Lessons learned from teaching software engineering to adult students

Teaching provides many challenges. Presenting software engineering to students brings a teacher face to face with a most unwieldy subject. Packaging this subject for delivery to adult students in a continuing education setting has proven both rewarding and difficult. This paper attempts to communicate the specific approach used to teach software engineering as part of an applied technology program. The context of the course is presented including the program setting, course goals and student body composition. The specifics of the course are summarized in outline along with a discussion of the content evolution over a four-year period. Extensive coverage of the project workshop portion of the course is also included. Finally several "lessons learned" are offered for consideration.