and readiness in the software market.

Related papers

• Beyond the Classroom: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry with a Hands-on Learning Approach [2.8123958518740544]
  Self-adaptive software systems have emerged as a critical focus in software design and operation. A survey among practitioners identified that the lack of knowledgeable individuals has hindered its adoption in the industry. We present our experience teaching a course on self-adaptive software systems that integrates theoretical knowledge and hands-on learning with industry-relevant technologies.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-14T21:32:25Z)
• Form-Substance Discrimination: Concept, Cognition, and Pedagogy [55.2480439325792]
  This paper examines form-substance discrimination as an essential learning outcome for curriculum development in higher education. We propose practical strategies for fostering this ability through curriculum design, assessment practices, and explicit instruction.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-01T04:15:56Z)
• Computational Thinking with Computer Vision: Developing AI Competency in an Introductory Computer Science Course [0.0]
  This paper introduces an introductory computer science course where students learn computational thinking through computer vision. The course aims to achieve computational thinking outcomes alongside critical thinking outcomes that expose students to AI approaches and their societal implications.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-24T15:49:37Z)
• Software development projects as a way for multidisciplinary soft and future skills education [0.5654295647905844]
  The paper presents a possible approach to teaching in soft and future skills in a short, intensive joint project. In the project we use problem based learning, active learning and group-work teaching methodologies. The results prove that the presented method increased participants soft skills in communication, cooperation, digital skills and self reflection.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-02-28T14:52:40Z)
• Towards Emotionally Intelligent Software Engineers: Understanding Students' Self-Perceptions After a Cooperative Learning Experience [3.001523463519739]
  Emotional Intelligence (EI) can impact Software Engineering (SE) outcomes through improved team communication, conflict resolution, and stress management.<n>Despite EI's documented importance in professional practice, SE education continues to prioritize technical knowledge over emotional and social competencies.<n>This paper analyzes SE students' self-perceptions of their EI after a two-month cooperative learning project.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-02-07T17:29:08Z)
• Explainable Few-shot Knowledge Tracing [48.877979333221326]
  We propose a cognition-guided framework that can track the student knowledge from a few student records while providing natural language explanations. Experimental results from three widely used datasets show that LLMs can perform comparable or superior to competitive deep knowledge tracing methods.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-23T10:07:21Z)
• Integrating Generative AI in Hackathons: Opportunities, Challenges, and Educational Implications [0.24739484546803336]
  Hackathons have emerged as pivotal platforms in the software industry, driving both innovation and skill development for organizations and students alike. The infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning is now reshaping hackathons, providing enhanced learning opportunities while also introducing ethical challenges. This study explores the influence of generative AI on students' technological choices, focusing on a case study from the 2023 University of Iowa Hackathon.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-30T20:45:49Z)
• Charting a Path to Efficient Onboarding: The Role of Software Visualization [49.1574468325115]
  The present study aims to explore the familiarity of managers, leaders, and developers with software visualization tools. This approach incorporated quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from practitioners using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-17T21:30:45Z)
• UKP-SQuARE: An Interactive Tool for Teaching Question Answering [61.93372227117229]
  The exponential growth of question answering (QA) has made it an indispensable topic in any Natural Language Processing (NLP) course. We introduce UKP-SQuARE as a platform for QA education. Students can run, compare, and analyze various QA models from different perspectives.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-05-31T11:29:04Z)
• From Teaching to Coaching: A Case Study of a Technical Communication Course [0.0]
  Development of non-technical skills like self-esteem, life-long learning among students is vital for a successful career. The approach adopted in this research work is to transform the delivery of a faculty-wide course from teaching to coaching.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-20T14:44:38Z)
• Empowered and Embedded: Ethics and Agile Processes [60.63670249088117]
  We argue that ethical considerations need to be embedded into the (agile) software development process. We put emphasis on the possibility to implement ethical deliberations in already existing and well established agile software development processes.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-15T11:14:03Z)
• Personalized Education in the AI Era: What to Expect Next? [76.37000521334585]
  The objective of personalized learning is to design an effective knowledge acquisition track that matches the learner's strengths and bypasses her weaknesses to meet her desired goal. In recent years, the boost of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has unfolded novel perspectives to enhance personalized education.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-01-19T12:23:32Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.