Teaching and Learning of Introduction to Software Engineering Experimentation to Distance-Learning Students: A Quasi-Experiment

This research paper describes a controlled quasi-experiment conducted with 24 distance-learning undergraduate students on teaching introduction concepts of Experimentation in Software Engineering (ESE) with different materials and procedures. The use of experimentation is a de facto way of obtaining data to statistically answer assumptions or concerns, especially in recent decades in the Software Engineering area. The ESE teaching-learning process in undergraduate and graduate programs still lacks evidence of its effective contribution. For instance, no study explores different ways of giving classes, such as traditional in-person or distance education (online). Our focus in this research is answering the following research question: “Is there any difference in applying three different sets of materials in teaching and learning introduction concepts of experimentation in Software Engineering for distance-learning undergraduate students?”. We used three different combinations of materials during learning (i.e., only slides, only recorded class, and both). We conducted activities with such materials in a higher education institution. Despite being incipient, the results demonstrate that in each group/profile of enrolled students, the teaching-learning process mediated by hybrid content (i.e., both slides and recorded classes) had no significant difference concerning students who studied only with recorded classes or slides. The results were obtained using descriptive statistics and inferential (hypothesis) tests. Our contributions here offer evidence-based statistical analysis for ESE education through distance learning, thereby enriching current academic research regarding distance education and facilitating knowledge dissemination in the field.