Full: A New Graduate Course Structure for Addressing Human Errors in Software Development

This research-to-practice full paper introduces a novel graduate course, Human Errors in Software Development (HESD) based on a metacognition framework. Software defects pose a significant threat to the reliability and safety of computer systems, incurring trillions of dollars in costs globally. Addressing and rectifying defects in programs present a formidable challenge for Computer Science (CS) students. Given the critical role of cognition in software development, there is a pressing need for a course designed to train students to address human errors in various cognitive activities of software development. To our knowledge, there is currently no semester-long nor quarter-long university course offering comprehensive training to students on handling human errors in software development. HESD equips students with a profound understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying human errors in software development. It aims to enhance students' awareness and cognitive abilities to proactively prevent human errors in software development and, consequently, reduce defects in programs they develop. HESD comprises three stages: Stage I provides students with explicit knowledge of human errors in software development; Stage II fosters students' awareness and regulation abilities to effectively address human errors during software development; Stage III encourages students to apply acquired knowledge and skills in diverse contexts. The newly designed course was delivered to master's students at a large public university over a 14-week semester. Nine students in Software Engineering were enrolled in the course. Comprehensive surveys were used to evaluate the course's attractiveness and usefulness to students. The average satisfaction score was 4.2 (Min = 3, Max = 5, SD = 0.8) in a five-point Likert scale (where 1 means “very dissatisfied” and 5 means “very satisfied”), signifying that the students were quite satisfied with the course. A survey designed for assessing human error knowledge, awareness and regulation ability was filled out by the students before the course and at the end of the course. Results showed that the course has significantly enhanced students' Human Error Knowledge in software development by 153%, improved Human Error Awareness in software development by 62%, and elevated students' Human Error Regulation by 63%. The students found the course to be highly interesting, practical, and valuable.