Reports

Secret Ninja Testing with HALO Software Engineering

Bell, Jonathan Schaffer; Sheth, Swapneel Kalpesh; Kaiser, Gail E.

Software testing traditionally receives little attention in early computer science courses. However, we believe that if exposed to testing early, students will develop positive habits for future work. As we have found that students typically are not keen on testing, we propose an engaging and socially-oriented approach to teaching software testing in introductory and intermediate computer science courses. Our proposal leverages the power of gaming utilizing our previously described system HALO. Unlike many previous approaches, we aim to present software testing in disguise - so that students do not recognize (at first) that they are being exposed to software testing. We describe how HALO could be integrated into course assignments as well as the benefits that HALO creates.

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Academic Units
Computer Science
Publisher
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University
Series
Columbia University Computer Science Technical Reports, CUCS-031-11
Published Here
July 11, 2011