Acquiring Professional Software Engineering Skills through Studio-based Learning

In order to prepare the students for being successful contributors in their companies, the Monmouth University Software Engineering program asks the students to enroll in a two semesters studio-based learning (SBL) experience during the senior year. In the senior project, the students work on software projects that mimic the software development lifecycle in a real-world environment, and also practice industry specific activities that also develop professional skills, such as working in groups, develop good communication skills, acquire strong life-long learning skills, and be able to function in interdisciplinary teams. This paper presents our implementation of a studio-based learning experience, with the goal of helping other researchers to apply it in their own environments. We also compare our approach with the framework defined by the University of Lancaster researchers. We believe that our implementation brings an element of novelty to SBL by introducing an almost fully student led learning process, with only an outline framework to guide them.