Experiences with facilitating student learning in a group information systems project course

One of the main aims of university education is to help students become intellectually independent. As the Software Engineering and Information Systems fields are changing so rapidly, such independent thinkers are essential. This paper describes a third-year Information Systems Project course we have designed to facilitate the process of university students becoming real-world software practitioners. The course covers a diverse range of Information Systems Development topics. Students work together in groups throughout the course on a single project chosen from a real-world business client. The organisation and rationale for the course structure are described together with our experiences with the course evolution, its successful and unsuccessful aspects, and student and industry feedback.