Teaching Empirical Methods to Undergraduate Students Working Group Results

In this paper, we report the experiences of a working group who met, as part of the 2006 Dagstuhl Seminar on Empirical Software Engineering, to discuss the teaching of empirical methods to undergraduate students. The nature of the discussion meant that the group also indirectly considered teaching empirical methods to postgraduate students, mainly as a contrast to understand what is appropriate to teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The paper first provides a summary of the respective experiences of the participants in the working group. This summary is then used to informally assess the progress that has been made since the previous Dagstuhl Seminar, held in 1992. The paper then reviews some issues that arise when teaching methods to undergraduate students. Finally, some recommendations for the future development of courses are provided.