(Read this if you have no idea what I’m talking about)
Why not go right for the throat?
How about I just round up all of the instructors who teach courses with group assignments, and ask them why code review tools aren’t provided or encouraged. Or maybe they’ve tried, but they ran into a stumbling block. Or perhaps the whole idea of using code review tools flies in the face of some important teaching method.
I won’t know until I ask. So why not just ask?
It might not be a quick, sharp, clever scientific study, but it sure might generate some interesting material for examination.
Hey, good idea. I’d be interested to hear the results.
I can offer a few reasons.
1. How many different tasks can we ask students to do on a 3-week assignment? I think students should learn to use an IDE, a debugger, version control, and a ticket system. We have been successful in getting students to use version control because that’s the only way they can submit an assignment. We have had mixed success getting students to use IDE’s and debuggers, partly because it is hard to assign marks for their use. We have been even less successful in convincing students to use tickets because a 3-week assignment isn’t big enough or long enough to make tickets essential.
2. If the focus of my course is teaching operating systems, how much time (and grades) should I devote to software development tools and practices that aren’t centered on operating systems?
@Karen: Thanks for the feedback! See my response here: http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2009/10/13/treasure-hunting-and-research-idea-4/