A Community of Learners Approach to Software Architecture Education

The wicked nature of software architecture calls for educational methodologies that deviate from the traditional active lecturer-passive student relation.  In this paper we present our experiences with applying a Community of Learners approach, in which students are treated as partners in the knowledge development process, to software architecture education.  In our course the students are actively involved, either as architects or as stakeholders, in the design of an architecture for a large and realistic system.  In this Community of Learners, the students not only learn about but also experience the important issues in software architecture. Students indicate that, although the workload is high, the required effort is outweighed by the learning effect of their active involvement.