Transversal service learning for accessible software development in a university environment

One of the objectives of universities is to promote social participation. It is one of the purposes of the service learning educational methodology, with the intentional planning of actions to improve society by connecting curricular content with community services. Students require reflective, critical, and active participation in the projects, thus promoting social engagement. This work presents how the agile and service learning methodologies have been applied in the lab sessions of courses related to project management, in the Degree in Computer Science at the University of Granada (Spain). To apply these methodologies, the students organized themselves in teams. Their work was intentionally focused on the development of life-enhancing applications for people with special needs because within the curricular content of the courses, we include topics related to accessibility and soft skills. The students’ teams were in contact with real entities throughout the project life cycle, as would happen in a real project in their future professional life. The experience has been evaluated with questionnaires designed and validated by us, and completed by the faculty of the courses implied, and 92 students. The analysis of the results is very positive, which not only supports the benefits of the proposal, but also encourages its continuation and enhancement in the future.