Incorporating a Virtual Reality Environment in the Teaching of Analysis of Software Requirements

This Work in Progress paper in the Innovative Practice Category presents an approach to incorporate the use of a virtual reality environment in the teaching of analysis of software requirements through modeling. Common models include use case diagrams, state charts, data flow diagrams, etc., all serving their own role in defining different perspectives of a system. These different perspectives of the same system can be a powerful technique to facilitate the analysis of requirements about the system. Using a virtual reality environment allows for the linking of multiple perspectives from the separate analysis models to be viewed in three dimensions. This approach can be particularly beneficial to students in learning how to analyze models by providing a mechanism to examine the visual relationship between the perspectives. Using this approach allows the student to view, create, manipulate, and alter models within the native three-dimensional space, which can provide an indepth experience better suited for learning. The virtual reality environment also allows models to be nested to provide better abstractions and layered to provide a level of complexity impossible to replicate in the traditional two-dimensional space. This paper explores a prototype virtual reality environment to facilitate the use of software requirement models for undergraduate software engineering students. As part of this work, students will be exposed to the tool and tasked with using the virtual reality environment to analyze the models of systems. Assessment of the use of the approach will be conducted and results will be presented including feedback from the students, benefits found, insights and potential ways to evolve the approach for other areas such as design or testing.